[Aztlan] Bows and Arrows--When introduced and where one can findplenty of indigenous illustrations

[Caroline Dodds]

Forgive me for coming so late to this thread, but I'm trying to finish my 
book (MS due the end of this month), so have been carefully trying to avoid 
any distractions! But, as one of those (apparently few) not from the land of 
the Maya, I was prompted by Jerry Offner's very interesting comments to try 
and bring the Central Mexican perspective to the issue of bows and arrows!

Might I suggest Elizabeth Boone's excellent book, 'Stories in Red and Black: 
Pictorial Histories of the Aztecs and Mixtecs' (Austin: University of Texas 
Press, 2000) as a good place to follow up the idea of a transition from the 
'savage' use of bows and arrows, to more the 'civilised' weapons of the 
atlatl and spear. As Jerry mentioned, this is a well-known trope in Central 
Mexican imagery, particularly in Aztec migration douments. Those using bows 
and arrows are traditionally depicted as Chichimecs in clothes of skins and 
often with unkempt hair whilst the settled urban 'Toltec' peoples bear the 
atlatl etc and are depicted in cotton dress with neatly styled hair. The 
distinction being made is between 'barbarous' hunter gatherers and the 
'high', settled, agricultural culture of the Toltecs which was idealised by 
the later indigenous peoples of the Valley of Mexico. Boone has an excellent 
collection of the narratives (helpfully listed in the index under 'bow and 
arrow, to designate Chichimecs', but to give just a few examples of relevant 
documents for those who don't have access to the book, such transitions can 
be seen in Codex Xolotl, Cuauhtinchan Map, Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca, and 
Mapa-Tlotzin. According to Paul Kirchoff (1948), the Texcocan pictorial in 
particular focus on the process of acculturation, or the 'civilizing [of] 
the Chichimecs'.

Back to the book......
Caroline
-----
Dr. Caroline Dodds
Research Fellow
Sidney Sussex College
Cambridge
CB2 3HU
ced44 at cam.ac.uk