Are you an illegal alien? If you are white and of European ancestry, however remote, the California-based Mexica Movement says that you have no right to be on this continent. These people, who call themselves Nican Tlaca, the Indigenous People, claim to speak for all the native peoples of Canada, the U.S., Mexico, and Central America. Their […]
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Do you ever feel pressed for time? Have you felt the weight of time hanging heavily on your shoulders? Pity the poor Maya deities who bore the Burden of Time throughout all eternity and then some. The ancient Maya calendar was closely bound up with religion and, like all people, the Maya asked the same […]
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The tribute payable is: 2 strings of beads of jadeite, a green semi-precious stone a total of 4,000 handfuls of colored feathers 160 skins of the bird with a blue plumage 2 labrets (lip piercings) of amber encased in gold 40 skins of jaguar 200 loads of cacao beans, the main ingredient of chocolate 800 tecomates (cups […]
Continue ReadingLike Saint Augustine in the 5th century we all know what time is until somebody asks us to define it exactly. Likewise, the idea of literature seems clear enough until we begin to ask people what they regard as literature. Is it Shakespeare, the Bible, the morning newspaper, or what? In a complex society such […]
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To Part One Mesoamerican epic poetry and saga: What is epic? * * * * * Epic poems and sagas are a world-wide phenomenon from very early times to the present. Formerly, some cultures were thought not to possess any form of epic poetry and saga but this was often due simply to the lack of […]
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In Historia de la Literature Nahuatl (Mexico, D.F. 1971), the late Mexican scholar A. Garibay included a chapter entitled “Poesía Épica” (Epic Poetry) in which he gave a list of texts in Nahuatl (Classical Aztec) that he believed represented authentic Mesoamerican epic poetry and saga. Garibay was attacked on the grounds that he attempted to make the […]
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Our knowledge of ancient Aztec civilization comes from many different sources: archaeology, codices or painted books, comparative ethnological studies and the like. But it is not until the advent of writing that a clear picture of past history begins to emerge. That is not to say that historical accounts did not exist before the Conquest. […]
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The Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards under Cortes in the sixteenth century brought to an abrupt end the developing civilization of the ancient Aztecs. With the destruction of their capital of Tenochtitlan (now modern Mexico City) much of Aztec religion and culture was destroyed in a catastrophic cultural holocaust. However, within a few decades […]
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Several Mesoamerican researchers have recently cast doubt on the current interpretation of certain features of pre-Columbian cultures and their world outlook — in particular that of the Classical Aztecs and their literature. Revisionist history can represent an attempt to change an historical account for political or personal reasons. Or it can be a response to new […]
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To Part One Mesoamerican epic poetry and saga: What is epic? To Part One Mesoamerican epic poetry and saga: A survey * * * * * In previous articles we looked at the remnants of texts in Nahuatl (Classical Aztec), which, according to the Mexican scholars A. Garibay and Leon-Portilla, have all the characteristics of the epic […]
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