[Aztlan] Left hand (and foot)

Sat May 2 07:16:14 CDT 2009

Just for fun, I did a fast survey. The Denver Art Museum shows a figure where the loincloth is the snake (4455a through d). In the Snake lady series, out of 9 images of K'awil, 2 are left footed, 4 are right footed, and 3 are neutral with K'awil with either whole body or loincloth as the transformational part. Always exceptions.
Justin

-----Original Message-----
From: frendnneed [mailto:frendnneed at earthlink.net] 
Sent: Saturday, May 02, 2009 12:07 AM
To: Justin Kerr; 'Mark Van Stone'; 'Greg Sandor'
Cc: Aztlan at lists.famsi.org
Subject: Re: [Aztlan] Left hand (and foot)

Talking about practicality, being left handed is quite helpful in some cases -- if you’re old enough to remember lefty Sandy Kofax, shutting out the Giants in four straight games during the World Series in the 60s. And of course, there’s boxing.  A left hook, “out of nowhere” is just the thing to score an unexpected knock out.  

Now, I’m no sports fan, far from it, but I AM left handed and know that, while much maligned in the West, it was a valued trait in some cultures, especially warrior cultures, where left handed fighters were valued for entering the fray from the “wrong” side, using the “wrong” hand, etc.  Didn’t the Aztecs, being the warrior society par excellence, make a point of this, calling Huitzilopochtli the “hummingbird wizard, on the left?” And wasn’t Tezcatlipoca left-handed as well, he certainly had a notable missing left foot. The Gladiatorial contest for captive warriors, pitted the captive against four right-handers followed by a lefty, to finish him off. One other thing about a hand, (don’t know if it was supposed to be a left one or if either would do) but the arms of women who died of childbirth were considered talismans that made their owners invincible – sounds like a left handed trait to me, (I wish).

If, as Michael Coe suggested, God K, or K’awil, was the Maya version of Tezcatlipoca, I would wonder if there was any consistency as to which foot was replaced with the snake, O seem to see left and right versions, but as the missing leg is unusual. Left handed people are left footed as well, stepping out with the dominant foot, so having it removed would put you off balance even if it was replaced with a “mirror that smokes.” 

Wes Christensen.

-----Original Message-----
>From: Justin Kerr <mayavase at verizon.net>
>Sent: May 1, 2009 2:02 PM
>To: 'Mark Van Stone' <mvanstone at swccd.edu>, 'Greg Sandor' <gregory_sandor at hotmail.com>
>Cc: Aztlan at lists.famsi.org
>Subject: Re: [Aztlan] Left hand
>
>Mark and all,
>Yes, it is true that a "lefty" would find it easier to paint backward on a
>vase. However, the possibility exists that these example of backward and
>mirror writing may be more magical than anything else. Magical in the sense
>that the text may never have been meant for human eyes, only the eyes of the
>otherworld.
>It is possible that the artist who designed the Yaxchilán lintel may have
>been showing off, that is, proving that his technique as an artist was
>boundless. I think we may lose sight of the fact that these people (the
>artists) may have had egos as big as ours.
>The corpus, as you know is rather small, only a tiny percentage of vases
>have backward figures and text; a far smaller percentage than the probable
>amount of left handed scribes.
>Justin
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: aztlan-bounces at lists.famsi.org [mailto:aztlan-bounces at lists.famsi.org]
>On Behalf Of Mark Van Stone
>Sent: Friday, May 01, 2009 12:40 PM
>To: Greg Sandor
>Cc: Aztlan at lists.famsi.org
>Subject: Re: [Aztlan] Left hand
>
>In reply to Robert Hall, Greg Sandor, and the others on this topic:
>     Some years ago, Tom Jones, a lefty, confided in me the suspicion that
>Maya 'Mirror texts' on vases were primarily written by left-handers, who
>simply find it easier to write retrograde rather than orthograde... as did
>Leonardo da Vinci.  Whatever metaphysical and religious overtones this
>behavior might have generated came as an intellectual response to this
>initially-practical behavior; and that Yaxchilan Lintel 25's reversed text
>may have been inspired by one of these.  I think that many a peculiar
>practice enshrined in ritual had its origin in such natural behaviors.
>Sometimes such behaviors are restricted to a subset of the population (such
>as lefties, or dwarfs), sometimes they simply go out of date, like the
>European wimple, the standard housewife's headgear in 14th-century Europe,
>which, signaling "marriage" to Christ, is still standard attire for nuns.
>    Yours, Mark Van Stone
>________________________________________
>From: aztlan-bounces at lists.famsi.org [aztlan-bounces at lists.famsi.org] On
>Behalf Of Greg Sandor [gregory_sandor at hotmail.com]
>Sent: Friday, May 01, 2009 9:01 AM
>To: Aztlan at lists.famsi.org
>Subject: Re: [Aztlan] Left hand
>
>Were those glyphs meant to be read in  a mirror?
>
>--------------------------------------------------
>From: "Robert Hall" <robertleonardhall at sbcglobal.net>
>Sent: Friday, May 01, 2009 10:22 AM
>To: <Aztlan at lists.famsi.org>
>Subject: [Aztlan] Left hand
>
> Listeros,
>      I found Diane Winters comments very pertinent to some of my own
>interests. I am in process of writing an article in which I briefly mention
>Maya "mirrored" glyphic texts as possible archaeological examples of reverse
>speech. Reverse or contrary behavior, including reverse speech has
>associations with the underworld, death, and the night sky as a
>manifestation  of  the underworld. The most familiar example south of the
>border is the reverse speech associated  with the Huichol peyote
>pilgrimmage. In this case reverse speech is not initiated until the passing
>of a "cloud gate," which suggests a symbolic entrance into the (night?) sky.
>Among the Pawnees the direction of certain rites are reversed when they
>represent events that once took place in the night sky.
>   Frank Lipp indicates that "movements of personnel in Mixe ritual is in a
>sinistral fashion, starting with the east, except for those carried out for
>Mihku', the lord of the underworld, which are in a clockwise movement" (The
>Mixe of Oaxaca, U of Texas Press, 1991, p. 57).
>
>  Bob Hall
>
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