Article suitable for older students

Keep your hair on!

16th Nov 2024

Long-haired Aztecs dancing, Ixcozauhqui festival, Florentine Codex Book 2

It’s hard to overstate the importance of hair to the Mexica-Aztecs. As a (key) part of one’s appearance, it was subject to strict rules and regulations. However the hair was much more than just a physical attribute, it carried profound spiritual meaning and symbolism, linked to Aztec mythology. Hair held an individual’s life force itself. The simple fact that the family would cut and keep the first hair to appear on a person’s head, to be placed with the last hair taken from the head after death in the vessel holding his/her ashes, speaks volumes. It was a ‘receptacle of power’, to be be kept in memory of the deceased... (Compiled by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)

It’s a commonly known fact that Mexica warriors, if successful on the battlefield, would grasp their captives by the tuft of hair on their head as a symbol of surrender (follow the first link below to see and learn more...) In fact, they went further, cutting off the tuft and retaining it as a war trophy, similar in meaning to the pan-American native custom of ‘scalping’ an enemy. ‘By keeping the hair, the Mexica warrior and his nation retained the defeated man’s tonalli [life force] as reputation, name and life-giving power’ (Furst, 1995: 126). This, of course, entitled the captor to rise up the ranks and to sport an elite warrior hairstyle, at the same time as doubling his own tonalli.
For the Nahua people hair was thought to be a recipient of (spiritual) power: ‘it formed a protective covering over the head, preventing the tonalli’s departure... in damaging it, the person whose hair had been cut or removed was harmed’ (López Austin 1988 (I): 221).

Not surprisingly, a severe punishment for a delinquent was to cut off their hair, ‘thus exposing them to a loss of tonalli’ (ibid). This was a fate learnt early in Mexica life - school children who misbehaved could expect the same sanction. It was a powerful visual way to call out antisocial behaviour. Except for pre-schoolers whose hair was cut extremely short, the Aztecs never completely cut off an individual’s hair. At age ten, a tuft of hair was allowed at the nape of the neck. Most commoner men were restricted to short hair, reinforcing the idea that longer hair and special hairstyles were reserved for distinguished citizens, reflecting their profession and status (Aguilar-Moreno 2006: 368). ‘People who needed great tonalli strength because of their arduous tasks could not cut off or wash their hair’ - in particular, priests and merchants (López Austin ibid). As Cecelia Klein explains (follow the second link below), there was a connection between the tangled hair of Mexica priests and the mass of entangled fibres and other natural strands (think tree roots...) in the underworld. This is depicted symbolically in the wild, tangled hair of the earth deity Tlaltecuhtli (pic 2).

Indeed, there was and is a common - and literal - thread between hair and elements of the earth, in particular those that are or appear spun or woven. Cotton and maize are prime examples. Depictions of the goddess Tlazolteotl, patroness of weaving, spinning and earthly fertility, show strands of cotton on the ends of spindles in her headband that resemble corn silk, the tuft or tassel of silky fibres that protrude from the tip of an ear of maize (pic 3). This relates directly to the Aztec myth, recounted in the 16th century manuscript known as Histoire du Méchique, re-told by Thelma Sullivan: on the birth of maize deity Cinteotl, ‘he buried himself in the earth and from his hair - the corn silk - cotton grew. Hair is associated with thread and... has magical properties connected with the life force and... fertility’ (1982: 29).
The original document (in Spanish) goes on to add that from finger nails (another area of the body believed to store tonalli) a type of ‘long maize’ was born ‘que es el cereal que comen ahora’ (‘which is the cereal the people eat today’ (Garibay 1965: 110). Both hair and fingernails are known to be key ‘indices to health’, even today, and clearly the Mexica believed that caring for one’s hair was tantamount to nurturing a healthy spirit (Furst 1995: 127).

It isn’t difficult to see every-day, almost ritual, connections between hair and (cotton) thread: both are ‘combed’ to ensure the fibres end up lying neatly in the same direction. Equally, it’s easy to grasp how a full head of hair can evoke the fertility embodied in fully mature maize.
In the July festival to Xilonen, Mexica goddess of new maize, when the first fruits of the summer season were celebrated, ‘the women wore their hair unbound, shaking and tossing it in the dances which were the chief feature in the ceremony, in order that the tassels of the maize might grow in like profusion...’ (Cordry & Cordry 1968: 42).
Finally, it’s worth pointing out that the Nahuatl word for ‘hair’ -tzontli - has additional connotations. In particular, it could also mean the number ‘four hundred’ - a key element in their (20-based) counting system, since it could also symbolise ‘a large quantity’. In the case of tzontli, usually depicted, for obvious reasons, as a fulsome feather (pic 5), it represented ‘a number as bountiful as the hairs on the head’ (Aguilar-Moreno 2006: 314).

Sources/references:-
• Aguilar-Moreno (2006) Handbook to Life in the Aztec World, Facts on File, New York
• Cordry, Donald & Cordry, Dorothy (1968) Mexican Indian Costumes, University of Texas Press
• Furst, Jill Leslie McKeever (1995) The Natural History of the Soul in Ancient Mexico, Yale University Press
• Garibay K., Angel Ma. (1965) Teogonía e Historia de los Mexicanos, Ed. Porrúa, Mexico City
• López Austin, Alfredo (1988) The Human Body and Ideology: Concepts of the Ancient Nahuas, vol. 1, University of Utah Press
• Sullivan, (1982) ‘Tlazolteotl-Ixcuina: The Great Spinner and Weaver’, in The Art and Iconography of Late Post-Classic Central Mexico. A Conference at Dumbarton Oaks (1977), Eds. Elizabeth Benson and Elizabeth Hill Boone, Trustees for Harvard University.

Picture sources:-
• Main: image - celebrants in the Ixcozauhqui festival from Book 2 of the Florentine Codex - scanned from our own copy of the Club Internacional del Libro 3-volume facsimile edition, Madrid, 1994
• Pic 1: based on an original image scanned from the ADEVA facsimile edition of the Codex Laud, Graz, Austria, 1966
• Pic 2: photo by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore
• Pic 3: main image scanned from Codex Telleriano-Remensis by Eloise Quiñones Keber, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1995; inset photo downloaded from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_silk
• Pic 4: private collection
• Pic 5: illustration by Felipe Dávalos, commissioned by Mexicolore.

‘A typical battle’Why did Mexica priests have matted hair?

Comments (1)

Katia H

25th Nov 2024

Fascinating article! This reminds me of spiritual beliefs regarding hair among North American indigenous people. This common theme of hair containing life force is the reason why many indigenous North Americans valued long hair on people of all genders. Interestingly, I notice indigenous Andeans and other South Americans favour short traditional hairstyles. Perhaps they have differnet spiritual believes around hair?

Long-haired Aztecs dancing, Ixcozauhqui festival, Florentine Codex Book 2