Search

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.)

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.