: eee > Space Cared Kd WEAVING SPACE: TEXTILE IMAGERY AND LANDSCAPE IN THE MIXTEC CODICES Shatisse D. McCafferty and Geoffrey G. McCafferty Sharisse D. McCafferty, Department of Srehatology, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drios NW, Calgary, Alberta T20 1N4, Canada, Goffey ©. McCafferty, Department of Archacology, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N IN4, Canada ABSTRACT Mixtec pictorial manuscripts from Late Postclassic ‘Oaxaca represent textiles as costume but also in rela- tion to beth the natural and built environments. This paper relates these apparently anomalous images to accounts of the mythical weaving of sacred landscapes. ‘Weaving metaphors become Important for intérpret~ Ing emic concepts of the sacred landscape and, based fon the engendered quality of costume elements and ‘of spinning and weaving as stereotypically fermale prac- tice, adda gendered worldview to Mixtec ideology. We suggest that by representing the natural landscape as “woven,” the Mixtec brought it into the cultural realm, and therefore claimed control over natural forces. Pictorial manuscripts fiom late pre-Conquest and ‘early Colonic Oaxaca, Mexico ~ known as Mixtec codices after the cultural group that produced them. = contain imporcant historical as well as cultural infor- mation. Most scholarly interpretations of these man- scripts focus on their genealogical information as a ‘means of constructing culture histories (e.g, Anders et al. 1992; Caso 1979), or the continuity of ideas into modern folk traditions (e.g, Jansen 1990; Jansen and Pérez Jiménez 2000; Monaghan 1990). More archae- logically oriented research considers the activities Of the codex actors as a window onto past cultural behaviour, and the objects depicted as contextually ‘meaningful material culture (c.g, McCafferty and McCafferty 1994). At the 2000 Cheemool Conference we adopted this later perspective in a costume analy- sis of over 3,100 individuals as a step toward inferting such social identities as gender, occupation and eth- nicicy (McCafferty and McCafferty 2000), That analy- sis included not only a typology of the clothing items themselves, butalso a detailed catalogue of the design. elements used on each clothing category. In the course of that analysis, we began to notice textiles and textile patterns that were used in non- ‘costume situations, particularly as design elements on, the fagades of buildings and on elements ofthe natural environment (e.g, hills). In this spin-off of the initial study, we will characterize the use of textile imagery in these situations, and suggest what this may reveal bout the emic conceptualization of the built and nat- uments by the Postelassic Mixtec. “Mixtec” describes a cultural group chat speaks an (Oto:Manguean language, Mixtec, and occupies the westem portion of the modern state of Oaxaca, as ‘well as sections of the adjoining states of Guerreso and Puebla The Mixtec region extends from Pacific coast- al tropics to high mountains with many small, cemper- ate valloys in which, during the Postclassie period (ca (900-1520 C.E.), numerous autonomous city-states ex- ited (Byland and Pobl 1994; Spores 1967). The few Mixtec codices that survive relate mythological and historical details of the Postclassic period (Jansen 1992; Thoike 1978). Archaeological investigations, pri- marily in the form of scztlement pattern surveys (e.g, Byland 1980; Spores 1972), provide additional infor ‘mation, Unfortunately, litle excavation of Postelassic architecture has occurred, so archacological support for the codical patterns is scarce. Michael Lind (1979) did expose architectural decoration associated with lite residential struccures in the Nochixtlan Valley. Outside of the Mixteca, the Valley of Oaxaca site of Mitlé features standing architecture with possible tex- tile patterns in stone mosaic on the building fagades (Hamann 1997; Pohl 1999). ‘The Mixtec codices provide a wide tange of im- agery, including marriage scenes, births, military + Spatial Analysis to Asclacs £C, kobes 150% FD. Seibel, D ender (As06y Vow of heey [ress lp saigure 1, Hills in the Cadee Viedobonensis (1992-10) (a) hill with stat band (b) hill with jew- celled woman; (6 hil of jaguar; ( hill with dval faces; () hill with torm ge. fe a | Figuce 2. (@) Anchropomorphic hill with pregnant belly and arms (Code Natta! 