Ethnohistory (2014) Body Language

Body Language in the Preconquest and Colonial Nahua World Justyna Olko, University of Warsaw

Abstract. This article examines several key gestures and postures documented in the early postconquest Nahua world: the eating of earth, squatting and kneeling, prostration, bowing, and finger pointing. Combining distinct genres of sources, ranging from linguistic evidence to iconographic data, I attempt to reconstruct preconquest practices through postconquest filters as well as to illuminate the ways in which local traditions coalesced with European practices and concepts. The study of body language illustrates broader phenomena related to change and continuity in the postcontact era, revealing the survival of preconquest elements, their transformation under European impact, cultural convergence, and adoption of new forms of bodily expression. An inherent part of this endeavor is the study of the postconquest terminology referring to gestures and postures, adding to our knowledge of the mechanisms of coinage of native terms referring to Christian religion.

Introduction The ancient Nahua world of gestures, postures, and, especially, their meanings is still relatively uncharted territory. Yet the topic seems well worth studying for numerous reasons. In all societies, bodily motions reflect cultural practices that can take on a variety of meanings depending on the context. In Mesoamerica and elsewhere, gestures and postures have always been an important component in social differentiation and social interaction, communicating essential information on rank, status, and political symbolism. Offering a key to some of the fundamental values, norms, and concepts underlying any particular society, gestural expression is also crucial for understanding codes of nonverbal communication, including crosscultural encounters and long-term transfers.

Ethnohistory 61:1 (Winter 2014)"DOI 10.1215/00141801-2376114 Copyright 2014 by American Society for Ethnohistory

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Circumstances for this kind of study seem more propitious in the case of the Nahuas than with other Mesoamerican cultural groups, thanks to the existence of a significant body of pre-Hispanic and early colonial indigenous sources. However, despite these favorable conditions, studies that delve into this aspect of Nahua culture are still infrequent.1 An essential framework for the study I am proposing is provided by rich inquiries on Nahua ethnohistory and long-term dialogue with Christianity, studied primarily from the perspective of native sources (Burkhart 1989; Lockhart 1992). The close analysis of indigenous textual and iconographic sources is crucial for the present work, but I also augment these data with texts produced by mestizo and Spanish authors.

With no intention of exhausting the topic, this article focuses on several key gestures and postures that can be documented in the records of the early postconquest Nahua world. By gestures I mean movements of the parts of the body (especially hands) to convey a particular expression or communicate a specific, usually culturally established message, while with postures I refer to positions of the body assumed for a special purpose. The examples encompass hand (finger pointing) and head (bowing) gestures; ritualized acts that became conventionalized enough to be performed as gestures (the eating of earth); and several body postures (squatting, kneeling, prostration). They illustrate a wide spectrum of cultural practices related to the survival of preconquest elements, their transformation under European impact, cultural convergence, and, finally, adoption of new forms of bodily expression. As I will argue throughout this article, some pre-Hispanic gestures, such as the eating of earth—especially those belonging to the ritual sphere—disappeared in postcontact times or survived only in covert forms as part of Christian practices. Some persisted with only superficial change, especially those that had close European counterparts (like bowing). In addition, new elements of body language having no direct analogies on the indigenous side—such as kneeling—were gradually incorporated, which is most conspicuous in religious cult and political ceremonies.

This investigation of body language also illustrates broader phenomena related to change and continuity in the postcontact era. It illuminates the ways in which local traditions coalesced with European practices and concepts, the nature of cultural convergence, continuities underlying the imposition of new practices, and, finally, the mechanisms of coinage of an appropriate native terminology referring to Christian religion. Special attention has been given to the possible relationships between iconographic renditions of specific gestures in pictorial representation and their potential counterparts in alphabetic sources and Nahuatl terminology. While in some cases gestures and postures represented in pictorial genres do not refer to

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actual human actions but rather convey a message about the rank and functions of the personages depicted (see, e.g., Boone 2000: 58–59), I will argue that in the cases I discuss, these behaviors do have exact equivalents in social practice. Another facet of exploration is the relationship of bodily movements described in the conventions of Nahuatl rhetorical speech to those actually performed in real-life situations.

An inherent part of this endeavor is the study of terminology modified and extended under the impact of the Spaniards. This is particularly true of the vocabulary serving Christian needs but embedded in the indigenous tradition and thus often described as “Nahua Christian.” Such terms were probably joint products of the friars and their Nahua interpreters (Burkhart 1989: 25; Sell 1993: 81). This mechanism is helpful in explaining the postconquest use of some of the Nahuatl terms describing body language, though not all of them. The process embraced both traditional, precontact acts adapted to new roles and those that were implanted by friars and that were either entirely new or perceived as something similar to already known gestures or postures. A vocabulary referring to this multidimensional cultural phenomenon could be much more dependent on preconquest precendents or native postcontact reinterpretations of their own terms than was the case with purely ecclesiastical terminology, believed to reflect the direct involvement of Spaniards.

This brings up the more general question of both natives and Europeans reading the other side’s body language from their respective cultural frameworks and often misinterpreting it. Gestural language played a crucial role in early Christianization in New Spain, when verbal communication was impossible. It was especially conspicuous in rituals of repentance and penance, where bodily gestures added a new dimension to the communication between friars and Indians (Moffit Watts 1995: 141–48; Pardo 2009: 116). Whereas the cultural filters applied are more overt in the case of texts authored by Spaniards, subtle problems exist also when dealing with indigenous records, either made for a native audience or written in Nahuatl but compiled by Europeans for different purposes. One has to be prepared to deal with both European impact on descriptions of preconquest body language and native interpretations of adopted Spanish gestures and postures, especially in Christian contexts.

Thus a major methodological proposal of my article is to bypass the conventional division into preconquest and postconquest worlds, attempting to trace the evolution of bodily expressions across both epochs. A fuller meaning of a particular gesture or posture can often be elucidated only by viewing it across a longer time span, though always keeping in mind the changing frameworks. Furthermore, such an approach seems to follow the

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native perspective, which saw many preconquest phenomena as continuing after the arrival of the Europeans on the scene, adapting functions and meanings of indigenous cultural patterns and incorporating borrowings without conceiving them as something essentially foreign (Lockhart 1990: 94). This phenomenon can be seen in a broader framework of cross- cultural mixing “in which the strangeness of new things inevitably wanes” (Dean and Leibsohn 2003: 24).

