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| Distortion Through Selection |
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The early Spanish Fathers in the New World were just as susceptible to the desire to see Christianity in their new flock as Mormons are to see the Book of Mormon in native legends. These underlying interests of the chroniclers of the Aztecs had a profound effect upon the nature of the material they reported. In The Aztec Image in Western Thought, Benjamin Keen has surveyed the literature on Aztec themes and found "a link between the positions of the Spanish writers on Indian policy and their attitudes toward Aztec civilization." (Benjamin Keen, the Aztec Image in Western Thought, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1971, 71.) When it comes to Quetzalcoatl, the division is dramatic. Anti-Indian writers consistently describe only the idol of the god. Pro-Indian writers are virtually the only ones who give elaborate details of the Quetzalcoatl legends. It is also uniquely among the pro-Indian writers that connections between Christianity and native beliefs are noted. When Pro-Indian and Anti-Indian writers are compared for the themes they portray, the differences are instructive. The idol in Anti-Indian writings contrasts with a benevolent culture hero among the Pro-Indian writers. The sacrifices to the idol prevail among Anti-Indian writers, and the Pro-Indian writers stress Quetzalcoatl's aversion to sacrifice. The Anti-Indian writers describe ritual, the Pro-Indian writers detail myth. With such clear divisions in the material they chose to record, it is imperative that we understand the underlying reason why the Pro-Indian writers made their selections of the available Quetzalcoatl material. These writers had the impetus of the debates raging in the far off courts of Spain about the humanity of the Indians. The Anti-Indian writers saw them as subhuman, and therefore subject to slavery and exploitation. The implicit argument of the Pro-Indian writers was that evidence that the Indians had once had the gospel preached to them - even if they had fallen from it - was proof of their humanity and value. This underlying purpose in their writings, to defend the humanity (and fallen Christianity) of the natives, colored the material they presented, from the choice of material itself (Quetzalcoatl the culture hero as opposed to Quetzalcoatl the idol, or the wind-god) to the way in which the culture hero was presented. (See LaFaye 1974, 30-50 for an excellent discussion of the spiritual mind set involved in the discovery of the New World.) The most explicit example of the way these forces modified the native information comes from the analysis of three nearly identical texts about Quetzalcoatl. The Florentine Codex is one of the manuscripts prepared under Sahagún's direction. It is written in Nahuatl (in European script) by natives. Although the informants used to create this document were Christianized, and trained by the friars, the Florentine Codex remains one of the best sources on pre-contact Nahua culture. From that work comes this native description of Quetzalcoatl: [the story of] Quetzalcoatl, who was a great wizard; and of the place where he ruled, and of what he did when he went [away]. There, it is said, he lay, he lay covered, and he lay with only his face covered. And, it is said, he was monstrous. His face was like a huge, battered stone, a great fallen rock; it [was] not made like that of men. And his beard was long. (Sahagún, 1950-75, 3:13.) Sahagún used this Nahuatl source material to write his Spanish version of the history and culture of the Nahua. Sahagún's version of this passage in his Historia General loses some of the information contained in the native version: Quetzalcoatl was esteemed and held to be a god, and they adored him in ancient times in Tula, and he had a very tall temple with may stairs which were so narrow that a foot would not fit on them. And his statue was always lying down and covered with blankets, and his face was very ugly, and his head large and bearded. (Bernardino de Sahagún, Historia General de las cosas de Nueva España, 4 volumes, edited Ángel María Garibay Kintana, Mexico: Editorial Porrúa, 1969, 1:278. ) The first change is subtle because it changes the context of the ugly Quetzalcoatl. The native statement on Quetzalcoatl's appearance comes in a passage concerning the priest-king of Tula, whereas Sahagún's follows a description of Quetzalcoatl's temple in Tenochtitlan. Sahagún is describing an idol, where the native informants were giving information considered to be related to the person. The second slight shift occurs when Quetzalcoatl is described as ugly rather than monstrous. Ugly is an aesthetic value judgement, monstrous is an essential description of his non-human nature (remember that it was described as a "huge, battered stone, a great fallen rock"). These "monstrous" characteristics were important signals to the native mind which classified him as extra-human, a demi-god. The third change is a similar selection of the information Sahagún decided to exclude from his Spanish version of the Nahuatl information. The Florentine Codex introduces Quetzalcoatl with the phrase "in hue nahualli catca. (Sahagún, 1950-75, 3:13. I have substituted the more standard orthography for the Codex's "in vej naolli catca.") This phase