[Aztlan] Captives and Hair Pulling

[Allen Johnson]

Thank you.  Just one of the many difficulties in attempting to reconstruct a system of martial arts that has not been in practice for at least 350 years.  Though I have to admit it's not that much harder than a Nordic fighting system I worked on a couple years ago :)  Try digging up reliable sources from 500-800 AD :)  I feel at this point it's 'possible' that the hair pulling could be a literal technique.  I dont pretend to think that it was done all the time (certainly captives were taken using other methods) but perhaps that it was so common that if it were used in images, people would understand that a captive was being taken.  That vase image of K2352 really speaks volumes for me with a very effective submission hold at the same time that the hair is being pulled.   Over the weekend I worked this technique with a friend of mine.  It works really well.  If I pressed the arm bar in the back just a little bit, my parter was in some very quick and real pain.  You could
 very easily separate someones shoulder from that position.
  Thanks all!
  -Allen 

wakinyaska at bellsouth.net wrote:
  Absolutely incisive! You have your thinking cap on straight today, lad. Maybe the artist was just being artistic. It goes on and on ad infinitum.
Wakinyaska
> 
> From: Allen Johnson 
> Date: 2006/08/05 Sat PM 11:17:51 EDT
> To: aztlan at lists.famsi.org
> Subject: Re: [Aztlan] Captives and Hair Pulling
> 
> Not to be argumentative or disagreeable but how do we know from iconography with no accompanying text as to whether an action is symbolic or literal? If it is symbolic, what is it supposed to be symbolizing? Is it possible to be both? 
> -Allen
> 
> Nancy Porter wrote:
> Although a good bit farther south considerably earlier, captives in 
> Moche iconography are often seen being held or maybe even dragged by 
> their hair as they are captured. Many examples appear in books and 
> articles by Christopher B. Donnan.
> 
> See MOCHE FINELINE PAINTING, Donnan & McClelland, U. C. Regents, Fowler 
> Museum, UCLA, 1999, a particularly good source for these images, pp. 
> 41, 50,51,70,71, and many others. It certainly appears to be symbolic 
> .
> 
> Nancy K. Porter
> Research Associate
> Institute of Andean Studies
> Berkeley, California
> 
> 
> 
> On Aug 3, 2006, at 11:06 AM, Allen Johnson wrote:
> 
> > Whenever there are depictions of prisoners of war in Aztec iconography 
> > they are usually either trussed up (usually at the feel of a 
> > dignitary) or being held by their captor by a tuff of hair at the top 
> > of their heads. With this hair pulling... Has anyone come across 
> > anything that would suggest that this is a method in which these 
> > captives were actually taken? There is some value to hair pulling as 
> > a martial technique, but is it really practical? Or is it a symbolic 
> > depiction of humiliating ones opponent?
> >
> > Many thanks,
> > Allen Johnson
> >
> > 
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> 
> 
> Nancy K. Porter
> Research Associate
> Institute of Andean Studies
> Berkeley, California
> 
> 
> 
> 
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