Teocuitlatl, "Divine Excrement": The Significance of "Holy Shit" in Ancient Mexico

Author(s): Cecelia F. Klein

Source: Art Journal, Vol. 52, No. 3, Scatological Art (Autumn, 1993), pp. 20-27
Published by: College Art Association
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 Teo Excrement"
cuitlati,,"Divine
TheSignificanceof "HolyShit"in AncientMexico
CeceliaE Klein
n 1984theAmericanfolkloristAlanDundespublisheda
provocativeanalysis of Germanfolk sayings about ex-
crement. The book's title, Life Is Like a ChickenCoop
Ladder,exemplifiesthe consistentlynegative role playedby
anal excretionsin the lore he collected, for it derives froma
popular Germanexpression:"Life is like a chicken (coop)
ladder-short and shitty."I That the word beschissen, or
"shitty,"is here a metaphorforthe hardshipsand unpleasant
20 trivia thatobstructourrise to success and happinessis made
clearerin anotherversionof the same expression:"Lifeis like
a chicken (coop)ladder-A person can'tget ahead because
of all the shit [in one's way]."2
The use of dungto signify thatwhich is bad or undesir-
able is widespreadin the Euro-Americanworld, and dates
back to the entrenchmentof Christianity. In large part,
however,such symbolismhas been confined, as in Germany,
to the realm of popular,as opposed to elite, culture. In the
arena of institutionalizedreligion, in particular,excrement,
like sex, has been traditionallytaboo. When mentionof it
does surface in Christiandiscourse, it predictablysignifies
FIG.1 Defecatingmaneatingexcrement,CodexBorgia,pl. 10 (detaill After
KarlAntonNowotny,ed., CodexBorgia,BibliotecaApostolicaVaticana(Graz,
19761)
FALL1993
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the oppositeof sacred. Dante, forexample,vividly describes
the flatterershe encounteredin the eighth circle of Hell as "a
peopledipped in excrementthat seemed as it had flowedfrom
humanprivies."3In Westernculturetoday,"HolyShit"func-
tions as an exclamationof surprise or dismay precisely be-
cause it has no referencebeyonditself;its poweras a profanity
derivesfromthe paradoxembeddedin it.4 Forus, excrement
is neverdivine.
This was not the case, however,in pre-Hispanic Mex-
ico, where the human body and its productswere not per-
ceived as separatefromandantitheticalto the "mind,"social
values, and the supernatural-and where metaphortended
to be replacedby metonym.5Thereexcrementwas conceived
of as powerfuland ambivalent,capablebothof signifyingand
causing not just bad, but good as well. For this reason,
excrementplayed an importantrole in certain visual and
verbaldiscourses that helped the Mexicansto structuretheir
relationsto each otherand to the simultaneouslyphysicaland
spiritual world in which they lived. In ancient Mexico the
conceptof divine excrementwas not paradoxical,and excre-
ment could be, indeed, divine.
The ambivalentnatureof humanexcrementis manifest
in some of the divinatoryalmanac scenes that formpart of
several pre-Hispanic Mexican painted screenfold manu-
scripts. In Codex Borgia (pl. 10), for example, as in the
cognate scene in the less artfullypainted CodexVaticanusB
(pl. 29), a nearly naked man not only defecates but also
seems to be eating some of his own excrement(fig. 1).6 Both
scenes are remarkablefor depicting the man'sexcrementas
passing into-in the VaticanusB case, wrappingaroundas
if containing-the cross-sectionof a neckedjar containinga
rabbit. We know that the motif of a jar with a rabbitrepre-
sented the moonin the centuries immediatelypreceding the
conquest, as according to myth a primordialgod of the
intoxicatingbeveragepulque long ago brokethe moon'sface
with a cup shaped like a rabbit.' Thus, in these almanac
scenes a figurewhois eating partof his ownwasteproductsis
apparentlyofferingthe remainderto the moon.
How do we explain such depictions? While these
manuscriptswere almost certainly painted in south Central
Mexico during the century or two before the conquest, we
knowneithertheir exact provenancenorthe language spoken
by their makers. On the basis, however,of what we know
about the Nahuatl-speakingAztecs of CentralMexico, who
by the time of the conquesthad expandedtheircontrolovera
large part of Mexico, we can be fairly certain that the
divinatoryalmanacscenes qualified the auguryof the dayby
either illustrating the fate of one who transgressed in a
particular way on that day, or prescribing rites that could
offsetthatfate-or both. In the scenes beforeus, the targeted
transgressionsmay have involved drunkenness,which, ex-
cept on certain ritual occasions and for the elderly, was
proscribedby Aztec law. Violatorsof this proscriptionwere
severelypunished, being said to have "wallowedin ordure."8
Since pulque and drunkennesswere associated with rabbits
and the moon,the figureof a mandefecatingon the moonmay
augur eitherthe inadvisabilityof drinking-or the fate of a
personborn-on the day in question.
