Aztec Concepts of the Human Body (1)

Aztecs’ understandings of their bodies - and their destinies in life - began with pregnancy and birth. Even before a child was born, her or his mother followed a midwife’s advice. For example, Aztec midwives cautioned pregnant women against chewing chicle (a gum-like substance) because it could adversely affect the baby’s ability to suckle (Florentine Codex, Chapter 6:156). Additionally, midwives suggested that pregnant women not fast during religious observances because, “it would cause the baby to starve” (FC 6:156). Midwives and mothers understood that “what the mother drank, what she ate, that also the baby absorbed; it took [substance] from her” (FC 6:156). Midwives and mothers believed that by following these cultural traditions and others, they could ensure a successful birth and a healthy baby.

Midwife and patient, Florentine Codex, Chapter VI

Immediately the midwife (or in the case of noblewomen, midwives) performed an important ritual related to the baby’s destiny: she cut the umbilical cord, a powerful reminder of the child’s physical connection to its mother and source of life. If the baby was a girl, she buried the umbilical cord near the home’s hearth, and if it was a boy, it was placed in a battlefield. The midwife held the baby, and according to its sex, she narrated its future. Male infants heard about futures of warfare and religious obligations: “Thou belongest out there; out there where thou has been consecrated. Thou hast been sent into warfare. War is thy desert, thy task. Thou shalt give drink, nourishment, food to (Tonatiuh) the sun, (Tlaltecuhtli) the lord of the earth” (FC 6:171). Midwives told female infants about futures spent in domestic pursuits: “Thou wilt become the heart of the home . . . And thou wilt become fatigued, thou wilt become tired; thou art to provide water, to grind maize, to drudge; thou art to sweat by the ashes, by the hearth” (FC 6:172). From an Aztec’s birthday, he or she was intimately connected to his or her future.

Birth of a boy, Florentine Codex, Chapter VI; notice the miniature shield and arrows set, bottom left

A sequence of deities accompanies the child through these events and oversees each activity. One example follows a path associated with the day-signs Crocodile ('cipactli'), Wind ('ehecatl'), House ('calli') and Lizard ('cuetzpalin'):-

For anyone born on one of the first four day signs (Crocodile, Wind, House, Lizard), the maize/flower/solar lords Centeotl or Xochipilli would control the birth, Xochiquetzal or Centeotl would present the child, Macuilxochitl or Xochipilli would manipulate the umbilical cord, and Mayahuel would suckle the child. A theme of vegetation and abundance thus governs the birth process for those fortunate to have these day signs. (Boone 141).

While these day-signs were favorable, others were less so. Day-signs Water ('atl'), Dog ('itzcuintli'), Monkey ('ozomatli') and Grass ('malinalli') involved deities associated with ritual sacrifice and death, and these day-signs would have fated a difficult birth and life (Boone 141).

Multi-layered links between animals, humans and calendar signs, Codex Borgia, folio 53

The 'teyolia' (from 'yollotl', heart) resided in the heart and was the seat of a person’s knowledge and vitality. In contrast to tonalli, teyolia separated from the body at the time of death and continued into the individual’s afterlife. The posthumous destiny of teyolia depended upon the type of death a person suffered. The third vital force, 'ihiyotl' (breath) controlled an individual’s emotions, desires and passions. Of the three forces, ihiyotl is the most mysterious. Perhaps its mystery stems from a lack of ethnohistoric descriptions of its significance and functions, but ihiyotl seems to have been visualized as “a luminous gas that had qualities of influencing other beings, in particular attracting them toward the person” (López Austin 234). These three vital forces and their connections with body organs characterize the ways in which Aztec understandings of the body interwove physiological and cosmological concepts.

Colour illustration by Phillip Mursell