The Eating of Earth A truly pan-Mesoamerican gesture was the “eating of earth,” called tlalqualiztli in Nahuatl. While most accounts link it to the Nahuas, the gesture was apparently practiced throughout Mesoamerica, for it figures in several written colonial sources referring to the Maya and Totonacs (Miller 1983: 34–35). In the Nahua world, the eating of earth is mentioned in several different contexts, which, however, do not exclude a common underlying meaning of this act. According to various sources, it was a gesture accompanying an oath, a sign of reverence before a god, a salutation, or an act of submission and humility. There are no extant iconographic renditions of tlalqualiztli except for an image accompanying the short description of this ritual in the Primeros Memoriales compiled by fray Bernardino de Sahagún (1997: fol. 254v; see fig. 1). It is a picture of a standing woman who reaches her hands to her mouth, although according to much written evidence, the earth eating was performed in a lowered body position, most probably squatting. Many extant references to this gesture give the impression that the eating was merely symbolic—for example, acts of tlalqualiztli made on boats during the first encounter with the Europeans in 1519 (Sahagún 1950– 82: 12:5)—but some descriptions imply that its performance at least somtimes involved the actual ingestion of soil.

In his dictionary, fray Alonso de Molina links tlalqualiztli to oath taking (2001a: fol. 73v), and similar references come from Sahaguntine texts (Sahagún 1997: 71). According to the major surviving Nahuatl work

by Sahagún, the Florentine Codex, performance of this act assured the verification of the statement before “the sun, the lord of earth.” Thus, “in order not to be taken for a liar, one said: ‘The sun, the lord of earth, know well that I am eating earth’”2 (Sahagún 1950–82: 2:220). Here the meaning of tlalqualiztli seems to be related to making a statement of obligation and submission to the god to assure the fidelity of an oath. Would that be, as in other examples of vows in traditional cultures, a form of sacrifice to the gods?

The answer is provided by Nahuatl sources themselves. In the same passage contained in the Florentine Codex, Sahagún lists the eating of earth as one of the acts accompanying prayer (tlatlatlauhtiliztli) to the god. These

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Figure 1. 1 Primeros Memoriales, fol. 254v; the act of tlalqualiztli (© Patrimonio Nacional, Biblioteca del Real Palacio, Madrid)

acts are clearly forms of sacrifice, and tlalqualiztli itself seems to be classified as nextlahualiztli (sacrifice) (ibid.). The text of the Primeros Memoriales (Sahagún 1997: 70–72) also places tlalqualiztli among other offerings, such as those of fire, incense, food and blood, libation, human sacrifice, and the practice of abstinence. A similar classification of tlalqualiztli can be found in the text of the Coloquios (Sahagún 1986: 150): “Before them [the gods] we eat earth, thus we draw blood, pay what is proper, burn copal, and perform

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sacrifice [of live victims, not human].” Tlalqualiztli is listed among other “pagan” activities, such as the throwing of grass and rain divination, in the earliest known Nahuatl document from Tlaxcala, an order concerning the eradication of idolatry issued to local officials in 1543.3 Although the eating of earth might be considered an act of humility before the gods, this interpretation does not seem to exhaust its meanings. It could at the same time be an act of sacrifice and a form of communicating with the divine through the consumption of the flesh of Tlalteuctli (Earth Lord), the earth deity whose mutilated body formed the surface of the present terrestrial world.

Enlightening in this context is the reference to tlalqualiztli contained in the description of the feast of Toxcatl given by fray Diego Durán in his account in Spanish of Aztec feasts (1984: 1:39). Toxcatl, celebrated annually toward the end of the dry season, was dedicated to the powerful god Tezcatlipoca, whose impersonator established contact with this deity by playing the flute and was later sacrificed as a substitute for the ruler himself (Olivier 2004: 386–409). Durán says that when the impersonator of Tezcatlipoca finished playing the flute toward the four cardinal directions, “all those who were present and all those absent who heard it put a finger on the ground and taking the earth with it, they put it in their mouth and ate the earth which they had taken with the finger, and prostrating themselves, all of them wept, calling to the darkness of the night and the wind, begging them not to abandon or forget them” (Durán 1984: 1:39) Tlalqualiztli performed by the participants of the feast clearly serves to establish contact with the deity, for it directly follows the flute playing that helped to communicate with Tezcatlipoca (Olivier 2004: 400–401, 408–9). Thus, while eating the earth, people summoned this god through his metaphorical appellations of “night and wind.”

Durán also provides another interesting example that sheds even more light on the symbolism of tlalqualiztli in his description of the feast of Ochpaniztli, celebrating the birth of the maize god following the ritual marriage of the earth goddess Toci and Huitzilopochtli, a patron deity of Tenochtitlan (Olko 1999). In one of the ritual acts, a priest impersonating Toci soaked his finger in the blood of the sacrificed, sucked it, and then groaned in pain, which frightened the participants of the ceremony, while the earth was said to be shaking in sympathy at this moment. When this act was over, all the people “put their fingers on the ground and sucked them, eating the earth that they had taken” (Durán 1984: 1:147–48). Durán adds that one of the particularly brave warriors grasped the vessel with the blood and performed the same ritual as the deity impersonator, concurrently trying to defend himself and run away from persons attacking him. The ceremonial combat is clearly related to the ritual that Sahagún describes in his account

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of the Ochpaniztli festival and to which he refers in other fragments of his works as tiçapaloliztli (tasting of chalk) (e.g., Sahagún 1997: 77). Nonetheless, there appear to be differences: while in the version given by Durán a warrior tasted blood from a sacrificial bowl, Sahagún refers to grasping feathers and chalk—attributes of sacrifice—from a wooden ceremonial vessel, which was followed by a retreat and a simulated skirmish (1950–82: 2:125).

Moreover, in his account Durán identifies the eating of earth in Ochpaniztli as the ceremony called nitiçapaloa (I taste chalk). This name implies a direct affinity with the act of grasping a vessel with chalk associated with a ritual skirmish referred to by Sahagún as tiçapaloliztli (in fact, chalk and feathers in the latter’s version symbolize sacrifice). Durán adds that he witnessed the rite of nitiçapaloa performed in some places before images of saints and domestic altars together with other forms of sacrifice (Durán 1984: 1:147–48). Whereas the relationship between the two versions of tasting the chalk reported by the two authors is not entirely clear, it is significant that Durán’s account reveals a symbolic correspondence between the act of a deity’s impersonator sucking his finger soaked in sacrificial blood and sucking fingers covered with soil in the earth-eating ceremony.