But the depictionmaywarnof sexual licentiousnessas
well. Drunkennesswas closely associated with carnal vices,
which themselveswererepresentedin the erraticwanderings
and fecundity of the rabbit.9 Aztec sexual behavior was
subject to legal restrictions,at least amongthe nobility,with
femaleadultery,abortion,incest, and sodomypunishableby
death. Most, if not all, of the numerousotherCodex Borgia
and Codex Vaticanusalmanac scenes depicting excrement
probablytargetjust such transgressions,for amongthe var-
ious vices associated with excrementin Aztec times, exces-
sive and misdirected sexual acts reigned paramount.Pro-
miscuous women, for example-especially prostitutesand
adulterers, as well as sodomites-were typically charac-
terized in terms of body waste.10Their carnal vices were all
referred to as tlaello or tlazolli, meaning filth, garbage,
refuse, orordure,with, in the wordsof AlfredoL6pezAustin,
"a strongexcrementalsense."1"
Supernaturalpatronage of these asocial individuals
was affordedby exclusivelyfemaledeities, all of whomwere
associated with the moon. The most importantwas the god-
dess Tlazolteotl,whose name, althoughusuallytranslatedas
"Goddessof Filth," could also read as "Divine Filth," even
"Divine Excrement."The name is based not on the Nahuatl
wordfor excrementper se, cuitlatl, but on tlazolli, a word
literally meaning "old, dirty, deteriorated,worn-outthing,"
which was used to connote filth, garbage, or refuse, all of
which subsumed human waste products.12 Codices
Telleriano-Remensis(pl. 20) and VaticanusA (pl. 39) show
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21
FIG. 2 Goddessof filthwith excrement-curl nose ornament,CodexF6jervary-
Mayer,pl. 41 (detail).AfterCottieA. Burland,ed., CodexFEjervary-Mayer
12014M, Cityof LiverpoolMuseums(Graz,19711
the goddess of filth holding a vase filled with a tiny person
eating excrement,while in CodexF jervary-Mayer (pl. 41), a
manuscript believed to come from southeastern Mexico, a
related goddess wears an ocher-coloredcurl-the generic
sign for excrement-as her nose ornament(fig. 2).13
Tlazolteotl was also addressed as Tlaelquani, which
means "Eater of Ordure"according to Thelma Sullivan.14
Sullivanaccountsforthe nameby suggestingthat Tlazolteotl
was a goddess of the fertile earth that "receives all organic
wastes-human and animal excrement. . and so forth-
which when decomposed are transformed into humus."
Humus, she adds, was called tlazollalli ("earthfilth") and
was associated with the revitalizationof the soil.15
The Aztecs had anotherword for soil that had been
fertilized with human excrement: tlalauiyac.16 Herbert
Harveysuggests that this wordalludes to the Aztec practice
of collecting human excrement for use as fertilizer from
public privies set up along the major roads.17 It is even
possible that Tlazolteotl was a patroness of this fertilizer
industry.l8Human excrementwas also used in salt produc-
tionas well as tanning, however,and it is thus significantthat
SullivanrelatesTlazolteotlto the salt goddess, Uixtociuatl.19
The close cognitive relationof urine to excrementis evident
in the almanacs underdiscussion where several of the defe-
cating figures are simultaneouslyurinating (fig. 3). Noting
ARTJOURNAL

22
F 1G. 3 Defecatingand urinatingmanwith deathfigure,CodexBorgia,pl. 13
(detail)AfterNowotny,ed., CodexBorgia.
that urine, itself a metaphorfor impurity, is salty, Sullivan
suggests that Uixtociuatlrepresentedurine as well.20 Since
the state also collected urine, whichwas used as a mordantin
dyeing, it is not surprisingthat there was a separateNahuatl
word for soil that had been urinated upon (axixtlalli).21
Amongthe Mixe today myths often representurinationas a
fertilizingact, comparingit to wateror rainfall.22
The body wastes or "filth"associated with Tlazolteotl
thus representednot just transgressionsof the Aztec sexual
code, but also the meansforoffsettingthem, fortransforming
or convertingthem into something healthy and fertile. This
has to be the explanationfor the curious name Tlaelquani,
"Eaterof Ordure,"and of all almanac figures who consume
conquest, oftenforSpanishchurchpatrons,whereexcrement
is used exclusively, as it is in Christian imagery,to signify
vice. In Codex Telleriano-Remensis, a mid-sixteenth-
centuryAztec codex with a Spanish commentary,for exam-
ple, a priest performingthe piousact of letting bloodfromhis
ear bears lumps of dung on both his bone perforatorand his
incense bag (fig. 4). The accompanyingtext identifies the
priest'sactions as taking place on the day 7 Eagle, a day of
bad omen, when prostitutesmade sacrifices to the moon.28
Excrementhere, therefore,surely representsfemale sexual
transgressions,which the picture suggests will be atonedfor
by sheddingbloodfromself-inflicted wounds.Wehaveseen,
however,that in the strictly indigenousscheme of things the
real offeringsto the moon goddess were the lumps of excre-
mentembodyingthe offenses themselves. The hope was that
she wouldcounteractthe damagethat the offenseshad effec-
iii~~:~ :-::~:?i::::_i;
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i?-iiii
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their own excrement. Support comes from Bernardinode

Sahagin's claim that Tlazolteotlwas called Tlaelquani be-
cause "sheheardall confessions, she removedcorruption."23
The Aztecs are well documentedas having believed that a A....

