AZ: (PG13) San Juan Teperico

[John Sullivan Hendricks]

Regarding fertile bones, its no coincidence that in Mexican Spanish fruit
pits (avocado, peach, etc.) are called "huesos", "bones".  I picked up this
observation from Angel García Zambrano.
	John Sullivan
	Doctorado en Historia
	Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas

-----Mensaje original-----
De: nahuat-l at server.umt.edu [mailto:nahuat-l at server.umt.edu]En nombre de
Richard Haly
Enviado el: Miércoles, 27 de Octubre de 1999 01:58 p.m.
Para: Multiple recipients of list
Asunto: Re: AZ: (PG13) San Juan Teperico

> If you mean 'Tlalocan', that's more of an upper world -- a rich mountain,
> well watered (needless to say), and thus fitting the name 'teperico'.  The
> lower world (literally) is 'Mictlan'.
>
> Still wondering what the PG13 content was in this...?

Talocan is the Sierra Norte de Puebla (a T-dialect pronounciation  of
Tlalocan. It is a lowerworld because it is within the surface of the earth
(Talticpac/tlalticpac). I am in no way convinced that Mictlan as represented
in the Florentine Codex etc. is not a generic place for the dead including
Ilhuicac. topan mictlan can be read "above us in the land of the dead" which
may or may not be two different places - especially as the sky was certainly
a place for the dead (warriors, women dead in childbirth, and Tzitzitzimeh)
just as Talocan also is a place where one meets up with ancestors. In the
Sierra Norte de Puebla Talocan is very much like a combination of the
elements associated with Mictlan and with Tlalocan (fertility). There is no
confusion here since bones are fertile in Mesoamerica: omitl = bone(s)
omiceyotl (that which pertains to bones) = semen. Moreover, the dead
(ancestors) are the source of tonalli for the living.

Best,

Richard