What Animal Did The Europeans Introduce To The Mesoamerica Civilizations
Dogs were an integral attribute of the lives of the people of Mesoamerica regardless of their location or culture and, throughout the region, were recognized as liminal beings belonging not only to the natural earth and that of humans only to this globe and the next.
Dogs were believed past the Aztec, Maya, and Tarascan to travel between worlds, assist the souls of the dead, warn of dangers to the living and, at the same time, were regarded every bit a nutrient source, companion, and guardian in daily life. The dogs of the indigenous people are frequently depicted without collars because it seems to have been idea that these would restrict the dog's movement between worlds.
Nonetheless, collars did exist – fashioned for humans to wear – and it is thought that these adult from dog collars. This model inverse with the arrival of Christopher Columbus (l. 1451-1506) in the West Indies in 1492. Columbus' dogs all wore collars and were much larger than the animals the natives were used to. The European dogs had as well been trained for war and and then were far more barbarous than any domestic dog a Taino, for instance, had ever known.
Aztec Dog Effigy
After Columbus, who sailed for Spain, more Spanish invaders arrived and made their mode north through South America to Mesoamerica, bringing Christianity with them. Christianity began to supervene upon indigenous behavior and, as the Catholic Church building claimed dogs had no souls, belief in the supernatural power of the dog declined. Although at that place were no doubt many indigenous peoples who still believed in the dog as a psychopomp, there is no widespread evidence of this conventionalities later the inflow of the Spanish as compared with pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. The descendants of the ancient people of the region have but begun restoring their ancient cultures in the past 100 years and and then, in time, the dog has slowly regained the status information technology once held.
Olmecs & Their Dogs
The Olmecs of Mesoamerica lived in the lowlands along the Gulf of Mexico c. 1400-400 BCE and bred dogs as food. The Olmecs are the oldest civilization in the western hemisphere, inventing the first written language of Mesoamerica besides as distinctive art and compages which would influence the later civilizations of the Aztecs, Maya, and Tarascan, among others. The sacred animal of the Olmecs was the jaguar which was thought to be spiritually related to the dog. The dog was therefore associated with the divine while, at the same time, serving as a food source. There seems to have been no contradiction in this equally dogs, servants and messengers of the gods, also served humanity by graciously offer themselves every bit food.
In the beliefs of the Yucatec Maya, dogs served to guide the souls of the dead through the dark underworld of Xibalba.
A tomb of the Zoque peoples, a Mesoamerican population idea to be descended from the Olmec, was discovered in 2010 in Chiapa de Corzo containing jade collars. These were ornamental collars for human wear just could accept developed from the dog neckband. The tomb dates to between 700-500 BCE and is the oldest pyramid tomb yet found in the region.
The ethnic people of modern-day Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and neighboring regions, congenital pyramids as temples, not as tombs, and this find is thought to reflect an earlier Olmec practice of keeping precious objects in temples – one that was observed by afterward cultures. The jade collars, though clearly for human use, could have linked an officiant with the spirit of a liminal dog who would bring messages from the gods.
Dogs in Maya Organized religion
The Olmecs gave way to other civilizations and were replaced primarily past the Maya who connected the practice of convenance dogs in pens and using them for food. Dogs besides featured prominently in Maya mythology, however, and were treated quite well in daily life. In the behavior of the Yucatec Maya, dogs served to guide the souls of the dead through the dark underworld of Xibalba toward paradise and, in the myths of the Quiche Maya, dogs serve the will of the gods in destroying the ungrateful and useless race of humans offset created before the present race.
Maya Vessel with Dog Painting
These earlier humans had been made of wood by the gods only forgot their duty to their creators and to their fellow creations. The gods delivered these ungrateful and cruel creatures up for punishment by the animals – and even the inanimate objects – they had abused. When they are handed over to the dogs, the animals say to the humans:
Why is it you lot can't seem to give united states our food? We simply watch and you just keep u.s.a. down and you throw us around. You keep a stick ready when you eat, just so y'all tin can hit united states of america. We don't talk, so we've received nothing from you. How could you not accept known? Yous did know that we were wasting away in that location behind you. Then this very day you will taste the teeth in our mouths. We shall eat you. (Tedlock, 72)
The dogs then fall upon the humans and destroy them. Dogs are the only creatures among the many elements of life on earth called by the gods to destroy these junior beings so that new life tin can exist created from maize (corn). Inanimate objects such equally tortilla griddles, cooking pots, hearth stones, and grinders, all of which have been abused and misused by the ungrateful and uncaring people, also join in attacking them. One time they are destroyed, the new people are then fabricated of corn, a staple of the Maya nutrition, and these creatures larn grace and gratitude and the proper attitude toward the gods. The Maya fed corn regularly to their dogs every bit the basic sustenance of life and, perhaps, to encourage their own obedience to the college powers which provided that corn.