last-minute"confession"to Tlaelquaniof one'ssexual trans- iiiiii

ii::l
....................................
gressions could stave off the imminent threat of physical
:-:-l:-:2--::~::~~~~l~~~3i
-::-'I::::-':*-%-::
danger or death.24 Such "pentitents" reportedly not only
removedtheirclothes so as to expose Tlaelquanito their"evil
odor,"but swallowedtheir own stench, their own filth, as !!i;i~iii:i-!!
well.25They did this because, in Aztec thought,filth could
be used to wardoff or offset filth, restoringboth moraland 4f-:;;::
::::-
:::,,
physical equilibrium.26
Excrementthus not only embodied the cause of an
individual'sbad healthand potentialdemise, but also consti-
tuted the means to preventor cure them. As an anomalous
substance, it thereforehad both negativeandpositive conno-
tations.27 This must be kept in mind in viewingmanuscripts priestwith lumpsof excrement,CodexTelleriano-
FIG. 4 Autosacrificial
Remensis,pl. 21 (detail).AfterE.T.Hamy,ed., CodexTelleriano-Remensis
that were painted by acculturatednatives after the Spanish manuscritmexicain... Biblioth6queNationale(Paris:Ducde Loubat,18991

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ted by literally consuming their materialmanifestationand
thus convertingthem into fertilizinghumus.
Similarly,a womannamed, accordingto the commen-
tator, Ixnextli appears in the same manuscript holding a
substance clearly labeled in Spanish as mierda, "filth"or
"excrement"(fig. 5). Ixnextli, we are told in the attendant
glosses, is portrayedhere as crying because Ixnextliliterally
means"Ashes[in the] Eyes."Herblindnesswas, accordingto
the Catholiccommentator,a punishmentforhaving"gathered
flowers," that is, for excessive sexuality. Throughoutpre-
Hispanic Mexicothe flowerwas indeed a metaphorforfemale
sexuality and genitalia;Tlazolteotl,for example, is depicted
in CodexVaticanus(pl. 74) and CodexBorgia(pl. 74) with
her naked body in frontalview and her legs widespread, a
stylized floweremanatingfromhergenitalregion. Notingthat
Ixnextliis nowhereelse mentioned,Jose CorunaNufieziden-
tifies the figure in Codex Telleriano-Remensison icono-
graphic groundswith the Aztec moon and fertility goddess
Xochiquetzal, whose name means "Precious Flower."29
Xochiquetzal, like Tlazolteotl, was a patronessof sexuality
and harlots.
Certainvarieties of flower,however,were furtherasso-
ciated in Aztec thoughtwithvenerealdisease. A womanborn
on the day 1 Flowerwhoviolatedsexual morescouldexpect to
be afflicted with piles and genital infections by Xochi-
quetzal.30 Just sitting on or stepping over, as well as urinat-
ing upon, certain flowerscaused infectionof women'ssexual
organs.31Skin complaints characterizedby pustules were,
like hemorrhoids,attributedto what were regarded as im-
moral sexual acts, including sodomy, an apparently fair
assumptiongiven William Sherman'sclaim thatin the Amer-
icas venereal diseases manifested themselves as pus-filled
tumorsthat sometimes covered the entire body.32What is
significantis that Xochiquetzalhad the powerto cure as well
as cause such diseases, and that her medicine, as we will
shortlysee, was urine orexcrement.33This ambivalentpower
attributed to body wastes was completely missed by the
codex commentator,who in his text comparesIxnextlito the
biblical Eve.34 In Judeo-Christiandiscourse the apple that
caused Eve'sfateful fall into sin had no subsequentrestora-
tive powerscomparableto those of excrementforthe Aztecs.
Ixnextli's blindness was clearly itself a metaphorfor
excessive sexuality and so was cognitivelylinked to excre-
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10
%i~
iji
iii4 i~ii~i~iii!•
iii~iii~i~i17iiii
!•iiii~iii14 Mil
S/*
.....-4
23
FIG. 5 lxnextliholdingvase of excrement,CodexTelleriano-Remensis,
pl.11
(detail).AfterHamy,ed., CodexTelleriano-Remensis.
ment. Sexual vice is similarly expressed in CodexLaud(pl.
