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In the sixteenth century, Fray Diego Durán gave rise to a scholarly myth that the primary purpose of Nahua ritual baths was "purification." This article deconstructs his interpretation, focusing on baths performed on deities' impersonators (ixiptla), and particularly the so-called tlaaltiltin, "bathed ones." It argues that "baths," which often consisted of merely sprinkling one's face with water, had, above all, a transformative power. In the case of deities' impersonators, they helped them change their ontological status, converting humans into gods and, sometimes, the other way around. The article concludes that the fabrication of a deity's ixiptla necessarily involved applying a special kind of liquid, different for every god. Like godly attires, these "waters" contained the god's traits or essence that enabled the transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Trace: Travaux et Recherches dans les Amériques du Centre is the property of Centro de Estudios Mexicanos & Centroamericanos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

El presente escrito es un breve acercamiento a los encuentros fortuitos que se pueden hallar desde la comprensión de “lo ajeno”. Buda y Coatlicue son dos esculturas en piedra que “conversan” más allá de su forma, son los vestigios de dos culturas que desarrollaron una singular forma de ver el mundo y que, intencionalmente o no, manifiestan semejanzas desde el plano de la contradicción. Quizá resulte poco convencional comprender cómo es que dos esculturas establecen un diálogo, sin embargo, es a partir de esta propuesta que la distancia entre China y México resulta ser más corta de lo que aparenta. En suma, que estas reflexiones sirvan para situarlos como dignos representantes de dos formas no tan lejanas de existir.

Copyright of Index: Revista de Arte Contemporaneo is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Pitágoras 500 is the property of Universidade Estadual de Campinas - Portal de Periodicos Eletronicos Cientificos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article brings together the figure of the European peasant and the indigenous Amerindian through the materials of painting, by following the trajectories of certain dye-plants uncovered through my practice-based research into the construction of a pigment garden in Almería, Spain. It follows the colonial routes of woad (Isatis tinctoria) and indigo (xiuquílitl, Indigofera suffruticosa) in order to elucidate the exploitative relationship towards plant and human life developed through bio-colonialism and the plantation system, which reduced non-Europeans to abstract labour, and plant life to standing resources. In contrast, I will attempt to retrieve the indigenous Mesoamerican pigment-making technology for making Mayan blue, that was 'lost' in the wake of colonialism, and show how it reveals alternative genres of the human and plant-human relationships. As I share my hybrid recipe for making Mayan blue from European woad, I will examine re-enactment (as a form of anthropofagia), and commoning, as decolonial strategies within my practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During their ceremonies, the Mexica or Aztecs of central Mexico used certain costumes woven with cotton or vegetable fibres, or simply made of amate paper, covered with designs. This article seeks to explain the variety of these ritual garments utilizing a native concept of "personification" (ixiptla in nahuatl), in which a support (the "impersonator") is covered with a garment and various adornments belonging to a god (the "personified"), in order to transform it into the god’s divine incarnation.