The Bathed Ones

Transformation into Gods among the Precontact Nahua

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2736183
AutoresJulia Madajczak (0000-0002-6309-2243, University of Warsaw, autor de correspondencia)
Año2023
Volumen70
Número4
Páginas495-515
Fecha de publicación2023-10-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEthnohistory (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0014-1801 • E-ISSN: 1527-5477
EditorialDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00141801-10673336
OpenAlexW4391331349
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas3
Referencias citadas14

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

Ancient history · Biology · Genealogy · Transformation (genetics) · Archaeology and Natural History · Genetics · History · Latin American history and culture · Psychedelics and Drug Studies