18), wherethe eyes of the moongoddess of filth are covered
by a bandage (fig. 6).35 Loss of vision in these cases may
specifically signify sexual treachery,as Tlazolteotlis some-
times described as a "deceiver"whose own carnal vices
cause all worldlydeceptions.36 Dirt and excrement,in turn,
are frequentlymentionedas signs of deception, and an Aztec
ruler who deceived someone was called teuhio, tlazollo,
"dirty,""filthy."37Eventoday,the Mayaof highlandChiapas
say that a local witch's sexual parts, which she exposes in
order to lure unsuspecting men into the forest, are "only
excrement."38 The association in these cases between sexu-
ality, deception, and excrementsurely relates to the Aztec
belief that diseases of the eye were caused by sexual impro-
priety, and explains why glaucomaand ectropion(a disease
of the eyelid)weretreatedwith powderedhumanfecal matter
or urine.39
It is noteworthythat the blindfoldedCodexLaudmoon
goddess also holds an ax in one hand, and that she sits atopa
clearly fallen victim. Forin anotherauguralscene in Codex
Borgia (pl. 12), a naked man who is swallowinghis own
excrementfurtherempties his bowelsontoa blindfoldeddeity
seated beneatha smokingax. This god has been identifiedas
Tezcatlipoca-Ixquimilli,a male deity of night and punish-
ment, whose name means roughly "SmokingMirrorwith
CoveredEyes."40In the cognate scene in CodexVaticanusB
(pl. 91), the defecating figure also urinates on the sightless
ARTJOURNAL
24 FIG. 6 Blindfolded
goddess of filthwith ax, CodexLaud,pl. 18 (detaill AfterCottieA. Burland,ed., CodeKLaud(MSLaudMisc.6781)BodleianLibraryOxford
(Graz,19661

god below him (fig. 7). Underthe name of Titlacauan,more-

over,Tezcatlipocawas addressed as "wretchedsodomite,"a
label thatidentifiedhim with the mostabhorredsexual crime
of all.41 The Aztecs believed that sodomycaused piles and
hemorrhoids,and the sodomitewas described as "a defile-
ment, a corruption,filth; a taster of filth, revolting,
detestable."42
As we have seen, sexual crimes were not entirely
privatematters,forthey were consideredpotentiallyharmful
to society as a whole. The ax that appears in the scenes we
have been looking at is in fact a warningthat if one does not
rectify-that is, devour-his sexual errors,he can expect to
havethemforciblyexcised. This becomes clearerin cognate
scenes in the Codex Borgia(pl. 15) and CodexVaticanusB
(pls. 38-40) almanacs, where the blindfoldedTezcatlipoca-
Ixquimilli appears, as do other gods, pulling a wrinkled
yellowbandfroma hole in a naked man'slowerabdomen(fig.
8).43 Previousscholars have variouslyidentified these tubu-
lar forms as strips of skin or umbilical cords, but all the
evidence indicates that they representthe lowerintestines or
the dangerouscontentsthereof.44 Their yellowcolorand the
abdominalperforationsfromwhich they issue testify to this,
as does the fact thatone of the men is archedovera sacrificial
stone, a gaping bloody hole in his chest signifying that his
hearthas just been removed(fig. 8, left). In CodexVaticanus
B (pl. 41), the same amorphousocher-coloredmaterial is
being pulled from the mouth of a skeletal female, a sure
reference to the material'salimentarynature. Finally, an-
other disemboweled figure in a related series in Codex
F6jervary-Mayer (pl. 27) is held by a ropearoundthe neck, a
sign that his condition is directly related to his prisoner FIG.7 Mandefecatingand urinatingon blindfoldedgod of punishment,
status. CodexVaticanusB, pl. 91 (detaill AfterFerdinand
Anders,ed., Codex
Vaticanus3773 (CodexVaticanusB0 BibliotecaApostolicaVaticana(Graz,
That these victims have been found guilty of a sexual 19721

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FIG.8 Scenesof disembowelment:disembowelmentof sacrificedman(left);disembowelmentof manby blindfoldedgod of punishment(right)Codex
VaticanusB, pls. 38-39 (detaill AfterAnders,ed., CodexVaticanus
3773 (CodexVaticanusB).

crime is stronglysuggested by the stylized flowersattached better illustrated than in the Aztec perceptionof gems and
to the tips of the offendingorgan.45I have argued at length minerals as excrement. Mica (and later lead), for example,
elsewhere that these scenes relate to several reportsthat in was identifedas the moon'sexcrement,while goldwas called
some places, at least, adulterersand sodomiteswereliterally coztic teocuitlatl, "yellowsacred excrement,"and tonatiuh
disemboweled in punishment.46Tlaxcalans, for example, icuitl, "theexcrementof the sun."52Tonatiuh,the sun, was a
allegedly removedthe entrails of any man who sodomized god, and gold representedthe traces of the body wastes that
another, and then buried him in hot ashes.47 The Aztec he deposited during the night as he passed through the
penchantfor brandingenemy warriorshomosexualsmay ac- underworld.53Sahagdn'sinformantsexplained that "some-
count as well forthe fact thatnumerousMesoamericanpaint- times, in some places, there appearsin the dawnsomething
ings and relief sculptures depict defeatedwarriorswiththeir like a little bit of diarrhea," which is "very yellow, very
entrails either spilling or being pulled out.48 The weapon wonderful";it is called the sun's excrementbecause it is
often used, we can infer, was an ax. The Aztecs feared a "good, fine, [and] precious."54
nocturnalapparitionof Tezcatlipoca,whose chest and belly Gold was thus the most precious metal in ancient
had been brokenopen and who made the sound of chopping Mexico, being elaboratelyworked into a variety of highly
wood. The apparition'sname, Ioaltepuztli, means "Night valued, elite items. Gold dust stored in quills, moreover,
Ax."49 servedto standardizethe currenciesused in markettransac-
Excrementwas thereforeinvested throughmetonymy tions, and was also used formedicinal purposes. In particu-
