User:Brittanyn clarke/sandbox

Initial Evaluation for Aztec Calendar Stone

1. Seems to be confusion/disagreement about title of monument. Sun stone? Calendar stone?
2. Fair introduction. Clear and easy to read.
3. Physical description does not really include mention of anything outside of the middle of the stone.
4. The interpretation section uses the idea of "theory" a lot. Would need to look at sources and reevaluate that use.
5. Include some images from the Getty website
6. Reference #2 is not a scholarly source
7. The see also section could be incorporated better (Benito perhaps)

From the moment the Sun Stone was discovered in 1790, many scholars have delved into making sense of the stone’s complexity. This provides a long history of over 200 years of interpretation of the stone. As Eduardo Matos Montezuma states:

“In addition to its tremendous aesthetic value, the Sun Stone abounds in symbolism and elements that continue to inspire researchers to search deeper for the meaning of this singular monument.”  

“In addition to its tremendous aesthetic value, the Sun Stone abounds in symbolism and elements that continue to inspire researchers to search deeper for the meaning of this singular monument.”

— Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, The Aztec Calendar and Other Solar Monuments, Page 13

Work on Mayahuel

*Contributions to Mayahuel are already published on Mayahuel page but a copy of my final version is pasted here

Notes:

female “divinity”? instead of deity, aztec religion instead of mythology

incomplete last paragraph (I ended up deleting the section about myths/breasts)

missing any talk of primary sources (added 4 and images in a useful gallery)

need more background about maguey plant (added sentence and a few more products)

Mayahuel - My Version:

Figure 1. Mayáhuel, depicted in the Codex Borgia

Figure 2. The making of pulque, as illustrated in the Florentine Codex (Book 1 Appendix, fo.40)

Mayahuel (Nahuatl pronunciation: [maˈjawel]) is the female deity associated with the maguey plant among cultures of central Mexico in the Postclassic era of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican chronology, and in particular of the Aztec cultures. As the personification of the maguey plant, Mayahuel was also part of a complex of interrelated maternal and fertility goddesses in Aztec religion and is also connected with notions of fecundity and nourishment.

Description

Origins from the Maguey Plant

Maguey is a flowering plant of the Agave genus, native to parts of southwestern modern United States and Mexico. The depictions of Mayahuel in the Codex Borgia and the Codex Borbonicus (see Figure 1. and Figure 3.) show the deity perched upon a maguey planet. The deity's positioning in both illustrations, as well as the same blue pigment used to depict her body and the body of the maguey plant on Page 8 of the Codex Borbonicus, give the sense that she and the plant are one. Furthermore, the Codex Borbonicus displays Mayahuel as holding what looks like rope, presumably spun from the maguey plant fibers. Rope was only one of the many products extracted from the maguey plant. Products extracted from the maguey plant were used extensively across highlands and southeastern Mesoamerica, with the thorns used in ritual bloodletting ceremonies and fibers extracted from the leaves worked into ropes, netting, bags, and cloth. Yet, perhaps the maguey product most well-known and celebrated by the Aztecs is the alcoholic beverage octli, or later named pulque, produced from the fermented sap of the maguey planet and used prominently in many public ceremonies and on other ritual occasions. By extension, Mayahuel is also often shown in contexts associated with pulque. Although some secondary sources describe her as a "pulque goddess", she remains most strongly associated with the plant as the source, rather than pulque as the end product.

Gallery of Appearances in Primary Sources

• 
  Figure 3. Mayahuel, depicted on the upper left side of Page 8 of the Codex Borbonicus
• 
  Figure 4. Mayahuel depicted in the Codex Magliabechiano on page 58 recto.
• 
  Figure 4a. The accompanying description of Mayahuel in the Codex Magliabechiano on page 57 verso. Translation: "The next demon was called Mayahuel, which means maguey, because the juice that comes from it was an intoxicant. And they dance."
• 
  Figure 5. Carving of Mayahuel displayed at the Templo Mayor or Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan, now displayed at the Templo Mayor Museum in Mexico City.

Digital Rendition

Digital Rendition of Mayahuel

References

Boone, Elizabeth Hill (2007). Cycles of Time and Meaning in the Mexican Books of Fate. Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long series in Latin American and Latino art and culture. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-71263-8. OCLC 71632174.

Carrasco, David (1982). Quetzalcoatl and the Irony of Empire: Myths and Prophecies in the Aztec Tradition. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-09487-1. OCLC 0226094871.

Miller, Mary; Karl Taube (1993). The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya: An Illustrated Dictionary of Mesoamerican Religion. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-05068-6. OCLC 27667317.

Sahagún, Bernardino de (1997) [ca.1558–61]. Primeros Memoriales. Civilization of the American Indian series, vol. 200, part 2. Thelma D. Sullivan (English trans. and paleography of Nahuatl text), with H.B. Nicholson, Arthur J.O. Anderson, Charles E. Dibble, Eloise Quiñones Keber, and Wayne Ruwet (completion, revisions, and ed.). Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-2909-9. OCLC 35848992.

Townsend, Richard F. (2009). The Aztecs: Ancient Peoples and Places (3rd ed). London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-28791-0.

Category:Aztec goddesses Category:Mesoamerican deities Category:Fertility goddesses Category:Agricultural goddesses