Skip to navigation – Site map

HomeNuméros119Atamalcualiztli ou à la recherche...

Atamalcualiztli ou à la recherche du tamoanchan perdu essai d’interprétation d’une fête religieuse des anciens mexicains

Patrick Saurin

Abstracts

The Aztecs used to celebrate an amazing festival every eight years, called Atamalcualiztli. Based on testimonies in the nahuatl language and on pictographic manuscripts found during the sixteenth century, this study reveals that the fasting ritual during this celebration was, first a means to let the food rest, and also a way to commemorate an irremediable fault committed by the Gods in the Tamoanchan, some kind of primitive heaven. In addition, if you bring together a sacred hymn the Aztecs used to sing during this ceremony and the Popol Vuh, some undeniable similarities between the Aztec and the Maya world view appear. In both conceptions, the life cycle of maize was evoked thanks to a myth based on the same narrative scheme: a sexual fault committed next to a tree and a ballgame in the underworld.

Top of page

References

Electronic reference

Patrick Saurin, « Atamalcualiztli ou à la recherche du tamoanchan perdu essai d’interprétation d’une fête religieuse des anciens mexicains », Archives de sciences sociales des religions [Online], 119 | juillet - septembre 2002, Online since 05 September 2011, connection on 28 March 2024. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/assr/23222 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/assr.23222

Top of page

About the author

Patrick Saurin

Docteur en histoire

By this author

Top of page

Copyright

The text only may be used under licence © Archives de sciences sociales des religions. All other elements (illustrations, imported files) are “All rights reserved”, unless otherwise stated.

Top of page
  • Logo Éditions de l’EHESS
  • Logo CNRS - Institut des sciences humaines et sociales
  • OpenEdition Journals
Search OpenEdition Search

You will be redirected to OpenEdition Search