The latter appears to be symbolically linked to consuming the sacrifice in a manner similar to the gods who receive human blood. One may even speculate that tlalqualiztli may have been esoterically conceived as the imitation of divine sacrifice by eating the earth deity, Tlalteuctli, immolated in primordial times according to fundamental Nahua creation myths. Whether or not the response of the earth (shaking) described by Durán during this ceremony actually alludes to the sacrifice of the earth deity, it seems probable that the eating of earth was conceived as a form of communion with the gods, a consumption of the divine substance.

This interpretation is further substantiated by ethnographic data referring to Mesoamerican geophagy. While we must be cautious in drawing direct connections between preconquest and modern data, the analogies are striking enough to argue for some ritual continuity. For example, in the late nineteenth- century Zapotec town of Etla, participants in the feast of a local patron saint consumed powdered stone and earth ground from pieces of the pre-Hispanic pyramidal base of a local church. Reportedly, they believed that it contained supernatural power that assured their welfare in months to come (Laufer 1930: 182–83). And farther afield, in the Maya area, people traveling from long distances to Esquipulas, a famous shrine of the Black Christ and important place of pilgrimage, came back with images of saints made of powdered earth. These figures, subsequently eaten, were credited with beneficial powers. Along with the cult of the Black Christ, ritual geo-

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phagy grounded in preconquest practices also spread to local shrines across Mexico and Central America in colonial times (Hunter and de Kleine 1984: 157–64). Belief in the healing powers of sacred earth, source for ritual consumption of “bread of earth” (pan de tierra), also called panito del Señor (small bread of the Lord), continues up to the present day, evoking an association with Christian communion. Tempting as it is, drawing a parallel with the possible preconquest symbolism of the consumption of the body of Tlalteuctli remains conjectural.

Yet another possible meaning of tlalqualiztli can be found in colonial sources that characterize it as an act of humility and reverence made before both the gods and particularly important humans. Although it is possible that this view was shaped by Christian concepts, where earth had unequivocal connotations, the eating of earth may also have conveyed the sense of the human condition, as a different kind of ritual meal from that favored by the divine beings. Thus, by making this ritual gesture, humans act with a humility that reflects their status in respect to the gods, necessary for establishing contact, paying reverence, and making supplications. This aspect of marking a distance—and thus also respect—toward the deity can perhaps be taken as a clue to understanding the meaning of tlalqualiztli in the other than strictly ritual contexts discussed below. While the early colonial Nahua term for the earthly body, in tlalli in çoquitl (earth and clay), seems to have been influenced by Christian notions, in pre-Hispanic times a concept crucial for the relationship between the human body and earth was tlaçolli: literally, “dirt” or “trash” but referring also to the fertile earth from which emanated life forces (Burkhart 1989: 88–89; Sigal 2011: 20–23, 250–52). Earthliness was an integral part of the human existence, in its productive and destructive aspects. Thus the consumption of soil was on the one hand the ingestion of the divine body and on the other the earthly substance forming an integral part of human fertility and sexuality.

Tlalqualiztli was reportedly performed at crucial ritual moments and usually in association with other forms of sacrifice. It was carried out by Mexica rulers in coronation rites along with bloodletting following ceremonial fasting.4 Apart from oath taking and strictly religious ceremonies, tlalqualiztli is frequently mentioned in association with war campaigns and presenting captives to Huitzilopochtli.5 One can speculate that this gesture may also have served as a ritual confirmation of the established order in much the same way as it apparently served to confirm the truth in oath taking. It is also possible to interpret it as a greeting protocol, apparently not linked to religious contexts.6 Here the gesture could have conveyed the sense of humility, an indispensable element of polite, elegant behavior in the Nahua world. Several acts of tlalqualiztli mentioned by Sahagún’s infor-

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mants could be seen as standard diplomatic gestures of respect: during the greeting protocol at the first meeting with the Spaniards on the seashore (Sahagún 1950–82: 12:5) and then when divine costumes were given to Cortés (12:15) as well as during the famous meeting with Moteucçoma on the causeway leading to Tenochtitlan (e.g., Cortés 1993: 209; Ixtlilxochitl 1975–77: 2:217). These acts could convey real submission, though this is very hard to distinguish from the mock or conventional submission involved in polite behavior. The expression of respect through creating a symbolic distance and acting in humility is indeed quite conspicuous in other gestures and postures common in the Nahua world—in both what we classify today as religious and secular contexts.

Squatting, Kneeling, and Prostration Colonial authors were often more familiar with Christian religious acts than indigenous ones, which influenced their descriptions of preconquest native customs. This is quite conspicuous in the claim made by several colonial writers that tlalqualiztli was performed in a kneeling position (e.g., Casas 1971: 146; Durán 1984: 1:9; Tezozomoc 2001: 168, 275, 377). In his description of one of the indigenous feasts, however, Durán says that “these people did not know how to kneel or to place their hands [in the attitude of prayer]; their way of worship was to squat and cross their hands over the chest, or to prostrate oneself on the ground” (Durán 1984: 1:121). In another place he states that during a sacrificial ceremony the Mexica ruler Ahuitzotl performed the eating of earth in a squatting position without reaching the ground with his buttocks, which was a sign of reverence (while touching it with the buttocks would express irreverence), and that this way of sitting “was as if someone knelt” (2:365). In other words, he clearly refers to squatting before Huitzilopochtli as a reverential religious posture, and he compares it to a European counterpart, the act of kneeling. Moreover, Durán sometimes confuses squatting with sitting (2:358–59), and indeed the two positions could have been visually similar. Like tlalqualiztli, performed in ritual and more secular contexts, squatting was also a posture of respect toward a lord or a ruler. Diego Muñoz Camargo, for example, refers to a courtly protocol obligatory in the presence of a ruler—some of its details were also described by Spanish witnesses, such as Bernal Díaz and Cortés—where “squatting without sitting on the ground,” together with bowing the head, avoiding eye contact, or showing one’s back, were among the prescribed behaviors (Muñoz Camargo 2002: 160).

