[Aztlan] Corn stuff

[S.A. Morris]

While trying to get a better grasp on the Toltec I came across a Mesoweb
article "Tulan and The Other Side of The Sea" by Frauke Sachse and Allen J.
Christenson.

http://www.mesoweb.com/articles/tulan/Tulan.pdf



Between the Highlands of Mexico, Southern Mexico, North / South Yucatan and
Guatemala the pH of the soil and soil textures vary. Which will naturally
change a method, step or bit of a story for growing corn in each area.
Optimum soil pH for corn is from 6.0 to 7.0 and growth problems will develop
when the soil pH is less than 5.5.



The above article discusses an oral story from Guatemala. Basically, a guy
gets swallowed by a fish, transported to another land, cuts his way out of
the fish, finds corn to eat in this new land, the corn alarms the landlords
who don't eat the corn due to non digestive tracts, the guy convinces the
landlords to have a hole sliced into their body simulating an anus for
digesting the corn but will need curing medicine once cut. He then talks the
landlords into give him a deer to ride back to his home land to get the
medicine, the guy rides away never to return and the landlords who were
sliced, die.



* "The swallowing of the man that would correspond to the sowing, that is
the interment of the maize kernel in the ground, finds no overt analogy in
Classic Maya iconography. Classic imagery only depicts the liberation from
the body of the fish monster, or the rebirth of the Maize God."



My personal success in strong sprouting seeds was to shove a corn kernel
into the mouth of a "small" bate fish and bury. The little minnow fish body
provides enough moisture to stimulate the kernel and an extra kick of
nitrogen. Corn is a hungry plant and likes nitrogen. My neighbor would place
a minnow next to each seed with the mouth facing the seed for "the fish to
remember to feed the corn." From what I've been reading, humankind is made
from corn. For a fish to swallow a humankind individual kernel and have the
kernel cut its way out of the fish by sprouting, makes agricultural sense to
me.



* "The location of the Maize God's rebirth is widely agreed to be clearly
identifiable as a place under water, or the so-called "watery underworld."



I get confused when I read statements like this. Soaking the seeds before
planting I can understand. Moisture content of the soil I can understand.
Corn has been successfully grown in hydroponics, thought doubtful in the
meso region. For a corn plant to grow of course the soil around it needs to
be watered, by rain, water from a river, water from a well or cenote. Corn
roots can grow 5 and 8 feet deep and depending on the soil texture, can hold
1.5 to 2.5 inches of available soil water per foot of soil. To me the
statement doesn't fit the physical world.



* "The fact that the man from the story – as well as the Maize God in
Classic iconography – is swallowed by a fish-like creature is certainly an
indication that the place of rebirth is either under or in the water, or at
least can be reached via water. If we accept this analogy, the man in the
story – just like the Maize God – is taken to an underworld, or otherworld,
with the fish monster as the "medium of transport. "The fish monster is thus
a metaphor for an "otherworld portal." The most typical otherworld portal in
Maya thought throughout time is a cave, and there is abundant ethnographic
evidence that caves are perceived as entrances to the underworld. Quite
significantly, these cave portals are usually associated with water."



"Reached by water" through irrigation or "under the water" as the soil is
under the sky clouds producing rain, I can understand. "In the water" could
be applied to soaking corn seeds overnight before planting which is another
way of quickening the germination of the seed, like the moisture surrounding
the seed inside a fish. I don't see the fish as a monster or the type of
doorway the authors are linking to caves. Yes, I understand caves were/are
considered as doorways underground and many of them are a source of fresh
water as in the Yucatan. A symbol assimilating everyday physical world
things to the metaphysical world usually follows a process of association. I
think it is a stretch for the authors to say the fish is an underground
doorway. A "medium of transport" like a container, yes, but not a doorway.



Someone correct me if I have misunderstood the writings of the article.

Arthur