The domestic dog features afterwards in the Popol Vuh, the religious book of the Quiche Maya, in the tale of how the hero twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque trick the nighttime lords of the underworld of Xibalba. The twins have been taken by the Xibalbans and, in trying to win their freedom, are repeatedly tested by the lords, who are notorious for tricking the souls of the dead and leading them astray. The twins accept passed each exam when they tell the lords that they have the power over life and expiry. To prove this, they cede a dog belonging to the lords and so bring information technology back to life.
Maya Urn with Jaguar Figure & Skulls
The Lords of Xibalba are so impressed they want to be sacrificed and returned to life also and and then they offer themselves to the twins. Hunahpu and Xbalanque kill each ane in turn but never had any intention of resurrecting them. Afterwards, they are free to leave the dark realm and return to the surface globe. The story elevates the dog from a simple food source, worker, and guardian to the supernatural level of psychopomp since it has seen decease, returned to life, and so can guide humans when their time comes to make the same journeying.
Dogs as Symbols of Transformation
The dog equally a guide to the afterlife is famously depicted in a painting from Temple I at Tikal in Guatemala. The painting shows the twin Paddler Gods - Old Stingray Paddler and Old Jaguar Paddler - conveying the Maize God to the underworld. In the gunkhole with them are an iguana, a spider monkey, a parrot, and a dog. The Paddler Gods helped build the Cosmic Hearth for the other deities at the offset of creation and symbolized the trip the light fantastic toe of opposites which kept the universe in balance. They are ofttimes seen in Maya artwork taking the Maize God abroad toward the land of the dead or bringing him dorsum to life on earth. In this tomb painting from Tikal, directly behind Old Jaguar Paddler in the front of the gunkhole, is the domestic dog interim as guide.
The Classic Maya Period runs from 250-950 CE during which time their civilization was at its superlative. Children's toys from this fourth dimension include dog figurines with collars. Dogs are likewise depicted in statuary with collars which announced to take been a band of leather or cloth of varying widths. Dogs were too used for hunting, protection, and companionship and, although they no dubiety wore collars, none of these have survived. Based upon images from pottery and wall paintings, the collars were brightly colored in ruddy, black, and turquoise and this was truthful for other civilizations of the region.
Xolotl, Codex Fejérváry-Mayer
Dogs of the Aztec & Tarascan
The Aztecs and the Tarascan civilization were traditional enemies but both kept dogs for the same reasons and regarded them in much the same manner. In Aztec conventionalities, dogs were associated with Xolotl, the god of lightning, sunset, and decease, who was imagined equally an enormous dog. Xolotl was thought to be the creator of the breed known today as the Xoloitzcuintli also known as the Mexican Hairless, the Xolo, and the Dog of Xolotl. Xolotl is regularly depicted wearing a thick collar, usually of red, and created the dog to protect the living and guide the souls of the dead through Mictlan, the Aztec underworld, similar to the Maya Xibalba as a place of darkness and danger.
Dogs were idea to be adept in locating the souls of those who had died but could non pass on without proper burying.
The Xolo was already ancient at the time of Columbus' arrival in the New World and dates dorsum at least three,500 years. They were primarily bred for food but sometimes, if a particular dog seemed to possess healing powers, information technology was spared and perhaps this was when it would receive a collar. The Aztec and Tarascan, similar the Maya, believed that dogs were servants of the gods and especially effective at guiding, comforting, and appeasing the souls of the dead.
Improper burial was as serious a thing in Mesoamerica as anywhere else in the ancient globe and the ghost of someone who had non received the proper rites was sure to render to haunt the living. Dogs were idea to be expert in locating the souls of those who had died only could not pass on without proper burial (people who drowned, for example, or were killed while hunting alone). These souls would wander the world until they were found by a spirit dog which would atomic number 82 them to the afterlife and permit them their rest.
Dogs in Aztec Art
Dog images were included in the graves of those buried with all proper rites and rituals, however, and were by no means only invoked for the souls of those lost or missing. The famous Colima canis familiaris ceramics (vessels in the shape of dogs or dog figurines, so-called because they have been found largely in the country of Colima, western United mexican states) take been discovered in over 75% of the burials of the Pre-archetype Period (c. 300 BCE-300 CE). These canis familiaris figures are often rounded, suggesting fatty and plentitude, and the spirits of these robust dogs would have nourished the soul of a deceased man as it traveled through Mictlan toward paradise.
