Sweeping the Way: Divine Transformation in the Aztec Festival of Ochpaniztli (review)
In studying the Mexica festival of Ochpanizdi, DiCesare has explored the process whereby pre-Columbian religious practices were transmitted by native informants to Spanish interpreters, and how the descriptions that resulted were mediated by that process. The festival is one of 18 such festivals spread over the 21 montlis that comprised the Mexica solar calendar, called the xiuhpoalli. The central deity of the celebrations was Toci, also known as Teteoinnan or Tlazolteotl, a goddess of fertility and human sexuality. This festival is included in many sixteenth-century descriptions of tlie Mexica ritual year, in both pictorial manuscripts and historical narratives. Many scholars have noted that the descriptions of the festival found in the narratives differ from what can be gleaned from the pictorials. Moreover, many of the pictorial representations differ markedly one from the other. DiCesare uses this disconnect as the point of departure for her study.