At the time of the Spanish conquest, squatting was widely practiced throughout Mesoamerica, including the Maya area: Gerónimo de Agui-

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Figure 2. Codex Xolotl (fol. 3); Yacanextli asking the ruler of Colhuacan for his daughter Atotoztli (Bibliothéque Nationale de France, Ms. Mex. 3)

lar, a former castaway who spent some years among the Mayas in Yucatan, greeted his rescuer Cortés in the squatting position (Díaz del Castillo 1972: 47; Miller 1981: 53). This posture is represented in native books from Central Mexico in contexts associated with submission, reverence, or humility.

A good example comes from the Codex Xolotl, an early colonial Tetzcocan pictorial manuscript closely following a pre-Hispanic prototype. We see a squatting Chichimec leader named Yacanextli asking the ruler of Colhuacan, Achitometl, for his daughter, Atotoztli (fol. 3; see fig. 2). Among other examples is an image in the Codex Tudela (fol. 54r; see fig. 3) featuring a fasting ruler during enthronement rites. He is squatting with his hands crossed over his chest. His posture refers to humility in religious practices, bringing the ruler-to-be down to a humble level on the verge of his elevation to a much higher social and political status. It is tempting to see here a possible association with the funeral position of a dead person in his mortuary bundle, alluding to the symbolic death of an elect in coronation rites, followed by his imminent symbolic birth as a new monarch.7 The squatting posture was described by the verbs cototzoa (refl.) or cototztlalia/cocototztlalia (refl. and trans.), both translated by Molina (2001b:

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Figure 3. Codex Tudela (fol. 54r); a fasting ruler during enthronement rites (Museo de América, Madrid)

fol. 24v) as “ponerse de cuclillas,” or “to squat down.” Related terms include cototzca and its reduplicated form cocototzca.8 All these words share the root cototz-, probably denoting folding or bending. At least in some cases cototztlalia indicated “sitting crouched” or “to be seated squatting,” as can be seen from the text of the Florentine Codex referring to the positioning of a dead person in a mortuary bundle (Sahagún 1950–82: 3:42).

While things seem fairly clear with squatting, the existence of a kneeling posture in pre-Hispanic cultures is controversial. Although I am not aware of a single pre-Hispanic image of this position from central Mexico,9 kneeling was known in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica, contrary to some views.10 It appears in Classic Maya art in contexts of subordination, respect, or humiliation, taking several forms and being most frequently associated with bloodletting and the sacrifice of captives. In fact, the majority of kneel-

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ing figures have attributes of captives, though there are also kneeling figures of high rank, including rulers, undergoing autosacrifice, as on the lintels at Yaxchilan. There are also secondary figures who are holding or presenting objects to a ruler, which suggests this posture may have also conveyed the expression of respect before a sovereign, particularly during the presentation of gifts or emblems of office (Miller 1981: 87, 97–100). In the Nahua world, kneeling postures are rare even in early colonial imagery, becoming more common only in the seventeenth century, especially in numerous illustrations accompanying the so- called títulos primordiales (primordial titles).

Conversely, only a few pictorial examples come from sixteenth- century manuscripts. Nonetheless, the main verb referring to this act, tlanquaquetza (refl.), is very common in the second half of the sixteenth century. A related expression is tlanquanenemi (to go on one’s knees), employed in religious, Christian contexts (e.g., Sell et al. 2004: 138; Sell, Burkhart, and Wright 2008: 141), and the rarely used mamana (refl.)—“to kneel” (e.g., Sell et al.

2004: 154).

Considering that tlanquaquetza started being used relatively quickly and seems widespread in sixteenth- century Nahuatl sources, it is probable that an actual pre-Hispanic term was adapted to this new religious context. It is hard to say if its meaning was modified too, or whether it originally referred to a similar act, though lacking a religious or social meaning.

A relatively early attestation appears in the 1552 Nahuatl Ordinances of fray Molina (2002: 116) in reference to the members of a religious confraternity. It is not unreasonable to suspect that Spanish friars, assisted by their indigenous aides, played a role in adopting tlanquaquetza for Christian terminology, similar to the adoption of other terms that entered the Nahua-Christian vocabulary. Terms either borrowed or created anew had to be as transparently intelligible as possible to the entire Nahuatl-speaking world. Obviously, many terms meant one thing to the Nahuas and something else to the Spaniards (Sell 1993: 84–89). Priests, however, usually satisfied themselves “with the basically Christian appearance of what the Indians were doing” (Burkhart 1989: 19) and adopted native usage when they were reassured that it was free of idolatry (27). All these criteria are met by the term tlanquaquetza, which apparently lacked ritual meaning before Spanish contact but probably designated a physical act that could easily be identified with a European kneeling posture.

A passage in the Florentine Codex supports my assumption. In the description of a traditional native marriage ceremony, tlanquaquetza refers to the act of carrying a maiden in a cape: “The daughter-in-law knelt on it and immediately after that [the woman] took her upon her back” (Sahagún 1950–82: 6:131). Indeed, in the illustration of the marriage ceremony in the

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Figure 4. Codex Mendoza, fol. 61r; marriage ceremony (courtesy of Frances Berdan)

Codex Mendoza (fol. 61r; see fig. 4) the bride carried in a cape has her knees pulled up as if in a kneeling position. This seems to confirm the idea that the verb had an identical meaning in pre-Hispanic Nahuatl, though it may have been specific to women rather than men at that time. It remains plausible, and the possibility should be investigated, that the word was originally employed for a typical Central Mexican female sitting posture based on kneeling with thighs and buttocks resting on the calves and feet.11 Another intriguing example of the use of tlanquaquetza appears in the Florentine Codex in the famous myth relating the creation of the sun in Teotihuacan. The text says that the gods awaiting the first dawn fell upon their

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Figure 5. Primeros Memoriales, fol. 255r; a woman performing blood sacrifice (© Patrimonio Nacional, Biblioteca del Real Palacio, Madrid)

knees when brightness illuminated the night sky (Sahagún 1950–82: 7:6).

Although appearing in the traditional mythological account, this is probably an example of the incorporation of a Christian act in a pre-Hispanic context associated with reverence and humility. Similar borrowings can be found in pictorial imagery: the woman performing blood sacrifice in the Primeros Memoriales (Sahagún 1997: fol. 255r) is shown in a kneeling posture no doubt based on a traditional female pose but clearly transformed in the direction of a “Christian” form of kneeling, especially if compared with other images of “sitting” females in this manuscript (see fig. 5). An author of a drawing in book 3 of the Florentine Codex moved much further: the worshippers of Huitzilopochtli assume a typically European kneeling posture, and one of them holds up his hands palm to palm in prayer (see fig. 6).