1992:82), (©) anthropomorphic bil beating drum (Codes Netai! 199273) ‘campaigns, religious rituals and political machinations, among others. Interspersed among these actions are landscape elements, both natural and artifical, such as hills, plains, rivers, temples and ball courts. Often, these feature iconographic elements used as toponyms to name the place of the social action, Standardized symbols, described by Mary Elizabeth Smith (1973), provide identifying trits for the geographic features. Further elements serve to name che sices. For exam- ple, in the Codes Vindobonensis (1992:9-10) a range of ‘welve hills are decorated with naming elements, in- cluding human and animal heads, «fully clothed man- requin with mask, and a storm god face (Figure 1). (On numerous occasions, places in che natural en- vironment are identified with anthropomorphic traits. For example, in the Codex Nuttall (1992:82) there is a hill thae features bene arms and legs, and a distended abdomen suggesting pregnancy (Figure 2a). Again in the Codes Nuttall(1992:73) a hill with head, hands and feet sings while beating a drum and holding a ratele (Figure 2b). Anthropomorphie landscapes complement the many zoomorphie elements also found through ‘out the codices, suggesting a conceprualization of the natural landscape as having lifelike qualities. This is discussed in detail in John Monaghen’s ethnograph- ic studies (1995), where the people of Nu'yoo in the Mixteca Alte recognize a range of anthropomorphic cearth spirits, known as hy Inaddition tothe zoomorphic and anthropomorphic clements that appear on landscape elements, other patterns ae typically used, including interlocked ia- ‘monds and dots, and groupings of perpendicular lines. ‘These are characteristic textile patterns, suggesting, that some aspects of the natural landscape were con- coptualized metaphorically as woven. Weaving was considered a female task in many pre-Columbian cul- ‘tres (McCafferty and McCafferty 1991), and was also linked metaphorically to sexual reproduction Sullivan 334 SPACE AND SPATIAL ANALYSIS IN ARCHAEOLOGYFigure 3. (4) Diamond-and-dot pattern on hill with cave (Cedex Selden 1964:1; (9) diamond-and- ‘dot pactern on hil with architectural fea tare Cedex EgrtonlSanches Sols 1994:30, 1982), The process of transforming raw materials such as cotton ormaguey into a highly cultured good 6 cloth) was an important symbol of “civilization,” and distinction between clothed and unclothed was used by the Aztecs to critique their barbarian cousins from the wild north. We suggest chat by clothing the land- scape, Mixtecs were bringing it into the domain of eu- ‘The interlocked diamond-and-dot pattern is known, to weavers as the “point twill” motif, defined as “2 sraight twill that reverses direction at intervals" (Gtrickler 1991:25). In the codices it usually occurs on mountains or plains. For example, in the opening scene of the Codex Selden (1964:1) @ cavernous mountain (with a head in che cave) is covered by the diamond- and-dot pattern (Figure 3a). This pattern occurs often in the Codex Egerton Sanches Solis (1994), usually with ‘an architectural element on top of the hill (Figure 3b). I is also the most common decorative motif on wom- “Woman's skirt with diamond-and-dot pate can (Codex Egertor/Sanchen Soli 399413) Figure 4 en's skirts in the Codex Egerton{Sanchex Solis (Figute 4). In fact, in our costume analysis (McCafferty and McCafferty 2000) this motif only occurs on female ‘costume elements such as skirts and upper body gar- ments such as Auipiles and guechguemits Patricia Anawalt (1990, 1998) identifies blue variant of this motifin relation co Totec identity, and infers ito use by later Aztee nobles as symbolic claim to Toltec ancestry and, thereby, legitimacy. The pattern occurs fon a wide variety of objects, including ceramic ves- sels in the Nahua Codex Borgia of the Puebla-Tiaxcala region, where the pattern might better be inter preted as simply implying preciosity (Chadwick and ‘MacNeish 1967), peshaps relating to the jade chalchi- nies, ‘Phe stricted use in Mixtee manuscripes sug- ‘gests that this meaning should not apply to our case, Panels of interlocking half diamonds (ic. trian- les), often with dots or small squares, are a common motif especially in the Codex Nuctal!(1992). The motif Chapter Thirty Three WEAVING SPACE 33s