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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Sweeping the Way: Divine Transformation in the Aztec Festival of Ochpaniztli

Sweeping the Way: Divine Transformation in the Aztec Festival of Ochpaniztli

Dicesare, Catherine

Paperback

Series: Mesoamerican Worlds

AnthropologyMexican History

ISBN10: 1646423739
ISBN13: 9781646423736
Publisher: Univ Pr Of Colorado
Published: Feb 15 2023
Pages: 248
Weight: 0.70
Height: 0.55 Width: 5.98 Depth: 8.98
Language: English
Incorporating human sacrifice, flaying, and mock warfare, the pre-Columbian Mexican ceremony known as Ochpaniztli, or Sweeping, has long attracted attention. Although among the best known of eighteen annual ceremonies, Ochpaniztli's significance has nevertheless been poorly understood. Ochpaniztli is known mainly from early colonial illustrated manuscripts produced in cross-cultural collaboration between Spanish missionary-chroniclers and native Mexican informants and artists.

Although scholars typically privilege the manuscripts' textual descriptions, Sweeping the Way examines the fundamental role of their pictorial elements, which significantly expand the information contained in the texts. DiCesare emphasizes the primacy of the regalia, ritual implements, and adornments of the patron goddess as the point of intersection between sacred, cosmic forces and ceremonial celebrants. The associations of these paraphernalia indicate that Ochpaniztli was a period of purification rituals, designed to transform and protect individual and communal bodies alike. Spanish friars were unable to apprehend the complex nature of the festival's patroness, ultimately fragmenting her identity into categories meeting their expectations, which continues to vex modern investigations.

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