Colima Domestic dog with Maize
Dog collars are not shown on the dogs in most Mesoamerican art, however, because these images normally describe the domestic dog-as-symbol. The famous Colima Dancing Dogs, for case, are probably symbolic representations of life and decease, of the balance of opposites in union, non a realistic depiction of dogs. The Colima Dog statuettes and other figurines which prove a fattened domestic dog with an ear of corn in its mouth most likely served the same symbolic purpose.
Dogs were fed on corn and a fat canis familiaris suggested health and a skillful harvest and so these statues probably symbolized "plenty" or "abundance". As noted, domestic dog figures were frequently cached with the dead to help guide the soul, as were actual dogs, since information technology was believed the soul would need sustenance for its long journey through the underworld to the Globe Tree and the realm of paradise.
Dogs as Liminal Beings
It is possible that dogs are not seen with collars because of their status equally protectors and guides. The Mesoamerican belief in tonalism and the concept of the Nagual might take something to do with this as well. A tonal is a spiritual link betwixt a person and a certain animal, established at the individual's birth, whereby the person exhibits the characteristics and shares empathically in the life of the spirit animal. A person built-in linked to a dog, for example, would testify canine characteristics but the link is so stiff that, if the spirit animal is in some manner injured, the man analogue would feel the furnishings. The nagual is a religious practitioner – a shaman – who has the power to shape shift and can become whatever animal he or she chooses, usually at dark.
The tonal and nagual are intertwined in that the nagual must be able to "read" the energy of a day and understand what magic volition or will not piece of work on a sure twenty-four hour period. The tonal is intimately tied to the energy of a day and, in Maya conventionalities, is associated with the Wayobs (also known as the Ways), the spiritual apotheosis of a day's energy which watches over people and advises them or predicts their fortunes in dreams. A nagual, correctly reading the energy of the day, could make the tonal link with a dog and would exist able to understand the letters that domestic dog brought dorsum from the Other Globe.
Since the dog was considered a liminal entity past the Mesoamerican peoples, able to transition betwixt worlds, it could be that collars were but given to dogs under certain circumstances. A pregnant amount of Mesoamerican scripture and literature was destroyed past the Spanish Conquest of the 16th century CE so information technology is impossible to know what these circumstances may have been. Until very recently, all archaeologists had to proceed to translate the culture were a few books – a tiny percentage of what was once a culture'southward cultural library – and creative renderings on temple walls, stelae, and tombs. Equally archaeologists and other scholars accept come up to better understand various Mesoamerican scripts, however, the indigenous cultures are coming into sharper focus. Nonetheless, it may never be known why or under what circumstances a domestic dog received a collar in these indigenous communities.
Sculpture of Xolotl, Mexico City
Conclusion
Dogs would too play an important role in the conquest of the then-called New Earth equally Christopher Columbus employed dogs regularly in burdensome the will of the ethnic peoples. The mastiff had been successfully used by the Spanish in the wars against the Moors of Granada and then were included in Columbus' 2nd voyage in 1493. The same handlers who had served in Granada were sent along with the dogs and Columbus would apply both to full upshot. When he arrived in Jamaica in 1494, he met stiff resistance from defenders on the beach until he released the barbarous mastiffs which terrorized the indigenous warriors and scattered them.
Columbus would later write that one canis familiaris was worth 50 men in combat. The original 20 dogs he brought with him from Europe would abound in number as more Europeans came to the New World and these were put to the same uses they had known back in the Quondam World. Dogs, in fact, were plant to be more constructive in the conquest of Mesoamerica than most of the weapons their human handlers deployed as they completely terrorized the indigenous people.
The European use of the dog, coupled with Christianity's insistence on dogs as soulless beings, led to the dogs' loss of condition in the region during and subsequently the Spanish Conquest. Over the concluding 100 years, all the same, indigenous beliefs have been making a improvement and the domestic dog is steadily regarded more than in keeping with its earlier than its post-Columbian status. The so-chosen "Mayan Revival" of the 1920's and 1930's encouraged progressives in the The states and elsewhere to distance themselves from traditional European values by embracing those of Mesoamerica and the ancient status of the domestic dog, among other aspects of the region'south indigenous civilization, is better appreciated now than it was for 400 years following the Spanish Conquest.
This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication.
Source: https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1714/dogs-and-their-collars-in-ancient-mesoamerica/
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