with real power;it was morethan a meremetaphorforcertain lar, gold in the formof dust or filings was literally eaten by
odious acts. This may explain why the infuriated Aztecs patients with skin pustules or hemorrhoids,which, as we
destroyedan altarfouled by excrementplaced there by their have seen, were attributed to sexual vices. Pustules were
Colhuaenemies, and why their enemies at Tlatelolcothrew called nanaoatl in Nahuatl; the large ones were tlacazol-
excrementat them in battle.50Forexcrementwas associated nanaotl, "filthypustules," and the smallerones, tecpilnana-
withbothimmaturityand deathin Mesoamerica,and as such oatl, "noblepustules." The latter were particularlypainful
could reduce warriorsto infancy, thereby weakening and and allegedly caused a curious twisting of the hands and
even killing them. The land of the dead, which was located feet.55 The use of gold both to prevent and to cure these
deep beneath the earth's surface in the underworld,was symptomswas related to the Aztec legend of the mythical
conceived of as the bowels, the intestines of the personified figureNanauatzin,"OurDearPustules,"accordingto Selera
earthwhere, accordingto Sahag6n, "theplace will be made god of syphilis, who is represented by figures in Codex
excrement."51 Borgia(pls. 10, 42) that have twisted hands and feet.56
But this power,as we have seen, could be positive as Nanauatzin'simportance stemmed from his humble
well as negative, forwhathad the powerto disrupthealth and actions during the dark days of the Creation,when the gods
harmonyalso had the powerto restorethem. This is nowhere had gatheredto find some way to light the universe. Unlike

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 the othergods, Nanauatzinhad no incense to offer;he burned
his ownscabs instead and then immolatedhimself in orderto
rise as the sun.57 Gold dust could be effective against
sexually caused diseases, then, precisely because it repre-
sented the excrement of the sun, which had been itself
created out of the pustule-riddenbody of Nanauatzin.58
Fromthe momentof the Spanish conquest, which was
motivatedby a desire for gold, the significance of the metal
became ambivalentin Mexico, for although, as Sahagiin's
informantsnoted, it was "theleaderof all richeson earth, ...
thatwhich is sought, . . . thatwhich is cherished,"it had for
that very reason become an "instrumentof torment,""a
deadly thing" that was also "a deceiver."59Deception here
seems to refer to immoralmeans of acquiring wealth and
power,because the "deadlything"was furtheridentifiedas
"thepropertyof the lords, the propertyof the ruler."An Aztec
man who through "deception"grew rich, like a ruler, was
described as tlazollo, "filthy."60Thus was the Nahuatlword
forexcrement,cuitlatl, also used at times to signify excess or
26
greed, with the added connotationsof laziness and "soft
tissues."61The direct referenceappearsto be to overeating,
which would have violated Aztec codes of moderation.But
the emphasishere on the link between gold and tormentmay
well reflect the historical realities of native experiencedur-
ing the conquest and its aftermath.62
The dialectic is clearly rooted in indigenous beliefs
about excrement, for excrement, as we have seen, could
indeed be a deadly thing symbolicof deception. Moreover,it
often served as a metaphorforpovertyand low social status.
A memberof the very lowest class among the Aztecs was
called tlacotli, fromtlaco, "tocorrupt,""tosin," "todo evil";
the name reveals that, like illness, povertyand powerless-
ness were attributedto immoralacts. Membersof the tlacotli
class werelegally and contractuallyobligedto serveothersin
debt paymentfortheir errors,and if uncooperative,could be
collaredand sold forsacrifice in the market.Theircondition,
like that of all commonersand laborers, was equated with
dung, andto be freed of slaverywas referredto as cuitlatlaza,
"tothrow[away]excrement."63
Significantly,such a slave was declared legally free if
he could escape his masterin the marketplaceand, having
made it beyondits limits, manageto step on a pile of human
excrement." There is simply no parallel to this restorative,
positive meaning of human waste in Westerninstitutional
social and religiouspractice. In ancientMexico,dungdid not
merely symbolize unpleasant and opprobriousthings and
conditionsin steady oppositionto the good and spiritual. In
Mexico,in contrastto Euro-America,dungwas nevertrivial.
Among the Aztecs, at least, excrement'simportance may
derivein partfromits rolein nourishment,orfromfearof the
occasional famines that plagued CentralMexico, as well as
the dysenteryand diarrheaendemic at the time of the con-
quest.65 But the multivalence of the symbol, like its wide
geographicdistributionand its embeddedness in an entire
FALL1993
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moralcode, furtherindicates a fundamentalcognitive func-
tion. Forthroughoutancient Mexico, excrementworkedas a
metonymof the gods, and of the sun and moon, to help to
structureand reinforcesocial values in binaryterms drawn
from the forms and processes of the human body. Social
behaviorwas thus channeledand controlledthroughan ideol-
ogy in which human feces articulated the undesirablityof
excess and indulgence as opposed to abstinence and self-
sacrifice;of deception-metaphorized as blindness-as op-
posed to honor,expressed as vision;of sickness and deathas
opposed to good health and long life; and of poverty and
powerlessnessversus wealth and rulership.
In Mexico, in otherwords, the expression"HolyShit"
wouldhave had no surprisevalue, because it wouldnot have
containeda paradox.In Mexico, excrement,the symbol par
excellence of immoralityand its undesirable physical and
social consequences, was ambivalent, and as such, could
also be divine.