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Figure 6. Florentine Codex (Bk. 3, fol. 4r); the worshippers of Huitzilopochtli (Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Ms. Med. Palat. 218, c. 205r)

Prostration and Bowing Prostration is yet another European religious posture markedly present in the colonial Nahua world. Even though Spanish witnesses, such as Durรกn, claim that prostrating oneself was one of the native religious postures, evidence is weak and uncertain. Such a pose is absent from pre-Hispanic and early colonial native pictorial sources, while references to stretching oneself on the ground as a reverential pose became frequent in Nahuatl texts in the first half of the seventeenth century, no doubt reflecting typical Christian practices introduced in New Spain. Prostration and bowing were an inherent and markedly present part of ceremonialism and religious piety in medieval and early modern Europe, expressing and confirming relationships with superior powers, including God and earthly hegemons. Much as in preconquest Nahua culture, the universal symbolism of high-low and up-down was especially salient in European Christianity of that time, with prostration marking the extreme form of self-abasement (Burrow 2002: 18).

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Native expressions employed for prostration include tlalchitlaça (refl.; to cast oneself toward the ground), ixtlapachtlaça (refl.; to fling oneself face down), and mayahui (refl.; to cast oneself down). The latter was used in the sixteenth century, apparently with no clear ritual associations (e.g., Sahagún 1950–82: 4:11–12, 105), and referred to an action of throwing oneself into something or onto the ground. For example, in the description of a famous creation myth, Tecciztecatl “went to cast himself into the fire” (iauh momaiauiz in tleco), while Nanahuatzin “quickly threw himself into the fire” (õmomaiauhtihuetz in tleco) (7:5–6). This verb is included by Molina in his dictionary (2001b: fol. 51v) in a transitive form with the sense “to throw someone on the ground” (derribar a otro en el suelo), while in a seventeenth- century Nahuatl play it is used in reference to a religious act of humility and reverence (Sell, Burkhart, and Wright 2008: 141). Also, tlalchitlaça must have been in use in the sixteenth century, as it is both given

by Molina (tlalchitlaça nino—humillarse y abatirse hasta el suelo) (fol. 123v) and attested in late colonial texts (e.g., Sell, Burkhart, and Poole 2006: 200, 204). Ixtlapachtlaça (ixtlapach-, face down; tlaça, to fling or cast down), common in the seventeenth century (Sell et al. 2004: 228, 298; Sell, Burkhart, and Poole 2006: 64, 76; Sell, Burkhart, and Wright 2008: 61, 141, 401), is also given by Molina in the Spanish-Nahuatl part of his dictionary (2001a: fol. 1r). It is probably equivalent or closely related to ixtlapallaça (Molina 2001b: fol. 48r), where ixtlapal-, transversely, is used instead of ixtlapach-. Together with other related expressions listed by Molina, such as ixtlapachcuepa, ixtlapachmana, and ixtlapachonoc, they were probably precontact Nahuatl terms referring to putting things upside down or face down with no obvious ritual implications.12 Thus what seems to have occurred is the adoption of existing expressions used in a different context and endowment of them with a new, Christian meaning. These terms would be “free of idolatry,” meeting an important criterion of Spanish friars, assuming they played some role in the adoption or perpetuation of such terms in religious contexts.

Nahuatl sources frequently refer to yet another reverential act: bending forward or bowing. Numerous examples are depicted in the Codex Xolotl, usually in greeting scenes and contexts expressing respect. While some assume this pose while standing, it is not infrequent to find personages bending in the seated position (clearly recognizable by a lowered head position). This group includes subordinated figures who receive commands or messengers carrying and communicating orders. Bowing depicted in greeting scenes in the Codex Xolotl is usually accompanied by the handing over of flowers and smoking tubes in accordance with a well-known pre-Hispanic courtly protocol as described, for example, in the Florentine

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Codex (Sahagún 1950–82: 9:59). A corresponding Nahuatl term was the reflexive verb pechteca, translated by Molina as “to humble oneself bending the body strongly” (humillarse, incliñado [inclinãdo] mucho el cuerpo) (2001b: fol. 80v)—or in other words, “to bow”—clearly associated with humility and respect. Just like kneeling and prostrating, bowing was one of the prescribed Christian religious postures, and indeed, the verb pechteca frequently figures in colonial religious and social discourse. It can be argued, however, that both the terminology and the gesture itself predated the Spanish conquest, being part of traditional Nahua behavior and rhetoric as an important element of pre-Hispanic body language.

Bowing apparently expressed religious reverence in preconquest times and could be performed together with the eating of earth. In the feast of Toxcatl, “there was bowing before [the impersonator of Tezcatlipoca]; the commoners performed the earth- eating ceremony before him” (Sahagún 1950–82: 2:68). Likewise, the native annalist from Chalco, Chimalpahin (1997: 72), mentions bowing as an act of reverence before Tonatiuh, the sun god. Rulers were particularly obliged to carry out this self- effacing behavior that assured communication with the gods: “Those who came to govern . . . were . . . those who inclined themselves, those who bowed” (Sahagún 1950–82: 6:110). These acts were associated with the highest social ranks: “Know that the humbling, the bowing, the inclining, the weeping, the tears, the sighing, the meekness are nobility, the great value, the preciousness; they are honor” (6:109; see also 6:255; Sahagún 1997: 233). According to the Florentine Codex (12:44), before starting his famous speech to Cortés, Moteucçoma stood up, bowing deeply. Such acts of respect were not limited to persons of special status, at least in Nahua rhetoric (e.g., 6:192). Humility and “bowing” clearly belonged to traditional education and exemplary behavior necessary to “be pleasing to the gods and to man” (6:105; see also 10:13, 48).

In addition, the etymology of the verb pechteca (refl.) suggests that the original meaning referred to full prostration rather than to mere bowing. The element -pech conveys the meaning of “base,” “ground,” “bed,” or “bottom,” while teca means “to spread something on a flat surface,” “to lie down,” or “to stretch oneself out.” These connotations, as well as the ubiquity of pechteca in traditional high rhetoric, leave open the possibility that lying flat on the ground was practiced in precontact times. It remains uncertain, however, whether that meaning was still preserved in preconquest Aztec times and whether full prostration was retained along with bowing. Other Nahuatl terms, and not pechteca, were employed in reference to Christian acts of casting oneself on the ground.