is translated by Anderson and Dibble as "[Quetzalcoatl,] who was a great wizard." Our English "wizard" is perhaps the best word to use, but it fails to provide the full connotation of the Nahua nahualli. The nahualli was a shaman, a shape shifter who could appear as various animal alter egos. This phrase, which would have imparted extremely important information to the native mind, is totally absent from Sahagún's Spanish account. Just as when Sahagún chose to retain the "ugly", but not the "monstrous", he again strips important cultural information from the native account, and sets the stage for a further transformation of Quetzalcoatl from native wizard to Christian Saint. Torquemada relates a similar description of Quetzalcoatl, but his text is based on Sahagún's account rather than the original text in Nahuatl. Torquemada is relatively faithful to the Spanish Sahagún source, but includes a further elaboration and interpretation of the account: In the city of Tula they has a very sumptuous temple, and very large, with many steps, and so narrow that a foot would not fit on them. [Quetzalcoatl's] image had a very ugly face, and a large head, and was very bearded: he was lying down, and not standing, covered with blankets, and it is said that they did it in memory that in another time he was to return to rule, and in reverence of his great majesty they should keep his figure covered and lying down, which must signify his absence, as one who sleeps, who lies down to sleep, and when awakening from that dream of absence, will rise to rule...( Juan de Torquemada, Monarquía Indiana. 3 volumes, Mexico: Editorial Sálvador Chávez Hayhoe, 1943, 2:52. This was written in approximately 1615.) Torquemada perpetuates Sahagún's shift from the person to the idol. As in Sahagún's version, Quetzalcoatl is still ugly, but not monstrous. The information on Quetzalcoatl as a great nahualli is still missing (as would be expected since Torquemada is simply using Sahagún's Spanish version as a source). In Torquemada, however, Quetzalcoatl undergoes a quiet transformation. Where the original implies that the covered face is due to the monstrosity, in Torquemada the covering is in deference to his majesty. The suggestion that the prone position is a symbol for his sleep of absence might be a plausible native category, but it is not corroborated by Sahagún's Spanish text, nor the native section of the Florentine Codex, nor any other source on the Quetzalcoatl legend. This progression of concepts, from reasonably native to suggestively Christian is typical of the Quetzalcoatl material. Even the Spanish sources which least alter the legend exert their own kind of distortion. The interests of the Spaniards increased the pressure to see native materials in a certain light. This pressure exerted its influence not only upon the selections made by the Spaniards among the native material, but also influenced the material natives presented to the Spaniards. The result is that all native documents show evidence of Christian influence, due to their desire to appease the Spaniards. ( Robert M. Carmack, Quichean Civilization, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973, 19.) Given the Church's position as the defender of the Indian against the excesses of the Conquest, it is not surprising that acceptance of the Church was early discovered to be politically beneficial. Those forces which led Spaniards to select Christian-like elements from native traditions could not fail to have their effect on the native population and its folklore. Very early the Indians worked their own type of selective distortion on their own lore, selecting items which were specifically intended for the Spanish audience and which were directed to easing the pressures of the Conquest. It is very likely that the dominance of Quetzalcoatl in the available material is directly related to this pressure to supply the Spanish with the material they wanted. Quetzalcoatl's significance in the texts is in apparent disproportion to his importance in the Nahua pantheon as indicated by nearly any other means. This tendency to emphasize and Christianize Quetzalcoatl is directly at the heart of the problem of reconstructing a Pre-Columbian Quetzalcoatl. The Quetzalcoatl material cannot be approached without bearing in mind the types of distortions present in our evidence. Virtually all sources show some form of distortion, from nearly imperceptible to blatant. The task of reconstructing the pre-conquest tale requires that all sources be critically compared to discern where the material accurately reflects the pre-Hispanic form, and where the material is the result of the various distortions which have entered the material.(1) 1. For another treatment of the effect of the Spanish on the Quetzalcoatl material, see Susan D. Gillespie, The Aztec Kings, (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1989), 173-201. |
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| by Brant Gardner. Copyright 1998 |
These distortions
of native lore became increasingly more complex as native traditions were consciously or subconsciously altered
to provide support for a European's overriding intent or purpose. The overriding concerns made intent more important
than reporting, and selected certain facets of the tradition to the exclusion of others.
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