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Five Suns
In creation myths, the term "Five Suns" refers to the belief of certain Nahua cultures and Aztec peoples that the world has gone through five distinct cycles of creation and destruction, with the current era being the fifth. It is primarily derived from a combination of myths, cosmologies, and eschatological beliefs that were originally held by pre-Columbian peoples in the Mesoamerican region, including central Mexico, and it is part of a larger mythology of Fifth World or Fifth Sun beliefs. The late Postclassic Aztecs created and developed their own version of the "Five Suns" myth, which incorporated and transformed elements from previous Mesoamerican creation myths, while also introducing new ideas that were specific to their culture. In the Aztec and other Nahua creation myths, it was believed that the universe had gone through four iterations before the current one, and each of these prior worlds had been destroyed by Gods due to the behavior of its inhabitants. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tezcatlipocas
In Aztec mythology, Creator-Brothers gods are the only four Tezcatlipocas, the children of the creator couple Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl "Lord and Lady of Duality", "Lord and Lady of the Near and the Nigh", "Father and Mother of the Gods", "Father and Mother of us all", who received the gift of the ability to create other living beings without childbearing. They reside atop a mythical thirteenth heaven Ilhuicatl- Omeyocan "the place of duality". Each of the four sons takes a turn as Sun, these suns are the sun of earth, the sun of air, the sun of fire, the sun of water ( Tlaloc, rain god replaces Xipe-Totec). Each world is destroyed. The present era, the Fifth Sun is ushered in when a lowly god, Nanahuatzin sacrifices himself in fire and becomes Tonatiuh, the Fifth Sun. In his new position of power, he refuses to go into motion until the gods make sacrifice to him. In an elaborate ceremony, Quetzalcoatl cuts the hearts out of each of the gods and offers it to Tonatiuh (a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
California State University
The California State University (Cal State or CSU) is a Public university, public university system in California, and the List of largest universities and university networks by enrollment, largest public university system in the United States. It consists of 23 campuses and seven off-campus centers, which together enroll 461,612 students and employ 63,375 faculty and staff members. In California, it is one of the three public higher education systems, along with the University of California system, University of California and the California Community Colleges systems. The CSU system is officially incorporated as The Trustees of the California State University, and is headquartered in Long Beach, California. Established in 1960 as part of the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the CSU system has its roots in the California State Normal Schools that were chartered in 1857. It holds the distinction of being the leading producer of bachelor's degrees in the country, wit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jaguar
The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large felidae, cat species and the only extant taxon, living member of the genus ''Panthera'' that is native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the biggest cat species in the Americas and the List of largest cats, third largest in the world. Its distinctively marked Animal coat, coat features pale yellow to tan colored fur covered by spots that transition to Rosette (zoology), rosettes on the sides, although a melanistic black coat appears in some individuals. The jaguar's powerful bite allows it to pierce the Turtle shell#Carapace, carapaces of turtles and tortoises, and to employ an unusual killing method: it bites directly through the skull of mammalian prey between the ears to deliver a fatal blow to the brain. The modern jaguar's ancestors probably entered the Americas from Eurasia during the Early Pleistocene via the land bridge that once spanned the Bering Strait. Today, the jaguar's range ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quetzalcōātl
Quetzalcoatl () (Nahuatl: "Feathered Serpent") is a deity in Aztecs, Aztec culture and Mesoamerican literature, literature. Among the Aztecs, he was related to wind, Venus, Sun, merchants, arts, crafts, knowledge, and learning. He was also the patron god of the Aztec priesthood. He was one of several important gods in the Aztec pantheon (religion), pantheon, along with the gods Tlāloc, Tlaloc, Tezcatlipoca and Huitzilopochtli. The two other gods represented by the planet Venus are Tlaloc (ally and the god of rain) and Xolotl (psychopomp and its twin). Quetzalcoatl wears around his neck the breastplate ''ehēcacōzcatl'', "the spirally voluted wind jewel". This talisman was a conch shell cut at the cross-section and was likely worn as a necklace by religious rulers, as such objects have been discovered in burials in archaeological sites throughout Mesoamerica, and potentially symbolized patterns witnessed in hurricanes, dust devils, seashells, and whirlpools, which were elementa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caiman
A caiman ( (also spelled cayman) from Taíno language, Taíno ''kaiman'') is an alligatorid belonging to the subfamily Caimaninae, one of two primary lineages within the Alligatoridae family (biology), family, the other being alligators. Caimans are native to Central America, Central and South America and inhabit marsh, marshes, swamps, lakes, and mangrove rivers. They have scaly skin and live a fairly nocturnal existence. They are relatively small-sized crocodilians with an average maximum weight of depending on species, with the exception of the black caiman (''Melanosuchus niger''), which can grow more than in length and weigh in excess of 450 kg (1,000 Ib). The black caiman is the largest caiman species in the world and is found in the slow-moving rivers and lakes that surround the Amazon basin. The smallest species is the Cuvier's dwarf caiman (''Paleosuchus palpebrosus''), which grows to long. There are six different species of caiman found throughout the wate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cipactli