Other colonial expressions referring to bowing or bending also have

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clear pre-Hispanic roots. Verbs employed interchangeably with pechteca were piloa (refl.) and toloa, which were also used in deverbal noun forms.

The expression -tolol, -malcoch quichihua, a metaphor to be translated literally as “to incline one’s head, to cross one’s arms,” conveyed the meaning of “being sad, afflicted, preoccupied.” Whereas it can simply express sadness (e.g., Sahagún 1950–82: 4:55), as a gesture of humility it was also closely associated with exemplary priests and nobles, those who could communicate with the gods through ritual fasting or meditation (e.g., 6:8, 108–9).

While this particular expression denotes bowing with the head, other terms (such as pechteca) that refer to bowing or inclining in general may have been employed to describe the head movement (10:99). And indeed, the most conspicuous thing in reverential poses depicted in the Codex Xolotl, including both seated and standing figures, is usually the head bending toward the ground. Similarly, two youths receiving instructions and admonitions in the Codex Mendoza (fol. 70r) are shown weeping and bowing their heads.

After the Spanish conquest, “bowing” quickly became linked to Christian ritual, and this transfer was facilitated by the convergence of meaning and form. Since the gesture was endowed with a religious meaning in preHispanic ritual protocol, for the Nahuas it came to fulfill a similar role in Catholic piety. A good example comes from the 1649 account devoted to the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe by Luis Laso de la Vega, in which “divine honor, temples, divine altars, flowers and incense, bowing of the head, kneeling, and bending” are the proper due of God (1998: 122–23). Were the Nahuas aware, at least in the first decades of Christianization, of this functional and symbolic continuity? It is suggestive that the authors of the Florentine Codex linked bowing and other forms of piety to the new religion. And so, those who do not respect what deserves respect are compared to “those who receive the most Holy Sacrament, who pay it no honor, who do not incline, do not weep” (Sahagún 1950–82: 6:241).

Although Spaniards apparently took notice of the rules of courtesy and related gestures of the Nahuas, observing similarities between Christian and native conventions (Pardo 2009: 123–24), I do not think they played a decisive role in adapting these gestures to the new context. Rather, the Nahuas recognized parallels between Christian acts and their traditional postures employed in ritualized and secular contexts before the conquest and continued to perform them as part of their own bodily expression in Catholic worship. In any case, the preconquest ritual aspect of certain “Christian” gestures was probably less obvious for the Spaniards, who indeed may have been aware only of their use in courtesy that posed no danger of idolatry.

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Figure 7 a—Codex Telleriano-Remensis (fol. 29v), Ilancueitl; b—Codex Cozcatzin (fol.1v), doña Isabel Tecuichpo (drawings by the author); c—Lienzo de Tlaxcala (fol. 11): Cortés and Malintzin (after: Lienzo de Tlaxcala. Antigüedades mexicanas, Alfredo Chavero, ed. Mexico: Oficina Tipográfica de la Secretaría de Fomento, 1892)

Finger Pointing Finger pointing is one of the most frequently represented gestures in early colonial Mesoamerican pictorial manuscripts, especially in the Valley of Mexico, Puebla-Tlaxcala, and Oaxaca. Its widespread presence implies that it was a pan-regional pictorial convention shared not only by the broad area of Central Mexico but also by other localities, such as Guerrero. It is also common in pre-Hispanic art, particularly in Mixtec codices. It is usually found in association with rulers, including early colonial governors and nobles. In some cases, this gesture is also made by women, and, excluding examples from the “ethnographic” section of the Codex Mendoza, these seem to be especially important females: Atotoztli and Ilancueitl (the female founders of the Mexica royal dynasty) in the Codex TellerianoRemensis (fols. 29v, 30r), doña Isabel Tecuichpo in the Codex Cozcatzin (fol. 1v), Malintzin in the Lienzo de Tlaxcala (see fig. 7a–c) and other manuscripts, as well as noblewomen in genealogies from Puebla and Tlaxcala.

Whereas Donald Robertson (1994 [1952]: 142) suggested that this gesture was a sign of command, Pablo Escalante (1996: 371–72) concluded that its obvious function was to point or indicate, and even if sometimes it seems to have had the connotation of power, in most cases it “forms part of the gesture of conversation.” While this may be true for Mixtec codices, it can be argued that in Nahua pictorial manuscripts, a finger-pointing gesture usually communicates status and power rather than the actual activity of pointing or giving a specific order.

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Figure 8. Codex Xolotl (fol. 8); Tezozomoc, the ruler of Azcapotzalco, giving order by pointing with his finger (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Ms. Mex. 8)

A particularly rich set of examples comes from the Codex Xolotl.

Numerous occurrences of finger pointing are associated with giving a command, as on folio 1, where Xolotl apparently orders Nopaltzin to look for land to settle. Among other examples, one that stands out is that of Tezozomoc, a famous ruler of Azcapotzalco, who, pointing with his finger, probably gives orders to kill Neçahualcoyotl, the successor to the Tetzcocan throne. His speech scrolls and the glyph of Neçahualcoyotl specify the content of this command (fol. 8; see fig. 8). At least in some cases, finger pointing should not be linked to a specific kind of action but to the status of the gesture maker. It is meaningful that in the Codex Xolotl, replete as it is with historical events and interactions of various kinds, this gesture is most frequently used in conventional representations of rulers unaccompanied by any other persons or objects as referents of the finger pointing.

Finger pointing is extremely frequent in colonial manuscripts, including both traditional imagery and new ethnographic sections depicting commoners or people of undefined rank associated with different professions, daily activities, or native customs. Perhaps most illustrative of the

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widespread use of finger pointing in pictorial conventions is a court document from Huamuxtitlan in Guerrero, known as the Pièces d’un Procès de Huamuxtitlan and dated to 1580 (see fig. 9). The details of the pictographic part are reduced to an absolute minimum. However, almost all of the men are shown pointing with their fingers, two of them in a way that suggests some kind of confrontation is taking place. In pictorial catechisms designed

by Spanish friars for the conversion of the native population, pointing with an index finger is one of the most frequent iconographic details.

