Question for June 2021

The Aztecs were like people all over the world in wanting to signal their personal and social identities and interests by means of artificially marking their skin, their teeth, their hair, and/or choosing the clothing items they wore. In our culture many women do this with makeup, such as lipstick and eye liner; by styling their hair a particular way; or by choosing to wear slacks and jeans rather than a dress or skirt. Men, in turn, may decide to grow a moustache or beard, or let their hair grow long, or have their head completely shaved. Both men and women today are increasingly choosing to have parts of their body permanently marked with tattoos as well, and many, if not most, are now artificially whitening their teeth. Some go to tanning booths to acquire a tan, others use tanning creams, and still others sit out in the sun for prolonged periods of time to achieve the same result. The clothes we buy and wear today are also chosen to express our personality, our taste (such as our favorite colors), our social status and affiliations (such as sports participation or club memberships), our interests (such as hiking or ice skating), and/or our values (for example, some men refuse to wear necktie or a tuxedo because they regard them as too “stuffy”).

Pic 1: Detail from mural depicting an Aztec market scene, National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City; note both face paint and leg tattoo (enlarged)

The Aztecs did, however, make more use of paint than we do to change the color of their skin. This was so in part because, for them, the color and composition of the paint were themselves significant; certain colors and materials were believed to imbue the paint with their own special powers. For example, in order to protect themselves against dangerous, invisible forces, Aztec priests painted their entire body with a black substance made of ground up poisonous creatures and insects, such as scorpions. They did this because it was hoped the noxious creatures in the paint would ward off any spiritual forces who might attack them.

Pic 3: Fire priests painted black while they perform self-sacrifice of the tongue. Codex Vaticanus A, folio 55r (detail)

Yellow, for example, was associated with fire and the sun, whereas green (actually, blue-green) symbolized preciousness, water, and blooming plants. The faces of men chosen to impersonate the 400 evil brothers of the Aztec patron god Huitzilopochtli were painted with blue and yellow horizontal stripes, a type of face painting that Huitzilopochtli, after conquering them, is said to have taken for himself. The result is that one way we can recognize Huitzilopochtli in painted manuscripts today is by his face painting. Huitzilopochtli’s face painting was therefore not about fashion. Instead, it symbolized his defeat of his evil brothers, thereby sending a clear message to the Aztecs’ current and future enemies that they would be ill advised to try any monkey business.

Pic 5: Huitzilopochtli, Codex Borbonicus pl. 34 (detail); note the characteristic blue and yellow horizontal bands on his face