Notes
1. Alan Dundes, LifeIs Like a ChickenCoopLadder(NewYork:ColumbiaUniversity
Press, 1984), 9. Mythanksto KarlTaubeforbringingthis book to my attention,and to
DonaldCosentinoforlending it to me. I am also gratefulto PeterKlein, PeterVanDer
Loo, Elizabeth Boone, and Dana Leibsohn for sharing their diverse expertises with
me. A DumbartonOaks Pre-ColumbianStudies Fellowshipin spring 1992 provided
the opportunityto complete this article, a preliminaryversionof which was presented
at the 1990 College Art Association session on scatology chaired by Gabriel
Weisberg.
2. Ibid., 10.
3. Dante Alighieri, Inferno(London:J. M. Dent, 1954), 197 (canto 18).
4. RobertL. Chapman, ed., New Dictionary of AmericanSlang (New York:Harper
and Row,1986), 213; "holyshit: an exclamationof surprise, dismay, discovery,etc."
5. Forthe importanceof metonymyin ancient Mexico, see Louise M. Burkhart,The
SlipperyEarth: Nahua-ChristianMoralDialogue in Sixteenth-CenturyMexico(Tuc-
son: Universityof Arizona Press, 1989), 99.
6. Forfacsimiles of CodexBorgia, see EduardSeler, Comentariosal C6diceBorgia, 3
vols. (Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Econ6mica, 1963), vol. 3; and Karl Anton
Nowotny,ed., CodexBorgia, BibliotecaApostolicaVaticana(Graz:Akademische-und
Verlagsanstalt,1976). Fora facsimile of CodexVaticanusB, see FerdinandAnders,
ed., CodexVaticanus3773 (CodexVaticanusB), BibliotecaApostolicaVaticana(Graz:
Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt,1972).
7. PrimoFelicianoVelizquez, trans., CodiceChimalpopoca:Anales de Cuauhtitlany
leyendasde los soles (MexicoCity: Institutode Investigacionesde Hist6ricas, Univer-
sidad Nacional Aut6nomade Mexico, 1975), 122; and Louise M. Burkhart,"Moral
Deviance in Sixteenth-CenturyNahua and Christian Thought:The Rabbit and the
Deer,"JournalofLatin AmericanLore12, no. 2 (1986): 116. In anothersource a rabbit
alone is thrown in the moon's face, where it has remained. See Bernardino de
Sahag6n, FlorentineCodex:GeneralHistoryof the ThingsofNew Spain, trans. Arthur
J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble, 13 vols. (Santa Fe: School of American
Research and Universityof Utah, 1950-82), 7:3-4.
8. Sahag6n, FlorentineCodex, 4:11; 6:71.
9. Burkhart, "MoralDeviance," 116. I use the words "vice" and "transgression"
interchangeablyin this article in place of the word"sin"preferredby earlier scholars
in orderto mitigate as much as possible all Judeo-Christianovertones. The Aztec
words that colonial Spaniards translated as pecado (sin) were tlatlacolli and
tlapilchiualiztli. Tlatlacolli more literally means something that harms a thing or
causes it to deteriorate;tlapilchiualiztli, a defect or bad action.
10. Aztec prostitutes were described, for example, as "shitty";see Alfredo L6pez
Austin, Una viejahistoriade la mierda(MexicoCity:EdicionesToledo,1988), 28; and
Sahag6n, FlorentineCodex, 5:191; 6:74, 92.
11. L6pez Austin, Mierda, 27. According to Sahag6n, FlorentineCodex, 6:92, an
Aztec nobleman'sdaughterwas urged not to covet carnal experience, "as it is said, in
the excrement, the refuse."
12. The etymologyof cuitlatl is unknown, but the wordis itself the rootof a numberof
otherNahuatl words.
13. Seler, Comentarios,1:117, discusses the sign forcuitlatl. Fora facsimile of Codex
Telleriano-Remensis,see CorunaNufiez, ed., Antiguedadesde M6xicobasadas
Josb
en la recopilaci6nde LordKingsborough,4 vols. (MexicoCity:Secretariade Hacienda
y CreditoPiblico, 1964), vol. 1. For Codex VaticanusA, see CodexVaticanus3738
(Cod. Vat.A, "Cod. Rios") der Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana(Graz: Akademische
Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, 1979). The best facsimile of Codex F6jervary-Mayer is
Cottie A. Burland, ed., CodexFijervary-Mayer1214 M, City of LiverpoolMuseums
(Graz:Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt,1971).
14. ThelmaD. Sullivan, "Tlazolteotl-Ixcuina:The GreatSpinnerand Weaver,"in The
Art and Iconographyof Late Post-Classic CentralMexico, ed. Elizabeth Hill Boone
(Washington,D.C.: DumbartonOaks, 1982), 15.
15. Ibid.
16. H. R. Harvey,"PublicHealth in Aztec Society,"Bulletin of theNewYorkAcademy
of'Medicine57 (1981): 158; and Sahagfin, FlorentineCodex, 6:124; 11:255.
17. Harvey."Public Health," 158.
18. The job of collecting body wastes forfertilizermaynot havebeen as unpleasantas
we might think, since the Aztec diet, based largely on corn and amaranth,did not
contain high quantities of the amino acids that cause fecal odor;see Harvey,"Public
Health," 164, 165 n. 6. Excrementmay also have been burnedas fuel, at least on the
battlefield. Younggirls taunted young men who had never been to war with the cry,
"Artthou notjust a woman, like me? Nowherehath thy excrementbeen burned";see
Sahagin, FlorentineCodex, 2:63-64.