Pointing figures appear frequently in European art: in medieval imagery of rulers giving orders, in iconographic representations that include scenes of accusations, and in mundane contexts in reference to different activities and categories of persons. This is especially true of less formal genres, for example, in engravings and book illustrations. There is no doubt, however, that the Mesoamerican counterpart is of pre-Hispanic origin. Examples of finger pointing can be found in Teotihuacan (see fig. 10a) and in the Maya area. In the Late Postclassic, several varieties and configurations of this gesture appear also in Mixtec and Borgia Group codices (see fig. 10b). Its place in the Nahua tradition is strongly confirmed by pertinent terminology. An index finger “points, indicates something to someone” (Sahagún 1997: 256), and was called tlamapilhuiloni mapilli, or “the finger used to indicate, point to something” (Sahagún 1950–82: 10:117). These connotations are directly confirmed by Molina, who in his dictionary lists mapilhuia as “to show or indicate something to someone with the finger, or choose or elect someone” and mapiloa as “to show something with the finger” (mostrar, o señalar a otro con el dedo, o escoger, o elegir a alguno; mostrar algo con el dedo) (2001b: fols. 52r-v).

The occurrences of the verb mapiloa in sixteenth- century Nahuatl texts closely correspond with the meanings provided by Molina—that is, either designating the mere act of pointing or additionally conveying the sense of choosing and electing someone. An example of the more obvious meaning is found in the mythological account of the creation of the sun and moon in Teotihuacan contained in the Florentine Codex: “And some placed themselves facing the eastern direction. They said: ‘For there, in that place, the sun will rise.’ True indeed were the words of those who looked there, who pointed with their fingers there” (Sahagún 1950–82: 7:7). At the same time, passages from book 6 suggest an identification of mapiloa with electing.

Thus, according to traditional Nahua rhetoric, noblemen are chosen by the supreme god to serve their altepetl: “Perhaps, however, the lord of the near, of the nigh, would have selected them [literally: pointed with his finger at them], and the city would have taken one of them” (6:108). This meaning was preserved in Nahuatl beyond the early colonial period, for it can be

Figure 9. Pièces d’un Procès de Huamuxtitlan (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Ms. Mex. 116)

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Figure 10. Preconquest examples of finger-pointing; a—wall painting, Teotihuacan; b—Codex Nuttall, fols. 56, 57 (drawings by the author)

traced in a seventeenth- century play based on the Old Testament. Joachim, speaking of the grace of God who gave him a child, says that “his heart has been so generous that He has pointed his finger at me [i.e., He chose me]” (Sell, Burkhart, and Wright 2008: 371). Thus the act of divine choosing, expressed by finger pointing, was moved from a pre-Hispanic rhetoric to a new, though clearly related, Christian context.

Interestingly, this semantic field linked to finger pointing closely corresponds with meanings deduced from the iconographic content of the Codex Xolotl, where this gesture signals both an act of indicating and an act of assigning certain rights or titles, including the right to rule. This meaning is further corroborated in the colonial text of the Crónica mexicana, by don Fernando Alvarado Tezozomoc, directly based on a Nahuatl prototype. In a speech delivered during a royal election, the gesture of pointing with the finger is equated with the act of choosing a new ruler: “You are to point at him with your finger, and this done, we will notify all the local rulers . . . to come to see it and understand and obey” (2001: 189). An identical expression figures in another speech, in which the electors of a new king are summoned to “point with your finger who this will be” (247).

On another occasion, Neçahualcoyotl encourages the lords to choose a new ruler by showing him with their fingers: “Show, lords, with your finger, say we want this one, we indicate this one as our king and lord” (363).

While election decisions are difficult to imagine as having been made spontaneously in public, it is possible that the actual pointing with the finger could have been used as a symbolic gesture serving as a formal assignment or confirmation during the election ceremony. Pointing with fingers is actually depicted in the election/investiture ceremony in the Codex Azcatitlan (see fig. 11). Although the style of this document is heavily Europeanized

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Figure 11. Codex Azcatitlan, fol. 13r; election/investiture ceremony (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Ms. Mex. 59–64)

and its date is probably much later than the commonly assumed sixteenth century, certain iconographic details imply it must have been based on a traditional native prototype preserving the original meaning of finger pointing.

While the pre-Hispanic roots of this gesture seem unquestionable, how is one to explain its early colonial popularity, which seems to parallel, if not exceed, its earlier use? Finger pointing is one of the most elementary, universal human gestures. When two sets of people came together and did not initially understand each other’s language, gesturing or pointing to things may have been very common. It did not go unnoticed by native painters that this gesture was also recurrent in European iconography, while indigenous counterparts were easily recognizable by Spaniards. Thus the confluence of the two traditions and the sensation of familiarity on both sides could

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have contributed to the popularity and wide use of this gesture in pictorial sources after the conquest. Its transcultural identity was to a certain degree one of appearance only, as with many other colonial phenomena identified and discussed originally by James Lockhart (1985: 477) as examples of a “double mistaken identity” or partial convergence of meaning and form of indigenous and Spanish phenomena. In European art, depending on context and genre, finger pointing could have been done by a person of any rank, for its basic function was to communicate an actual activity of indicating. In native imagery it was to all appearances a more symbolic gesture, but we have to keep in mind that its thematic scope was more limited than in European traditions. Accordingly, in native iconographic conventions, finger pointing could refer to indicating and giving orders as well as being an attribute of power conveying information on status and rank. Thus for the Nahuas and Spaniards, finger pointing might not have always connoted the same thing; an apparently identical gesture could be interpreted incorrectly by each side as equivalent to their own practices and meanings. Misinterpretations of what were actually disparities had become fossilized in the cultural understandings of each side, carrying a strong sense of continuity among the natives.

Even if the reconstruction of pre-Hispanic gestures is obscured by European filters in the sixteenth- century written sources, the combining of written, iconographic, and linguistic data proves promising for their reconstruction.

This kind of thick analysis of Nahua gestures and postures brings to light a complexity of meaning of particular gestures and nuances of their contextual use. Pictorial sources serve as important points of departure for the reconstruction of many pre-Hispanic gestures, since they reveal how they were employed to express rank, social position, function, or situational contexts. It nevertheless becomes clear that iconographic data need supplementation. Written Nahuatl sources are richly complementary resources whose terminology and forms of expression demonstrate the continuity of important elements of pre-Hispanic body language as it was adapted to new Christian contexts. It has also been suggested that attested vocabulary referring to specific native postures and gestures performed in Christian worship reflected more strongly preconquest origins and identifications, developed by the Nahuas themselves, than did purely ecclesiastical terminology created under Spanish supervision. Friars, apparently open to accepting preconquest gestures of courtesy as part of religious reverence, were probably unaware of their original performance in ritual contexts.

