Notions of Aztec History: The Case of the Great Temple Dedication

Umberger, Emily

doi:10.1086/resv42n1ms20167571

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 9 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The Codex Aubin's creators would have been aware that within the time scale of the Indigenous calendar, human temporal rhythms were aligned to divine ones. For instance, 1 Rabbit, the date of the earth's creation by deities, was also the first year of the fifty-two-year calendar cycle, during which time 57 Umberger, 1987;Umberger, 2002. human beings carried out their own rituals to renew the world. Mexica rulers before the invasion had used the calendar as a tool of empire, and they synchronized cosmic events to events of Mexica history.…”

Section: Calendars and Distemporalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mexica rulers before the invasion had used the calendar as a tool of empire, and they synchronized cosmic events to events of Mexica history. 58 This phenomena is clearly seen with the choice of the year 1 Flint to mark the start of the Mexicas' 58 Umberger, 1987;Umberger, 2002. journey out of an earlier homeland of Aztlan, as it was also the year that the deities Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca had created the earth. Such synchronicity added to the legitimacy of the empire built by the Mexica, and was also carried into the Codex Aubin, where the 1 Flint start date is set prominently at the center of a page (see fig.…”

Section: Calendars and Distemporalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The 2022 Josephine Waters Bennett Lecture: Mexica Space and Habsburg Time

Mundy¹

2023

Renaiss. Q.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Aztec (Mexica) city of Tenochtitlan was transformed after the Spanish invasion of 1519–21 into a staging ground for Habsburg colonial experiments. Indigenous response is glimpsed in this essay through the lens of annals, written in Nahuatl, that document urban festivals celebrating Spanish Habsburg monarchs. I argue that the redeployment of particular spaces—long charged with meaning by Indigenous residents—was crucial to the public legitimacy of the Habsburg festival. These festivals promoted new means of temporal orientation, thus disrupting Indigenous orientations in time, at the same moment that Indigenous calendars were coming under scrutiny for their heretical potentials.

show abstract

Section: Calendars and Distemporalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Calendars and Distemporalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The 2022 Josephine Waters Bennett Lecture: Mexica Space and Habsburg Time

Mundy¹

2023

Renaiss. Q.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Townsend, 1979: 63-70). Desconocemos desde cuándo se usaba el calendario mexica, es de suponer que la forma y la estructura del calendario tal como lo conocemos se iniciara después de las reformas de Itzcóatl y Tlacaélel (Umberger, 1981, 2002, Battcock, 2012 y entonces que su uso abarcara mucho menos que un siglo. 11 La razón de un día cada 4 años implica que en 100 años el desfase puede llegar a 25 días (100 ÷ 4 = 25).…”

Section: Conclusionesunclassified

Michel Graulich y el problema del desfase estacional del año vago mexica

Iwaniszewski

2019

Trace

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Resumen: Como se sabe, varios investigadores observaron que en el siglo XVI, el significado de los nombres de las veintenas del calendario mexica no coincide con el ciclo de las estaciones. Ya que el año vago mexica (xihuitl) de 365 días es proximadamente un cuarto día inferior al año trópico de 365.2422 días, el año mexica (xihuitl) se estaba desplazando del año trópico a un ritmo fijo. Michel Graulich (1976, 1979) supuso que la falta de la correspondencia de los nombres de los ritos y de las veintenas con las estaciones del año se debió a la firmeza de este desplazamiento, y calculando hacia atrás concluyó que fue durante el periodo de 680 a 683 e.c. cuando los nombres de las veintenas por última vez coincidieron con las estaciones. El presente trabajo revisa sus conceptos y cálculos.Summary: As it is known, several researchers observed that in the sixteenth century, the meanings of the names of the twenty-day cycles of the Mexica calendar do not match the cycle of the seasons. As the vague Mexica year (Xihuitl) of 365 is approximately a quarter of a day shorter than the tropical year (also known as a solar year) of 365.2422 days, the Mexica year (Xihuitl) used to supplant the tropical year at a steady rhythm. Michel Graulich (1976, 1979) assumed that the lack of coincidence between the names of the rituals and of the twenty-day cycles with the seasons of the year was due to the firm nature of the passage of time and by calculating backwards, he concluded that the names of the twenty-day cycles coincided with the seasons was during the period from 680 to 683 A.D. This paper reviews his concepts and calculations.Résumé : De nombreux chercheurs ont observé qu’au XVIe siècle, la signification des noms des vingtaines du calendrier mexica ne coïncidait pas avec le cycle des saisons. L’année vague mexica (xihuitl) de 365 jours comptant un quart de jour de moins que l’année tropique de 365,2422 jours, elle s’est décalée vis-à-vis de cette dernière à un rythme constant. Michel Graulich (1976, 1979) a déduit que l’absence de correspondance entre les noms des rites ou des vingtaines et les saisons était dû à ce déphasage progressif et, en remontant dans le temps, il a calculé que c’est vers 680-683 E.C. que les noms des vingtaines avaient coïncidé pour la dernière fois avec les saisons de l’année. Le présent article révise ses concepts et ses calculs.

show abstract

“…In the article I discuss the Aztecs' flexible adaptation of mythic structures during a sequence of historical events. In Umberger (2002), I discuss their adaptation of the calendar to schedule another series of events. These two articles should be seen as a pair of complementary arguments about Aztec historical thought, differing according to the evidence available for their respective periods.…”

Section: Acknowledgmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Metaphorical Underpinnings of Aztec History

Umberger¹

2007

Ancient Mesoam

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The article discusses the 1473 civil war between the two polities that formed the capital of the Aztec empire, Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco, as presented in the Codex Durán. I argue that the literal, European-style rendition of the events of the war includes remnants of the pre-Conquest symbolic thought behind those events' original choreography. The remnants indicate that the war was staged to follow the outlines of the story of the battle between the god Huitzilopochtli (“Hummingbird, Left”) and his sister Coyolxauhqui (“Bells, Painted”) at the mountain site of Coatepetl (“Serpent Mountain”), an allegory for the rise and fall of powerful rulers. I also suggest that the enemy king and his second in command, after being thrown from the Tlatelolco Templo Mayor, were buried in the funerary vessels beside the Great Coyolxauhqui Stone discovered in 1978 at the base of the Tenochtitlan Templo Mayor, proved by the war to be the “true” and only Coatepetl.

show abstract

Notions of Aztec History: The Case of the Great Temple Dedication

Cited by 5 publications

References 9 publications

The 2022 Josephine Waters Bennett Lecture: Mexica Space and Habsburg Time

The 2022 Josephine Waters Bennett Lecture: Mexica Space and Habsburg Time

Michel Graulich y el problema del desfase estacional del año vago mexica

The Metaphorical Underpinnings of Aztec History

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About