Cipactli ( "crocodile" or "caiman") was the first day of the Aztec divinatory count of 13 X 20 days (the '' tonalpohualli'') and ''Cipactonal'' "Sign of Cipactli" was considered to have been the first diviner. In Aztec cosmology, the crocodile symbolized the earth floating in the primeval waters. According to one Aztec tradition, ''Teocipactli'' "Divine Crocodile" was the name of a survivor of the flood who rescued himself in a canoe and again repopulated the earth. In the Mixtec Vienna Codex ( Codex Vindobonensis Mexicanus I), Crocodile is a day associated with dynastic beginnings. In Aztec mythology, Cipactli was a primeval sea monster, part crocodilian, part fish, and part toad or frog, with indefinite gender. Always hungry, every joint on its body was adorned with an extra mouth. The deity Tezcatlipoca sacrificed a foot when he used it as bait to draw the monster nearer. He and Quetzalcoatl created the earth from its body. Karl A. Taube has noted that among the Formative-pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nahua Peoples
The Nahuas ( ) are a Uto-Nahuan ethnicity and one of the Indigenous people of Mexico, with Nahua minorities also in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. They comprise the largest Indigenous group in Mexico, as well as the largest population out of any North American Indigenous people group who are native speakers of their respective Indigenous language. Amongst the Nahua, this is Nahuatl. When ranked amongst all Indigenous languages across the Americas, Nahuas list third after speakers of Guaraní and Quechua. The Mexica (Aztecs) are of Nahua ethnicity, as are their historical enemies and allies of the Spaniards: the Tlaxcallans (Tlaxcaltecs). The Toltecs which predated both groups are often thought to have been Nahua as well. However, in the pre-Columbian period Nahuas were subdivided into many groups that did not necessarily share a common identity. Their Nahuan languages, or Nahuatl, consist of many variants, several of which are mutually uninte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gloss (transliteration)
In linguistics and pedagogy, an interlinear gloss is a gloss (series of brief explanations, such as definitions or pronunciations) placed between lines, such as between a line of original text and its translation into another language. When glossed, each line of the original text acquires one or more corresponding lines of transcription known as an interlinear text or interlinear glossed text (IGT) an interlinear for short. Such glosses help the reader follow the relationship between the source text and its translation, and the structure of the original language. In its simplest form, an interlinear gloss is a literal, word-for-word translation of the source text. History Interlinear glosses have been used for a variety of purposes over a long period of time. One common usage has been to annotate bilingual textbooks for language education. This sort of interlinearization serves to help make the meaning of a source text explicit without attempting to formally model the structural ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Classical Nahuatl Language
Classical Nahuatl, also known simply as Aztec or Codical Nahuatl (if it refers to the variants employed in the Mesoamerican Codices through the medium of Aztec Hieroglyphs) and Colonial Nahuatl (if written in Post-conquest documents in the Latin Alphabet), is a set of variants of Nahuatl spoken in the Valley of Mexico and central Mexico as a ''lingua franca'' at the time of the 16th-century Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. During the subsequent centuries, it was largely displaced by Spanish and evolved into some of the modern Nahuan languages in use (other modern dialects descend more directly from other 16th-century variants). Although classified as an extinct language, Classical Nahuatl has survived through a multitude of written sources transcribed by Nahua peoples and Spaniards in the Latin script. Classification Classical Nahuatl is one of the Nahuan languages within the Uto-Aztecan family. It is classified as a central dialect and is most closely related to the mode ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Teotihuacan
Teotihuacan (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Teotihuacán'', ; ) is an ancient Mesoamerican city located in a sub-valley of the Valley of Mexico, which is located in the State of Mexico, northeast of modern-day Mexico City. Teotihuacan is known today as the site of many of the most architecturally significant Mesoamerican pyramids built in the pre-Columbian Americas, namely the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. Although close to Mexico City, Teotihuacan was not a Mexica (i.e. Aztec) city, and it predates the Aztec Empire by many centuries. At its zenith, perhaps in the first half of the first millennium (1 CE to 500 CE), Teotihuacan was the largest city in the Americas, with a population of at least 25,000, but has been estimated at 125,000 or more, making it at least the sixth-largest city in the world during its epoch. The city covered and 80 to 90 percent of the total population of the valley resided in Teotihuacan. Apart from the pyramids, Teotihu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tezcatlipoca
Tezcatlipoca ( ) or Tezcatl Ipoca was a central deity in Aztec religion. He is associated with a variety of concepts, including the night sky, hurricanes, obsidian, and conflict. He was considered one of the four sons of Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, the primordial dual deity. His main festival was Toxcatl, which, like most religious festivals of Aztec culture, involved human sacrifice. Tezcatlipoca's nagual, his animal counterpart, was the jaguar. In the form of a jaguar he became the deity Tepeyollotl ("Mountainheart"). In one of the two main Aztec calendars (the Tonalpohualli), Tezcatlipoca ruled the trecena ''1 Ocelotl'' ("1 Jaguar"); he was also patron of the days with the name ''Acatl'' ("reed"). A strong connection with the calendar as a whole is suggested by his depiction in texts such as the Codex Borgia and Codex Fejéváry-Mayer, where Tezcatlipoca is surrounded by day signs, implying a sort of mastery over them. A talisman related to Tezcatlipoca was a disc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