In Nahua body language, many important gestures, such as the eating of earth, were employed in different contexts—or on distinct levels—and

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sometimes these contexts imply different shades of meaning. Such multivalent gestures could be made on both strictly ritual and more “secular” occasions such as a greeting protocol. Thus the same elements of body language that denoted religious piety or were even conceived as sacrificial acts made to the gods could be performed before humans to mark symbolic sociopolitical distance and lowered status, an obligatory element of polite and respectful behavior. This again had close parallels in the European world, where most common gestures and postures, such as bowing or kneeling, were linked to both religious and political contexts (Burrow 2002: 20–22). In the Nahua world—both preconquest and colonial— mock humiliation or submission was an indispensable part of courtesy and good education, expressed by appropriate gestures and postures, figures of speech, or items associated with social status and position. Thus even high lords who found themselves in the presence of a ruler were symbolically equated with commoners, wearing cloaks made of agave fiber, walking barefoot, and expressing humility in their body language. These selfeffacing acts were also appropriate in showing religious reverence and continued in similar forms as an essential part of Christian devotion.

Finally, looking at pre- and postconquest body language leads us to an essential question about the bridges and mechanisms of convergence between the two cultures. Were the European and Nahua concepts of the body and forms of bodily expression (as well as other numerous aspects of their cultures) indeed irreconcilable and incompatible in their deeper substance? It is worth recalling that in the Christian tradition, strongly embedded in medieval concepts, the relationship posited between body and soul was not only complex but also constantly redefined. Because the “sacred often revealed itself in interactions between the spiritual and the corporeal,” spiritual things were manifested in corporeal appearance (Le Goff 1988: 85), while gestures could be seen as “visible words” (Simons 1994: 14). For the Nahuas, on the other hand, the division between “flesh” or “body” and the spiritual parts was not strict and well defined; rather, they were seen as a unity despite a possibility of separation and exteriorization both during life and upon death (López Austin 1980, 1994). However, bodies were heavily laden with markers of gender, status, social roles, and achievements, carefully expressed by external marking and ornamentation, hairdo, clothing, and all kinds of attributes, all of which finds close parallels in European culture of that time. On a deeper level yet, the Nahuas shared complex ideas about spiritual entities that were linked to personal identity, destiny, and spiritual forces but that also manifested themselves in external bodily appearance. As has been accurately pointed out in reference to colonial works of art, some of the results produced by cross-cultural encoun-

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ters may be largely invisible. In addition to syncretic forms recognizable on the surface, we should be prepared to face more nuanced, profound, or embedded forms of “hybridity” (Dean and Leibsohn 2003: 24–26). I believe many such invisible forms of confluence are based on substantial and profound correspondences between the two worlds. These deeper forms of merging can be found not only in native sociopolitical arrangements after the Spanish contact but also in multiple forms of bodily expressions that attest to the complexity of cross- cultural adaptation and convergence.

Notes I would like to express my deepest gratitude to James Lockhart, Frances Berdan, Robert Haskett, Marcy Norton, Jerome Offner, John Sullivan, Ryszard Tomicki, and Stephanie Wood as well as anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions and comments on this paper. The research leading to the results presented in this article was financed by the Foundation for Polish Science within its Focus Programme and has subsequently received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ ERC grant agreement No. 312795.

1 The work by Pablo Escalante (1996), who discusses several postures and gestures common in iconographic representations originating in the Nahua area, is an exception. Research on gestures in other Mesoamerican cultures is also scarce, being mostly confined to the Maya area (e.g., Miller 1981, 1983; Schaffer 1991), with one study dealing with Mixtec gestures (Troike 1982). More recently, Kevin Terraciano discussed the presence of preconquest Mixtec gestures in colonial sources, the Codex de Yanhuitlan and the Doctrina en lengua mixteca (2001: 32–33, 298). Two other, more recent studies examine the use of sign and gestural communication in the early interactions between Spanish explorers and the native peoples of North America, as seen through European accounts (Bonvillian, Ingram, and McCleary 2009), and some aspects of Nahua body language in the context of colonial religious syncretism in New Spain (Lipsett-Rivera 2007).

2 Translations from Nahuatl and Spanish are by the author unless otherwise indicated.

3 Archivo Histórico del Estado de Tlaxcala, box 1, exp. 1.

4 See, for example, Fr. Toribio Motolinía 1970: 151; and Fernando Alvarado Tezozomoc 2001: 304–7, 362–67.

5 It could be performed by defeated war captives (Tezozomoc 2001: 179–80, 275, 290, 376–77, 425, 446), by victorious Mexica warriors (137, 320, 412, 421–22), or by rulers themselves, often in association with bloodletting (290, 340).

6 See, for example, Tezozomoc 2001: 295, 322, 429. Many sources refer to tlalqualiztli performed during the reception of Spaniards.

7 On the symbolic death and birth of the tlatoani in coronation rites of passage, see Olivier 2008.

8 These are translated respectively as estar sentado de coclillas and estar encogido de coclillas (Molina 2001b: fols. 24v, 24r). The Florentine Codex lists one of these verbs among expressions related to tlanquaitl, the knee (Sahagún 1950–

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Justyna Olko 82: 10:125): ninocototzoa should probably be translated as “I bend [the knee],” although there is a separate expression, tlanquacoloa, probably referring to bending knees while standing as an act complementary to bowing.

The exception is images of females, for whom the kneeling-seated position was a customary one, no doubt having underlying cultural and social meaning not only in the Nahua world but also across Mesoamerica.

See, for example, Escalante 1996: 269.

There is no space in the present article to discuss separately gender and sexuality reflected in bodily behaviors, but it should be emphasized that this was a very important dimension of nonverbal communication and sociocultural codes expressed by bodily appearance, positions, and movements (see, e.g., Sigal 2011).

Such nonritual meanings are clearly intended in the Florentine Codex: for example, ixtlapachonoc (Sahagún 1950–82: 2:159) and ixtlapachmana (refl.; 1:82).

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