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Dress and identity in the Nahua world

30th Jul 2021

Mexicolore contributor on the Aztecs Justyna Olko

We are most grateful to Dr. Justyna Olko, Director of the Centre for Research and Practice in Cultural Continuity, Faculty of “Artes Liberales”, University of Warsaw, Poland, for writing for us this enlightening article on traditional costume and its role not just in strengthening individual but also collective Nahua spiritual force and identity.

The speakers of Nahuatl have a long historical trajectory in Mexico, dating back to at least the first millennium A.D., when they lived under the influential empire of Teotihuacan and, after its demise, in the Toltec state. In the last centuries before European contact, the Nahuas lived in numerous Mesoamerican ethnic states, many of them subdued by the Aztec empire in the fifteenth and early sixteenth century. After the Spaniards and their local allies managed to take the imperial capital in August 1521 following many months of siege, the imperial infrastructure collapsed and disintegrated rapidly. However, the local organization of Nahua altepetl proved much more resistant to conquest and colonization. Differing in size, rank, and composition, these Native states were equaled with Spanish head towns, surviving as political-territorial units in the colonial period. Local Indigenous communities learned how to use the existing colonial regulations for their own benefits, in particular, drawing on the privileges that resulted from adscription to the Indigenous group (indios).

Profound changes were initiated during the first century of Mexican independence, when the category of indios was abolished, along with its rights, privileges and some important administrative and organizational principles at the community level. These changes, and especially the abolition of communal land, affected the role of Indigenous towns, which had previously operated as dynamic and active corporate organizations with essential economic, political, religious, and educational functions. From the onset of the Mexican republic, in the project of nation building no place was envisioned for Native communities. Their idealized remote ancestors formed a mythical ‘Indigenous nation’ of the past, but a huge distance was created between a glorious ‘historical Indian’ and the real, modern, Indigenous people, who were assigned the lowest status within Mexican society. Despite this assimilating policy, local forms of identity and local rules of organization have survived in Nahua towns until the present day. Today the descendants of the Nahuas survive in numerous communities in different Mexican states. Many of them still preserve their heritage language, though more often in less urbanized and rural settings. The official numbers given by the Mexican National Institute of Statistics and Geography reported around 1.5 million Native speakers of Nahuatl in 2005.

Local forms of organization are important for understanding Nahua concepts of identity and how they are manifest in Native costume. The localized sense of ethnic identity was grounded in common mythical-historical origin stories specific to each group. Although a widely accepted scholarly practice is to use the generalized term ‘Nahuas’ for the speakers of Nahuatl (and ‘Aztecs’ with regard to their pre-Hispanic culture), this labeling does not adequately reflect Indigenous categories. In fact, Native communities and groups used ethnonyms that emphasized their localized sense of identity, including both wider or regional (Ahcolhuahqueh or Tepanecah) and more specific altepetl-level names (Tenochcah, Tlatelolcah, or Quauhtinchantlacah). This practice has continued, to a certain degree, up to the present day. The speakers of Nahuatl identify themselves through their communities rather than through the more general term of the ‘Nahuas’ that is commonly used only by researchers.

Dress as marker of ethnicity
Specific ethnic groups in Mesoamerica are known to have used different costume repertoires, even though they shared some basic categories of dress. Particular apparel styles were widely recognized as signaling specific ethnic groups. However, some of the ‘ethnic’ insignia seem in fact to have been part of pan-regional repertoires, such as the cuexyo or Huastec design associated with the area of the Gulf Coast in the present state of Veracruz. There was evidence of cuexyo motifs in different regions of Mesoamerica long before Aztec times. The cuextecatl battle outfit, with a typical ‘hawk scratches’ design and a conical cap, was widely used in the Valley of Mexico and beyond at the time of contact (pic 4).

The display of foreign costume styles and status objects had a special function in imperial Tenochtitlan, highlighting their dominance over different regions of Mesoamerica and their inhabitants. Many of these items were acquired through tributary networks to be worn by the Mexica nobility and distributed as royal gifts. For example, the ocuiltecayo tilmahtli, or “the cape in the Ocuillan style,” decorated with stripes of red alternating with black and white curlicues, was provided by the provinces of Ocuillan, Tollocan, and Xocotitlan (pic 5).

Some war insignia, or tlahuiztli, were recognized as attributes of specific ethnic groups and carried political messages. While perhaps the best-known of these are the eagle and jaguar suits of the Mexica in Tenochtitlan (pic 6), an interesting case is that of the Tlaxcallans, who successfully resisted Mexica imperial expansion. Their ‘ethnic badges’, different from those commonly identified and promoted by the Aztec empire, emphasized their distinctiveness and independence.

