The Origins of Mexican Catholicism: Nahua Rituals and Christian Sacraments in Sixteenth-Century Mexico (review)
In Chapter 6 he looks closely at the celebrations to Tezcatlipoca in the Nahua month of Toxcatl, dedicated to Tezcatlipoca and filled with ceremonies to revere him. Music, and especially the flute, was an important component in his celebration as was the slow ascent of the pyramid, and Olivier focuses on the ixiptla or ritual impersonator of Tezcatlipoca in order to gain greater insights into the deity’s character. Depictions of Tezcatlipoca frequently show him with a torn or amputated left foot and in Chapter 7 Olivier demonstrates that this feature is by no means universal. The lost extremity seems to be related to the production of fire. On the other hand, the smoking mirror was one of the nearly universal features of Tezcatlipoca. The mirror was a tool of sorcerers and diviners and through it Tezcatlipoca could reveal people’s transgressions. In the end Olivier concludes that Tezcatlipoca, as a result of these two key features, represented sexuality. In his conclusions, Olivier compares and contrasts what he has elucidated about Tezcatlipoca with what is known about Quetzalcoatl, and sees in these two deities the poles of Mesoamerican religion, or as he calls them “the alpha and omega of ancient Mexican mythology” (p. 277).