19. Bernard R. Ortiz de Montellano,Aztec Medicine, Health, and Nutrition (New
Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1990), 128: and Sullivan, "Tlazolteotl-
Ixcuina," 23.
20. Sullivan, "Tlazolteotl-Ixcuina,"23.
21. Harvey, "Public Health," 158.
22. Frank J. Lipp, The Mixe of Oaxaca: Religion, Ritual and Healing (Austin:
Universityof Texas Press, 1991), 76.
23. Sahagun, FlorentineCodex, 1:23-24.
24. Alfredo L6pez Austin, The Human Body and Ideology:Conceptsof the Ancient
Nahuas, trans. ThelmaOrtizde Montellanoand BernardOrtizde Montellano,2 vols.
(Salt Lake City: Universityof Utah Press, 1988), 1:269.
25. Sahaguin,FlorentineCodex, 1:25; 6:31.
26. Burkhart. The SlipperyEarth, 121, 209 n. 15; and L6pez Austin, Mierda, 27.
27. L6pezAustin, Mierda, 32. See also SarahC. Blaffer,TheBlack-ManofZinacan-
tan: A CentralAmericanLegend (Austin: Universityof Texas Press, 1972), 115-16,
and L6pez Austin, Mierda, 26.
28. CorunaNufiez, Antiguedadesde Maico, 1:230. (This commentaryaccompanies
the facsimile of Codex Telleriano-Remensis.)
29. CoronaNufiez, Antiguedades de M&xico,1:190.
30. Ortizde Montellano,AztecMedicine,133-34. See also Doris Heyden,Mitologiay
simbolismode la flora en el M&xicoprehispdnico(MexicoCity: UniversidadNacional
Aut6nomade M6xico, 1983), 105, 107-8, regardingthe identificationof flowerswith
female sexual organs and sex itself.
31. Ortizde Montellano,AztecMedicine, 141; and Sahagfin, FlorentineCodex, 5:183.
32. William L. Sherman,ForcedNative Laborin Sixteenth-CenturyCentralAmerica
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1979), 306. See also Sahag6n, Florentine
Codex, 1:31, where the male "pleasure" deities Macuilxochitl (Five Flower) and
Xochipilli (FlowerPrince) are blamed for piles, hemorrhoids,suppuratinggenitals,
and all diseases of the groin.
33. See, e.g., HernandoRuiz de Alarc6n, Treatiseon the HeathenSuperstitionsThat
TodayLive among the Indians Native to This New Spain, trans. and ed. J. Richards
Andrews and Ross Hassig (Norman:Universityof OklahomaPress, 1984), 30; and
Lipp, The Mixe of Oaxaca, 185.
34. CorunaNufiez, Antiguedades de Marico,1:190.
35. Cottie A. Burland, ed., Codex Laud (MS Laud Misc. 678), Bodleian Library
Oxford(Graz:Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt,1966).
36. CorunaNufiez, Antiguedades de M&xico,1:216.
37. Sahag6n, FlorentineCodex,6:243. Lipp, TheMixe of Oaxaca, 76, mentionsthat
the Mixtec say that to dream of feces portendsconcealed backbiting, falseness, and
impendingsocial discord.
38. Blaffer, The Black-Man, 14, 115. This witch also stops drunks and makes them
urinate (ibid., 101).
39. L6pez Austin, The Human Body, 1:179; and idem, Mierda, 63. L6pez Austin
indicates that urine was morecommonlyused medicinally than excrement,and that it
was often drunk, but thinks that its use may derive from Spanish medicine. I doubt
this given the consistent role that urine played in native discourse.
40. Seler, Comentarios,1:200.
41. Sahag6in,FlorentineCodex, 3:12; and Juan Bautista Pomar,Relaci6n de Tezcoco
(Siglo XVI), ed. Joaquin Garcia Icazbalceta (MexicoCity: Biblioteca Enciclopddica
del Estado de M6xico, 1975), 32.
42. Sahag6n, FlorentineCodex, 10:37-38.
43. Seler, Comentarios,1:200.
44. See, e.g., ibid., 1:198, 200, for reference to these bands as "strips."
45. Ibid., 1:198.
46. Cecelia F. Klein, "Snares and Entrails: Mesoamerican Symbols of Sin and
Punishment,"Res 19-20 (1990-91): 81-103.
47. Fernandode Alva Ixtlilxochitl, Obrashist6ricas, 2 vols. (MexicoCity: Secretaria
de Fomento,1891-92), 1:324-25. See Klein, "Snaresand Entrails," for discussion
and illustrationof these disembowelments.
48. Klein, "Snares and Entrails." See also Cecelia F. Klein, "Fighting with Femi-
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ninity: Gender and War in Aztec Mexico," in GenderingRhetorics: Postures of
Dominanceand Submissionin Human History, ed. Richard C. Trexler(Binghamton:
State Universityof New Yorkat Binghamton, Centerfor Medievaland Early Renais-
sance Studies, in press).
49. Sahag6n, FlorentineCodex, 5:157-59. The Aztecs were also hauntedby a spook
called Cuitlapanton,"Little Shit," who appeared at night at "the latrines and dung
heaps."An omenof death who mockedmen, Cuitlapantontookthe formof a verysmall
girl "pressed down like dung." In Acolhuacan she was called "little squashed one";
see ibid., 5:179-80.