Tlaxcallans identified themselves with a twisted headband combined with a forked aztaxelli heron device and the heron bird tlahuiztli on the back (pic 7). After the Spanish conquest this insignia became an emblem of the Tlaxcallan altepetl merging with emblematic devices or coats of arms of European origin (pic 8). This is featured in the famous Lienzo de Tlaxcala depicting the history of the conquest from the Tlaxcallan perspective. Preconquest insignia acquired new roles and meanings in colonial contexts and became powerful political statements employed to defend Indigenous rights.

Dress and sense of identity
Accoutrements in the Nahua world, and in other Mesoamerican cultures, not only created an external appearance of individuals, but were also conceived of as repositories of spiritual essence and vehicles for transformation. This key meaning was conveyed by a word –tonal, which was applied to costume items and commodities belonging to rulers and nobles. -Tonal is an inalienably possessed form of the word tonalli that denotes a spiritual essence or energy associated with solar heat that is present in the cosmos and belongs to deities, sacred places and also some objects. It is also a fundamental spiritual force residing in humans, received at the moment of birth and during a name-giving ceremony.

-Tonal is, in fact, one of few key preconquest concepts that survives in modern Nahua communities. While it is believed to naturally increase over the course of one’s lifetime, it can also be augmented through special rituals, such as fasting that contribute to the growth of internal ‘heat’ and thus brings one closer to the gods (pic 9). A weakening or loss of -tonal is still believed to be a life-threatening situation and a cause of disease. Therefore, an important focus of healing rituals was to restore and strengthen this spiritual component in a person and this fundamental ritual practice survives to the present day. The term -tonal also relates to an individual ‘destiny’, becoming an essential part of a person’s identity. Hence, -tonal, designating physical objects belonging to rulers and nobles, reflected their role as repositories of spiritual essence that formed part of their owners’ identity and fate.

Dress and ethnic stereotypes
Early colonial sources reveal that the Nahuas associated certain types of garments, including their quality and way of being worn, as the mark of a civilized or uncivilized status. We can learn about these ideas from the Florentine Codex, compiled by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún in the Nahuatl language. The way of describing specific groups usually embraces several key aspects: their way of living, language, way of dressing and diet. The most prestigious status items, in particular those decorated with turquoise stones or a turquoise mosaic pattern, were believed to derive from the prestigious ancestors of the Mexihcah and other Nahua people, or the Toltecs, who created a strong regional state in Tollan/Tula (Hidalgo) in the end of the Classic period, several centuries before the rise of Tenochtitlan (Sahagún 1950-82, Bk.10, 165-170).

Not all the groups were viewed in equally favorable way. For example, the Tolohqueh are described as speakers of a barbarous or foreign tongue (popoloca). And their clothes were of maguey fiber. From this observation, the description goes on immediately to accuse them of “bewitching people, blowing of evil upon people” (in texoxaliztli, in tehipitzaliztli) (Sahagún 1950-82, Bk. 10, 182-183; pic 11). In a similar way, the Tlalhuicah, inhabitants of tropical lands, despite knowing the Nahuatl language were considered “uneducated” and “cowardly” (amo mozcaliaia, vel mauhque catca) and “appear ostentatious as they tied their capes and how they went carrying their flowers” (çan mototopalquetza inic motlalpilia, inxoxuch iuh ietinemi) (Sahagún 1950-82, Bk. 10, 186; pic 12).

In these ethnic accounts the notion of beauty or elegance is closely linked to a good quality and design of clothes as well as the appropriate way of wearing them, as judged from the Nahua or Mexica point of view. But these ethnographic descriptions also reveal the widespread association of dress and way of speaking with a localized sense of identity and place-based ways of identification. Ethnic difference did not always involve depreciation.

For example, the Totonacs, living in the area of the Gulf Coast, are seen as having a humane and civilized way of life: “These people have a very civilized life. The men dress themselves; they put on capes and loincloths, they wear sandals, armbands, necklaces, quetzal feather devices; they bear fans, they wear anklets. They cut their hair, arrange their hairdress well, watch themselves in mirrors. The women wear skirts, shifts - embroidered skirts, embroidered shifts, [they are] very exquisite” (Sahagún 1950-82, Bk. 10, 184) (pic 13).

