Anthropos: Anthropos, 67.1972

Anthropos, 67.1972

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Zeitschrift

Strukturtyp:: Zeitschrift

Werks-URN (URL):: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714820

URN:: urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714820

Persistenter Identifier:: BV043334262

Titel:: Anthropos

Untertitel:: internationale Zeitschrift für Völker- u. Sprachenkunde

Erscheinungsort:: Fribourg

Verlag:: Ed. St. Paul

Erscheinungsjahr:: 1906

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

Wissensgebiet:: Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie > Allgemeines

Zeitschriftenband

Strukturtyp:: Zeitschriftenband

Werks-URN (URL):: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-711766

URN:: urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-711766

Persistenter Identifier:: 1510232343021

Titel:: Anthropos, 67.1972

Erscheinungsjahr:: 1972

Signatur:: LA 1118

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

Zeitschriftenheft

Strukturtyp:: Zeitschriftenheft

Titel:: Bd. 67, 1972, Heft 3-4

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

Zeitschriftenartikel

Strukturtyp:: Zeitschriftenartikel

Titel:: The Structure of Tajín World-View

Sonstige Person:: Tuggle, H. David

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

440 H. David Tuggle Anthropos 67. 1972 be based on a life/death dichotomy. It is not at all impossible, of course, that this life/death could have been reduced to the masculine/feminine in the more sophisticated elaborations of the religion which have not found expression in the carving. One of the finest artistic representations of life/death dualism is to be found in the stone carvings of heads which come from the Central Veracruz area. These heads show one side of the face fully fleshed, but only skeletal on the other. One superb example is a palma illustrated by Anton (1961: Fig. 29), and another is located in the museum of archaeology in Jalapa, Veracruz. Also from the Central Veracruz area come clay death masks, flesh less humans, and representation of Mictlantecuhtli, all in association with the "smiling heads”, which leads Jiménez Moreno (1959: 1070) to speak of the great ambivalence of world-view of this area; the love of joy (life), but with death "always waiting in ambush”. The Taj in dualistic world-view found one of its major expressions in the ball-game. The significance of the ball-game itself at Tajin is not to be doubted. There are six ball-courts, two elaborately sculptured, within the central area of Tajin. Two of the six sculptured scenes of the Large Ball-court are depicted occurring within the walls of the ball-courts, and two scenes from the columns display ball-court ceremonies. While the general meaning of the ball-court in Mesoamerica has never been clearly determined, it is probable that one of its significant aspects is symbolic representation of duality. Seler has said that "the ball-game is quite properly ths expression of duality, as well as of antagonism” (Stern 1948: 70). García Pavón (1949a: 305) men tions the relation of duality and the ball-game, and Knauth (1961) speaks of the ball-game as a symbol of the universal "state of flux”, of delicate equili brium. Stern, in his study of the ball-game, suggests that its dualistic aspect may be the basic reason for its general occurrence in Mesoamerica (1948 : 70). Apart from the obvious aspect of having two opposing teams who play the game, evidence that the ball-game was a representation of duality includes the fact that Xolotl, the god of doubleness, was also god of the game, and, as Linga (1949: 120) has pointed out, the gods shown playing ball in the codices are frequently opposing pairs, such as Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca, or the Red and Black Tezcatlipocas. The relationship of the sign ollin and the ball-game has been mentioned above, but an interesting association occurs between various references to the game and a sign of ollin which has not, to my knowledge, been previously identified. This sign (Fig. e), Seler calls a "netted figure”, and mentions that it is found with ball-game symbols, but he concludes that it refers to an "unknown game” (1902-03: 278). An exam ination of this netted figure shows that its central portion is formed by two inter locking right angles, the same motif that has been determined to be one of the Tajin symbols of motion. It is probable that the netted figure is a variation of the representation of the concept which the day-sign ollin stands for, that is, a symbol of movement or duality. This is supported by the fact that in the Wiener Handschrift (Seler 1904: Fig. 289) this figure has the day-sign olUft imposed over the area where the two angles interlock. Next to the total fign re

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