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| An Element Analysis of the Christian Aspects |
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This is not the place for a lengthy discussion of a methodology for reconstructing myth or legend. Some discussion is unavoidable, however, as only a rigorous methodology can hope to save us from random selection of evidences which have been the staple of the majority of the secondary works on Quetzalcoatl (not to mention that same possibility influencing many "primary" sources). Because all methodologies embed particular prejudices, I should make mine explicit. My first assumption is that the material related to Quetzalcoatl is a "frozen" picture of an oral tradition. That is, that the oral tradition existed with all of the likely variation of known oral traditions, but that what we have is merely a sampling of that larger tradition. Pragmatically, this means that no single text is likely to contain the entirety of the oral material, and that much of what would have been a common cultural base for the tellers of the tale will be spread among the various sources, with valid cultural information arising in many disparate sources. The second assumption is that a structural methodology provides a reasonable framework for analysis. In general, there are two types of structures which can be analyzed in tales. The first is sequential structure, or the specific order of events. For the current analysis, these are of lesser value than the second type which is semantic structure. A semantic structure consists of the specific thematic elements which are ordered into a sequential structure. In the ideal definition, these would be the underlying meanings which are then embellished or altered in various oral presentations. In Mesoamerican tale cycles, there are many semantic structures which appear in different forms in different texts. Many of the variant texts can be shown to revolve around a similar theme. The comparative analysis of the specific elements of the tale, with all of their diversity, can often demarcate the boundaries of the underlying concept. The object of such an analysis is not to find an original myth, but rather to elucidate the essential ideas which underlie the variations which are found in the multiple accounts. A more detailed description of this method, as well as an example of its use in reconstructing a pre-Hispanic myth is found in Brant Gardner, "The Aztec 'Legend of the Suns': A Multi-Dimensional Approach to the Ethnohistory of Myth." in Symbol and Meaning Beyond the Closed Community, (Institute for Mesoamerican Studies: State University of New York, Albany Press, 1986), 19-34. |
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| by Brant Gardner. Copyright 1998 |
The correlation
of Quetzalcoatl with any non-native Christianizer has always depended upon a listing of characteristics or elements
from the Quetzalcoatl material which appear to be anomalous in the native context and which appear to describe
Christian values. At the beginning of this paper I indicated that we must first test our hypothesis about the relation
of Quetzalcoatl and Christ on the immediate pre-conquest level. In this section, I will examine many of those specific
elements to discern their likely pre-conquest form. I will specifically examine whether the elements themselves
actually fit into the categories of anomalous or Christian.|
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