30 May 2025 / 10 House
Article suitable for older students
Find out moreWhy wear headdresses?
ORIGINAL QUESTION received from - and thanks to - Harrison Briers: My son is currently in Year 3 studying The Aztecs. We are carrying out a home-project. Harrison would like to know why the Aztecs wore headdresses - is this something you can help with? (Answered by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)
Headdresses were not worn by ‘your average Aztec’. They were generally only worn by members of the ruling class, warriors, priests and - by extension - gods and goddesses. Essentially, the Aztec ‘élite’ wanted to ‘dress to impress’, to show (off) their status to the rest of society, and to show their connections with the world of the sacred. How could so much come from a simple feather?
The Aztecs were one of the few great civilisations around the world that treasured and greatly valued feather headdresses: and most prized of all were the finest adornments crafted from the beautiful - and rare - turquoise-green and blue feathers of the Quetzal and Cotinga birds, from the distant lowland rainforests of Central America. Part of the answer too comes from the simple fact that a bird can do what no human can do - fly, and soar up towards the Sun God himself, Tonatiuh. No wonder one of the greatest Aztec gods of all was the Creator God Quetzalcóatl, ‘The Feathered Serpent’, with the power to move freely through sky, earth and underworld...
A good summary of the meaning of all this comes from the classic book Daily LIfe of the Aztecs by Jacques Soustelle, where he writes that the peoples of ancient Mesoamerica have ‘since the remotest antiquity’:-
...literally worshipped feathers - the long, splendid green plumes of the quetzal, the red and yellow of the parrots. They formed one of the most important articles to be delivered up to the tax-collectors under the Aztec empire. The huge feather-ornaments, together with the jewels of gold and turquoise, raised the warrior, the dignitary and the emperor high above ordinary humanity. On the one side, in its simplicity Mexican costume touched the classical antiquity of the white-robed Mediterraneans; on the other, the Redskin world of the American native, but with a delicacy unknown to the rude inhabitants of the prairie.
We have a precise idea, from bas-reliefs and manuscripts, of the magnificent ornaments that could make a man something greater than a man, almost a divine being, hieratic [linked to the world of gods] and filled with splendour. When, to the hollow scream of conches, the beat of gongs and the harsh cry of trumpets, there suddenly appeared to the people crowded on the central square the emperor, rigid beneath the gold and turquoise diadem, amidst the briliance of green plumes, while the armour, the emblems and the banners of the great men formed a mosaic of a thousand colours around him, who would not have thought that here was the chosen of Tezcatlipoca, ‘the ruler of the world’, ‘the father and mother of the people’? In that society, with its very marked graduations, ornaments and jewels, gold and feathers, were the symbols of power and of the ability to govern.
Picture sources:-
• Models by George Stuart courtesy of Leroy Becker, Gallery of Historical Figures
• Recreation of Moctezuma II courtesy of Michael Heralda
• Stone figure of Quetzalcóatl by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore
• Illustration of Quetzalcóatl as the Wind God by Miguel Covarrubias, scanned from ‘The Aztecs: People of the Sun’ (Norman, USA, 1958)
Comments (6)
Joanna parra
27th Apr 2023
Hello, i was woundering if anyone from indigiounes decent can wear a headress. I recently got one and I an very connected to my south indigiounes roots but am not a danzante.
Mexicolore
Sorry for the delay responding to this. We passed your question on to an expert but haven’t yet had a reply. In the meantime, our own personal and humble opinion would be to go ahead - if you feel connected, that’s what it’s all about! Good wishes.
Peng
13th Sep 2021
Hello, I wonder if some Nahua people still wear feather headdresses today? I tried to search photos of modern Nahua people. It seems that some of them are wearing turquoise jewelleries (at least for me it looks turquoise) in their everyday life, but I only see them wearing headdresses when they are performing (on stage or during a festival celebration). Is that true? If so, is it simply because headdresses are harder to make than the jewelleries? Or maybe the headdresses are “more noble and sacred” than the jewelleries so it is still unavailable for an average Nahua person today? Or is it because of some other reasons? If it is not true, what do the modern headdresses look like?
Mexicolore
You’re right, the Nahua of today don’t use feathered headdresses (nor any other kinds of headdresses), except when ‘recreating’ traditional dance costumes (as dancers such as the Concheros in the zócalo of Mexico City). We imagine this is because head-dresses were not worn every-day in pre-invasion times, but were reserved for ceremonial occasions, in battle, and/or to show off rank...
sarah
12th Mar 2019
hello, i was wondering what the colours of certain feathers meant to the Aztecs and what coloured beads and shells represented in the Atecs jewelry
Mexicolore
There’s great information on this in Esther Pasztory’s classic book Aztec Art. She writes: ‘The most common [feather] colours were red and yellow, the most precious were blue and green. Green quetzal feathers were among the rarest and most sought after, and the Nahuatl word quetzal could also mean “precious”... Next to the quetzal, most prized were feathers of the hummingbird; generally greenish in colour, hummingbird feathers become iridescent when lighted from certain angles... To enrich an especially elaborate object the feathers were ornamented with gold... The costumes [of nobles] often came in five colours associated with the four cardinal directions and the fifth, the centre...’
izzy rolt
23rd Jan 2011
you were ace the best aztecians i’ve ever seen
Sebastian Francis
21st Jan 2011
Hi, thanks for the great day we had with you at St. John’s school!
Johanne Briers
2nd Feb 2009
We're having so much fun with this project. Thank you so much for your help. Harrison is creating his own Aztec Museum pieces, one of which is an Aztec Headdress, and that's why we wanted some background on why the Aztecs wore Headdresses - thank you so much for your very quick and prompt reply! Johanne (Harrison's Mummy)
Mexicolore
That's what we're here for! Glad it's going well...
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