50. D. HernandoAlvarado Tezozomoc, Cr6nica mexicana/C6diceRamirez, ed. D.
Manuel Orozco y Berra, 2nd ed. (Mexico City: Editorial Porr6a, 1975), 392; and
Burkhart,The SlipperyEarth, 89.
51. Sahag6n, FlorentineCodex, 6:29, 33. See also Klein, "Snaresand Entrails";and
L6pezAustin, Mierda,48-49, 69. Accordingto Sahag6n, FlorentineCodex,6:32, an
Aztec commonerwho had transgressedwas told, "thoucasteth thyself into excrement,
into filth . . . even as if thou wert a baby, a child, who playeth with the dung, the
excrement."This may explain why the two yellow stripes that characterizedthe face
paintingof the Aztec nationalpatronand wargod Huitzilopochtliwerereputedlyof an
infant'sexcrement;see Seler, Comentarios,1:117.The materialwouldhave threatened
the enemy with infantile weakness or with death.
52. Sahag6n, Florentine Codex, 11:233. The Aztec name for silver, which was
regarded as a variant of gold, was iztac teocuitlatl, "white sacred excrement."
Sahag6n, ibid., 9:75-76, says that before the Spaniards arrived, silver was little
used. Mica was metzli cuitlatl, the "excrementof the moon," and lead, which has
neverbeen foundin excavationsin Mexico, in the colonial periodwas temetzli,"moon
stone." See Alonso de Zorita, Life and Labor in Ancient Mexico: The Brief and
SummaryRelationof the Lordsof NewSpain, trans. BenjaminKeen (NewBrunswick,
N.J.: Rutgers UniversityPress, 1963), 301 n. 42. The association of excrementwith
27
stones also appears in the Aztec riddle, "Whatis a tiny colored stone sitting on the
road? Dog excrement";see Sahag6n, FlorentineCodex, 6:240. The Huichol say that
the stars are "brilliantstones"that were scattered over the night sky when the moon
defecated; see L6pez-Austin, Mierda, 77. The Mayaand Tarascans seem to have
shared with the Aztecs the idea that gold was the sun'sexcrement;see L6pez-Austin,
Mierda, 69.
53. The modernMazatecsay that the sun showersgold (thatis, defecates) on the dead
as he passes at night throughthe underworld;see L6pez Austin, Mierda, 71.
54. Sahag6in,FlorentineCodex,11:33. This passage also refersto the "mother"of gold
who "appearswhere she has 'rained her water,'" and adds that "her urine stains
deeply." In Codex Borgia (pls. 54, 69) stylized streams of black liquid that may
representurine are edged with the ocher-coloredcurls that usually representexcre-
ment. Lipp, TheMixe ofOaxaca, 152-53, has linked these images to a modernMixe
belief thatthe dead in the underworldare forcedto defecate on the banks of a scalding
river of urine and then eat and drink the ordurein orderto "washthe earth."
55. Sahag6in,FlorentineCodex, 10:157.
56. Seler, Comentarios,1:148; 2:77-79.
57. Sahag6in,FlorentineCodex, 7:4-7.
58. "Forthis reason pustule medicine, his excrement,sometimesappearedon earth";
ibid., 7:234. Pustules that throbbed, in turn, were called cuitlachapan, "pounding
excrement."
59. Sahag6in,FlorentineCodex, 11:234.
60. Ibid., 11:243.
61. L6pezAustin, TheHumanBody, 1:198. Comparethis use of excrementto allude to
overeatingand abundanceto L6vi-Strauss'sassumptionthatexcrementis "thereverse
of food"; see Claude L6vi-Strauss, "The ProperUse of Excrement,"in The Naked
Man, trans. John and Doreen Weightman(Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1981), 329.
62. In recent times people in manyparts of ruralMexicohave told of a man or woman
who became rich by finding a load of excrementthat later turned into gold or money;
see L6pezAustin, Mierda,69, 75, 78-79. This mayreflect the postconquesttransfer
to the Americas of the European association of feces with moneythat was noted by
Freud, although in some Mexican tales the dung is discovered in the underworld.
63. When a ruler was installed, he addressed Tezcatlipoca for help as follows:
"Perhapsthouhast mistakenme foranother,I whoam a commoner;I whoam a laborer.
In excrement, in filth hath my lifetime been";see Sahag6in,FlorentineCodex, 6:41.
64. Diego Durnin,Book of the Gods and Rites and the Ancient Calendar, trans.
FernandoHorcasitas and Doris Heyden (Norman: University of OklahomaPress,
1971), 284-85. See also L6pez Austin, The Human Body, 1:401-2; and idem,
Mierda, 27.
65. Harvey, "Public Health," 159-60. Karl Anton Nowotny,Tlacuilolli: Die Mex-
ikanischenBilderhandschriften(Berlin: VerlagGebr. Mann, 1961), 26, suggests that
the man in Codex Borgia(pl. 13) who is both defecating and urinatingonto a skeletal
figure while confrontinga bundled corpse is very sick (seefig. 3).
CECELIA F. KLEIN is professor of pre-Columbian art history
at the Universityof California, Los Angeles. She has been
writing on gender and body symbolism in Aztec art.
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