Die Wandlungen des aztekischen Gottes Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl
Eine zentrale Arbeit religionswissenschaftlicher Forschung ist die Auswertung von Primärquellen. Texte müssen kritisch und mit Methode analysiert werden, um sie zu „verstehen“. Dass dies nicht in allen Forschungszweigen selbstverständlich ist, zeigt die Erforschung des aztekischen Gottes Quetzalcoat...
| Published in: | Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | German |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Diagonal-Verlag
2016
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| In: |
Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Aztecs
/ Religion
/ Quetzalcóatl
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| IxTheo Classification: | BR Ancient religions of the Americas KBR Latin America |
| Further subjects: | B
Mythical thinking
American Messiah
Aztec World View
Quetzalcoatl
Critical Source-Analysis
B mythische Denkweise aztekisches Weltbild hermeneutische Textanalyse Quetzalcoatl |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | Eine zentrale Arbeit religionswissenschaftlicher Forschung ist die Auswertung von Primärquellen. Texte müssen kritisch und mit Methode analysiert werden, um sie zu „verstehen“. Dass dies nicht in allen Forschungszweigen selbstverständlich ist, zeigt die Erforschung des aztekischen Gottes Quetzalcoatl. Seine Deutungen sind zahlreich. Er sei entweder eine historische Person mit deutlich messianischen Zügen gewesen, mal Krieger, mal Priester, der zu unterschiedlichsten Zeiten gelebt habe und schließlich als Gott verehrt worden sei; oder es handele sich um mehrere verschiedene Gottheiten (Schöpfer-, Wind-, Morgensterngott), die irgendwann miteinander verschmolzen; oder es sei ein einziger Gott in vielen Manifestationen; schließlich gibt es noch die Auffassung, dass der Gott präkolumbischen Ursprungs sei und der Mensch eine Neuerfindung der Kolonialzeit. All diese Deutungen wurden aus der Analyse derselben Quellen gewonnen. Das Bild lässt sich entwirren, wenn man die Quellen mit einer hermeneutischen Methode analysiert, deren Fundament historische Quellenkritik ist. Sie deckt Zusammenhänge auf, die bisher unbeachtet blieben und lässt die mythische Denkweise sichtbar werden. Research on Aztec religion is the field of Mesoamericanists. Ethnohistoric texts are one of their main sources. The current state of research on the aztec god Quetzalcoatl reveals that historical source criticism is rarely utilized in the field. Most ethnohistorians regard Quetzalcoatl as a historic man who became a god and bore Messianic traits. Others interpret Quetzalcoatl as a product of a long process of conceptual syncretism with independent origins of its known manifestations, or as one god with many faces. Some scholars regard the man Quetzalcoatl as an invention of colonial times. These quite different points of view concerning Quetzalcoatl all derive from interpreting the same sources. This article wants to propose a hermeneutical method of textual interpretation: 1. The function of Quetzalcoatl within the texts has to be identified. He always legitimated hegemonial rulership. 2. The texts have to be compared with and related to ethnographic material. In this way it may be possible to determine the origins of the repeating themes. 3. Ethnographic texts about calendar-system and the creation-myths of sun and moon, which are undoubtedly pre-Hispanic, reveal the common associations in the Aztec world view. Ideas of the texts in concern that fit into this world view are also most probably pre-Hispanic, ideas which do not fit but closely resemble episodes in the Christian bible are most likely influenced by the colonizers’ world view. This procedure enables us to separate the authentic Quetzalcoatl from Spanish-Christian influence. It was the wind god Quetzalcoatl, son of the war-gods, who became a great warrior by earning the first animal-spirit through self-sacrifice. Such an animal-spirit gave magical power and luck in war. Quetzalcoatl avenged his father by sacrificing his murders, the 400 “cloud-serpents”, to the sun. He became the first divine king of Tollan and combined the blessings of the realms of the sun god and the rain god to create the ideal human society. At the end of his earthly days he transformed himself into the morning star. The sun was the cause of war and its fire the medium of transformation, the moon was the symbol of the instruments of sacrifice and rebirth, the morning star symbolized the act of transformation – the first rebirth of the warrior’s soul. The creation-myths of sun, moon and morning star described the establishment of the institution of war and explained war as the motor of the cosmic cycle. 4. At last the contemporary history of the Spanish and German millenarianism and the Roman-German Emperor’s ideology of power has to be regarded. It explains how the myth of the human priest-king came into existence after the conquest. This new myth was inspired by Hernán Cortés’ invention of the double return of the Christian leader, who was said to have brought the Aztecs from Spain to Mexico. Making Emperor Charles V out to be the expected Messiah of the New World Cortés wanted to justify his rebellion and to interpret his high-handed conquest as a pacification and re-Christianization. Both, conqueror and emperor, needed such an explanation, and so it became the official version of the conquest. It was supported by the millenarian Franciscans who believed that with the conversion of the “New World” the coming of the Messianic empire was at hand. These Franciscans were the first teachers of the Aztec elite who learned quickly that their own legitimation of power could not contradict any longer the new paradigm of Christianity. So they created their own Messiah who became the founder of their empire which was now an equivalent of the Roman-German Empire. This new strategy was successful: The members of the Tenochca dynasty were appointed four times in succession as Gobernadores. The hermeneutical textual interpretation shows that we are not dealing with historical sources but with myth-production. The characteristics of the texts resemble the features of mythical thinking described by Cassirer and Lévy-Strauss. |
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| ISSN: | 2194-508X |
| Contains: | In: Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1515/zfr-2016-0002 |