Seasonal Cycles, Veintena Rituals, and Yearbearer Ceremonies in Central Mexico / Rituales de las veintenas y cargadores de los años en el México central (original) (raw)
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Seasonal Cycles, Veintena Rituals, and Yearbearer Ceremonies in Central Mexico
Trace , 2022
Resumen: La exploración del ciclo del año en el Códice Borgia en relación con las ceremonias de fin de año representadas en las páginas 49-52 del Borgia permite entender mejor el ciclo de las 18 veintenas (periodos de veinte días) en las comunidades orientales nahuas, especialmente del valle de Puebla-Tlaxcala, lugar de origen de este códice. Los rituales de las veintenas representados en este almanaque y la sección narrativa de las páginas 29-46 proporcionan evidencia de que las veintenas realmente estaban ligadas a las estaciones. Las fechas del año, sin embargo, siguieron un sistema diferente, coordinado con el ciclo continuo de 260 días en el tonalpohualli. Ningún ajuste fue posible en el ciclo de 52 años, pero este no es el caso de las veintenas, que nunca se nombran como parte del xiuhmolpilli. Parece probable que la flexibilidad delsistema de las veintenas permitiera que los «meses» se ajustaran para mantenerse en sintonía con las estaciones. Palabras clave: calendarios; estacionalidad; rituales anuales; Códice Borgia; aztecas. Abstract: An exploration of the cycle of the year in the Codex Borgia in relation to the year-end ceremonies represented on pages 49-52 of the Codex Borgia allows us to better understand the cycle of 18 veintena festivals (periods of 20 days) in the eastern communities of Nahua, especially the Puebla-Tlaxcala Valley, the point of origin of the Codex Borgia. The veintena rituals depicted in this almanac and the narrative section on pages 29-46 provide evidence that the veintenas were tied to the seasons. The year dates, however, followed a different system, coordinated with the continuous cycle of 260 days in the tonalpohualli. No adjustment was possible in this cycle of 52 years, but this is not the case with the veintenas, which were never named as part of the xiuhmolpilli. It seems that the flexibility of the veintena system allowed the «months» to be adjusted to stay in tune with the seasons. Keywords: calendars; seasonality; annual rituals; Codex Borgia; Aztecs.
The chronological system of the veintenas in the codices of Central Mexico acquires new significance in light of a recent finding. The first page of the veintena sequence in codices Tudela (1530), Magliabechiano (1566) and Ixtlilxóchitl (circa 1566) that shows a pictograph of Atlacahualo is not the first veintena of the Mexica-Aztec calendar but rather the last veintena of the Otomí calendar. This is confirmed when comparing the second page of the sequence because it presents a Gladiator ritual, a ceremony among the people of Tlaxcala (who are Otomí) that is strictly related to the five useless days, and that is "apart from the eighteen veintenas"-says Durán (1967:271). Reaffirming this structure is the Tudela version of the second page because it has two sections: the bottom one with the Gladiator ritual pictograph, and the top one with the Tlacaxipehualiztli pictograph. This automatically puts Tlacaxipehualiztli as the inaugural veintena of Otomí year. In this brief manuscript the author offers commentaries to Milbrath (2022) in a search for dialogue about the coexistence of two distinct chronological systems in Central Mexico-the Mexica-Aztec and the Otomí-that when understood in tandem, accommodate the yearbearer on the 364 th and the 359 th day respectively; and while the first system has Izcalli inaugurating the year on Gregorian date February 12, the Otomí system has Izcalli and Atlacahualo closing the year from February 12 through March 4 till March 23, when a quarter of the year-cycle is completed. The Gladiator ceremony serves as a hiatus after which the Otomí year begins on March 29 on Tlacaxipehualiztli. This explains Durán's entries about such a starting time of the year among the Tlaxcalan people and helps solve many questions in Central Mexican calendrical studies.
This book explores a seminal topic concerning the Mesoamerican past: the religious festivals that took place during the eighteen periods of twenty days, or veintenas, into which the solar year was divided. Pre-Columbian societies celebrated these festivals through complex rituals, which involved the priests and gods themselves, embodied in diverse beings and artifacts. Specific sectors of society also participated in the festivals, while city inhabitants usually attended public ceremonies. As a consequence, this ritual cycle played a significant role in Mesoamerican religious life; at the same time, it informs us about social relations in pre-Columbian societies. Both religious and social aspects of the solar cycle festivals are tackled in the twelve contributions in this book, which aims to address the entire veintena sequence and as much of the territory and history of Mesoamerica as possible. Specifically, the book revisits long-standing discussions of the solar cycle festivals, but also explores these religious practices in original ways, in particular through investigating understudied rituals and offering new interpretations of rites that have previously been extensively analyzed. Other chapters consider the entire veintena sequence through the prism of specific topics, providing multiple though often complementary analyses. In light of these myriad topics, this book will attract the attention of scholars and graduate students with interests in Mesoamerica and early Latin America, as well as ethnohistory, cultural history, history of religions, art history, archaeology and anthropology.
2021
This book explores a seminal topic concerning the Mesoamerican past: the religious festivals that took place during the eighteen periods of twenty days, or veintenas, into which the solar year was divided. Pre-Columbian societies celebrated these festivals through complex rituals, which involved the priests and gods themselves, embodied in diverse beings and artifacts. Specific sectors of society also participated in the festivals, while city inhabitants usually attended public ceremonies. As a consequence, this ritual cycle played a significant role in Mesoamerican religious life; at the same time, it informs us about social relations in pre-Columbian societies. Both religious and social aspects of the solar cycle festivals are tackled in the twelve contributions in this book, which aims to address the entire veintena sequence and as much of the territory and history of Mesoamerica as possible. Specifically, the book revisits long-standing discussions of the solar cycle festivals, but also explores these religious practices in original ways, in particular through investigating understudied rituals and offering new interpretations of rites that have previously been extensively analyzed. Other chapters consider the entire veintena sequence through the prism of specific topics, providing multiple though often complementary analyses. In light of these myriad topics, this book will attract the attention of scholars and graduate students with interests in Mesoamerica and early Latin America, as well as ethnohistory, cultural history, history of religions, art history, archaeology and anthropology. "This insightful and innovative volume probes and thus recovers more fully some of the meanings and functions of Mesoamerican month festivals. It should be of interest to all Mesoamericanists as well as scholars interested in the role of indigenous ritual in general. "
Time and Wisdom: a sacred calendar among the Ayöök people of Oaxaca, Mexico
The calendar of 260 days, made up of the combination of 20 signs and 13 numbers, was one of the essential traits of ancient Mesoamerican civilizations. Interestingly, this calendar system persists in some contemporary communities in Mexico and Guatemala, where it is still utilized by daykeepers, also experts in ritual, divination and medicine. The present article offers a brief documentation of one of these calendars, among the Ayöök (Mixe) people of Oaxaca, Mexico. Derived from this, an analytical view is offered to provide a better understanding of its function and social significance. This work attempts to shed light on the study of Mesoamerican calendars as well as to approach the calendrical and mantic pictorial manuscripts of the Teoamoxtli (Borgia) Group.
The coevolution of ritual and society: New 14C dates from ancient Mexico
… of Sciences of the United States …, 2004
New 14 C dates from Oaxaca, Mexico, document changes in religious ritual that accompanied the evolution of society from hunting and gathering to the archaic state. Before 4000 BP in conventional radiocarbon years, a nomadic egalitarian lifeway selected for unscheduled (ad hoc) ritual ...