It was the lack of basic categories of garments in the apparel repertoire or their low quality that signaled the ‘incivility’ of wearers. For example, the absence of certain established types of dress, such as loincloths or shifts, is described as a ‘defect’ of certain ethnic groups. This is particularly true of the inhabitants of Michoacan who, instead of wearing loincloths, covered themselves with shifts called cuicuilli (Sahagún 1950-82, Bk. 10, 189). The Michhuahqueh, whose costume repertoire was indeed quite distinct from that of the Nahuas, were even believed, in folk tale at least, to have lost this most basic garment as a result of their excessive haste and negligence during their journey before they settled in Michoacan (pic 14). Thus, they reportedly used their loincloths to tie wooden timbers into rafts to cross water. In order to cover their nudity, they took the shifts from their women, leaving them only their skirts.

A similar cultural deficiency was attributed to the Cuextecah (or Huastecs) whose mythical ruler became so drunk that he threw off his loincloth in front of his people, showing no respect for divinity. Moved by shame, the members of this group - all of who spoke the same language - departed to what became their land. But as they imitated their founding farther, the Huastecs remained addicted to wine and their men “always went about naked. They never put on loincloths until the true faith, the Christianity arrived” (Sahagún 1950-82, Bk. 10, 194).

Dress and ethnic survival
Although the Nahuas and other Indigenous people of Mesoamerica have survived until the present day, today local languages perish alongside the ethnic dress. A reason for this was the widespread discrimination of Indigenous people based on the visual markers of their identity: how they speak and what they wear. Places in which ethnic discrimination frequently occurs include regional towns, where members of traditional communities travel to sell their products or search for work, and schools outside of the community, which Indigenous children either commute to or board at. Thus, dress and identity continue to be deeply related, as in preconquest times when costume items and insignia were someone’s –tonal that defined both their name and destiny.

In many regions dress codes no longer express the identity of different communities and groups and community members experience a sense of loss. Traditional Indigenous dress has mainly survived in festivities, performances and craft production (pic 16). For example Zohuameh Citlalimeh, a female group from San Francisco Tetlanohcan in Tlaxcala, is a group of local women who started to dress in the traditional way and sing in Nahuatl in church and also perform traditional dances (pic 17). In the beginning this provoked many negative reactions in the community, which cut off its Indigenous roots on the road to ‘modernization’. But the female organization grew and they also started to dance and gain appreciation outside the community, including the United States. This was possible because San Francisco Tetlanohcan is probably the most depopulated Nahua community in Tlaxcala due to massive migration abroad.

In a great many cases, members of the younger generations live in the United States, mainly in Connecticut, and rarely, if ever, return to Tlaxcala. Wearing traditional dress, singing Nahuatl songs and performing has become an opportunity to socialize and gain recognition; it is also an opportunity to travel and visit children as a professional group, which has happened several times so far. By dressing in the traditional local ways, speaking the language and performing, much like their ancestors the Zohuameh Citlalimeh become recognized as keepers of local traditions. Their personal and group identity is also their spiritual force, their –tonal, that is fundamental for individual and collective wellbeing. Their Indigenous costume and language helps to build resilience and strengthen their place-based identity.

This text is based on my paper “Performing place-based identity: dress, language and acculturation strategies in the Nahua world”, in: Personal Adornment and the Construction of Identity. A Global Archaeological Perspectve, ed. Hannah V. Matson, Oxbow Books, Oxford & Philadelphia 2021, p. 57-77.
For further reading see also: Justyna Olko, Insignia of Rank in the Nahua World: From the Fifteenth to the Seventeenth Century, University Press of Colorado, Boulder 2014.

Key source:-
• Sahagún, Fray B. de (1950–1982) Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain. Translated by A. J. O. Anderson and Charles Dibble, 12 vols. Santa Fe, School of American Research and University of Utah.

Picture sources:-
• Pix 1, 2, 4r, 5 lower, 7, 8, 16 & 17: images kindly supplied by Justyna Olko
• Pic 3: photo © and courtesy of Alan and Pamela Sandstrom
• Pix 4l & 5 upper: images from the Codex Mendoza (original in the Bodleian Library, Oxford) scanned from our own copy of the 1938 James Cooper Clark facsimile edition, London, Waterlow & Sons
• Pix 6, 10, 11, 12, 13 & 15: images from the Florentine Codex (original in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence) scanned from our own copy of the Club Internacional del Libro 3-volume facsimile edition, Madrid, 1994
• Pic 9: image from the Codex Tudela (original in the Museo de América, Madrid), scanned from our copy of the Testimonio Compañía Editorial facsimile edition, Madrid, 2002
• Pic 14: Image from the Relación de las ceremonias y ritos y población y gobernación de los indios de la provincia de Mechuacan (Edited by Moises Franco Mendoza) scanned from our own copy of the El Colegio de Michoacan facsimile edition, Mexico, n.d.