[Aztlan] RATS?

[Nick Hopkins]

Thanks to all for the responses to my question about rats.  The  
consensus seems to be that it is a misinterpretation of the Temple  
XXI platform.  The idea that rats (not these particular ones)  
represented secrets was attributed by someone to a talk by Dorie  
Reents...  Anyway, since the figures on the XXI platform have paws,  
jaguar ears and jaguar tails, and they are wearing jaguar pelts, I  
would have a problem seeing them as rats.  The seemingly rodent-like  
faces must be the heads of the cured jaguar hides, not wooden masks,  
so they look a little stiff.  But unless we have very large spotted  
rats in Mesoamerica, these aren't rats.

Kim-- There are lots of native mice, but the large Norway rats are a  
European introduction.  I have heard that they came in to Mexico  
about the time of the Revolution; in Chiapas they are often called  
Carranzas, since they spoil and destroy like the army of Venustiano  
Carranza did...

BTW, on the subject of dancers, in the commercial area of Tulum last  
year I saw two or three guys dressed in really extravagant outfits,  
bodies painted like skeletons and really elaborate headdresses with  
deer antlers, pheasant feathers, etc., inviting tourists to get their  
pictues taken with "real" Maya dancers...  It occurred to me later  
that these guys might have been actors from Apocalypto (the ballcourt  
scene) who had taken their costumes home and decided to pick up a few  
bucks hustling tourists...  Maybe they can get a gig at Xcaret!

Nick Hopkins