POJMOVANJE SMRTI V STARI MEHIKI IN RELIGIOZNI SINKRETIZEM V DANA.NJIH OBREDIH OB SMRTI (s posebnim poudarkom na kulturi zoque, Chiapas) Marija Mojca Tereelj Kljuene besede: Mehika, smrt, humor, obredi !Dime cómo mueres y te diré quién eres! (Povej mi, kako umre. in ti povem, kdo si!) (mehi.ki pregovor) Tujec, ki ne pozna mehi.kega predkr.eanskega izroeila in njegovega specifienega odnosa do smrti, ostane v dneh pred prvim novembrom vee kot osupel ob pogledu na skladovnice sladkornih okostnjakov in mrtva.kih glav, ki krasijo pouliene stojnice veejih mest v osrednji Mehiki. Dobrih .tirinajst dni pred 1. novembrom kupujejo Mehieani posebne sladke kruhke v obliki okostnjakov, mrtva.ke igraee in eokoladne lobanje, ki jih poklanjajo prijateljem in sorodnikom. S pisanih lobanj se smejijo imena .Jorge., .Pepe., .Oscar. itd. Obdarovanje in u.ivanje lastne smrti spremlja poseben humor. Prijatelji si med seboj poklanjajo tudi listiee z duhovitimi in pikrimi domislicami na raeun elove.kih napak, .ivljenja in smrti, kot na primer1 : Mojca vino a los zoques estudiar, Más un día arribó la Calaca para lograr un sabio doctorado, y la llevó a pasear entre tumbas más, nunca se puso a pensar, sin saber que le gustaba la maraca que su sapiencia aquí ha fracasado. y el ritmo de sabrosas cumbias. 1 Mojca je pri.la .tudirat Soke, Pri.la je neki dan Lobanja, da dosegla bi ueeni doktorat; jo peljala med grobove na sprehod, a nikoli ni pomislila, ne da bi vedela, da tudi ples ji v.ee je da bo znanost njena tu propadla. in ritem vroee kumbije. In .e jo Smrt, priliznjenka, povleee, da skupaj z drugimi skeleti zdaj u.iva vsa svoja umna dela in ves .tudij v temni luknji ple.e svoj danzón. Marija Mojca Tereelj Ya que, zalamera, la Muerte la atrajo, y, junto a otros esqueletos disfruta de grandes estudios y mucho trabajo bailando danzón en tenebrosa gruta. V Mizquicu, majhnem kraju blizu glavnega mesta, prirejajo vsako leto 1. novembra tako imenovani .festival mrtva.kih glav., na katerem podelijo nagrade za najbolj.e kostume in igraee. Zadnji dve desetletji se po Mizquicu sprehajajo tudi .Batmani., .Drakule. in podobni filmski junaki, uvo.eni iz Zdru.enih dr.av Amerike. Izdelovanje 350 sladkornih mrtva.kih glav je pravzaprav mehi.ka izpeljanka anglosaksonskih bue na vse svete - Halloweena, le da je u.ivanje tovrstnih sladkarij povsem mehi.ka specifie nost. Prav tako je mehi.ka specifienost, ee na eni najprometnej.ih avenij Ciudada de Méxica do.ivite naslednje: .iroka povorka spremlja okra.eno krsto, pred katero stopajo elegantni mariachis v bli.eu in zvoku glasnih trobent, promet pa usmerjajo veseli klovni v .ivopisanih oblaeilih, ki s konfeti obmetavajo mimoidoee. Ee se oddaljimo od veejih urbanih sredi.e, bomo spoznali malce drugaeno podobo praznovanja 1. novembra. Mehi.ko pode.elje ne pozna sladkornih mrtva.kih glav, povork in festivalov, goji pa bogat repertoar tisoeletja starega kulta prednikov, ki si je v zadnjih petsto letih nadel sinkretieno podobo .vseh .ivih in vseh mrtvih.. Praznovanje smrti, s specifienim poudarkom na obredju pokojnih prednikov, zavzema v mehi.kem praznienem letu posebno mesto. Ponekod se zaene .e na dan svetega Luke (18. oktober) in traja vse do svetega Andreja (30. november), kulminacijo pa dose.e 1., 2., in 3. novembra. Za razliene avtohtone etniene skupine, kot tudi za mesti.ko prebivalstvo, vsi sveti niso le spomin na umrle, ampak resnieno sreeanje dveh svetov: sveta .ivih in sveta rajnih. Pokojniki v prvih dneh novembra obi.eejo svoje domove, na kar se .ivi skrbno pripravijo. Razliene avtohtone skupine in tudi mestici olep.ajo hi.ne oltarje in pripravijo prazniena jedila, med katerimi ne sme manjkati tamales 2 , sladkega kruhka in kuhane eokolade3 . Sokeji4 in Maji iz Chiapasa okrasijo hi.ne oltarje, na katerih so podobe dru.inskih za.eitnikov in pokojnikov. Eez oltarje obokajo zeleno vejevje, med katerim prednjaeijo veje ameri.kega visokogorskega bora (ocote), ki ga tudi sicer najpogosteje uporabljajo v obredne namene. Med cvetjem, ki ga prejmejo pokojniki so najbolj zastopane naslednje 2 Tamal: koruzna masa z dodatkom fi.ola, pikantne omake, mesa in (ali) zeli.e, zavita v koruzni ali palmov list. 3 Sladko eokoladno pijaeo, caca, cacao (soke) ali chocolatl (nahua), pripravljajo v Mehiki na star, srednjeameri.ki naein: v litru vode vrejo tri kroglice surove kakavove mase (vsaj pol ure do uro), ki ji dodajo nekaj sladkorja. Ko je pijaea dovolj homogena, jo v majhnih buekah ponudijo. Beseda caca, ki izvira iz proto mixe-zoque-popoluca jezika, se je oblikovala pribli.no 1400 pr. Kr. na obali Soconusca (Chiapas), kjer je predolme.ko prebivalstvo zaeelo udomaeevati koruzo, fi.ol, buee, eilsko papriko in kakav, ki so postali glavne .ivilske sestavine stalno naseljenih visoko razvitih poljedelskih civilizacij Srednje Amerike: Olmekov, Majev, Toltekov in Mexikov. 4 Praznovanje vseh svetih sem v Mehiki opazovala .tirikrat: oktobra in novembra 1990 in 1991 v vaseh Pantepec in Tapalapa v severovzhodni kordiljeri Chiapasa (Soke), 1996 v Pantepecu in v Zahodnem chiapa.kem visokogorju (Maya-Tzotzil) in 1997 v Tuxtli Gutiérrezu (Soke). Pojmovanje smrti v stari Mehiki in religiozni sinkretizem v dana.njih obredih ob smrti cvetlice: tagetes5 , lilije, kale, marjete in krizanteme.6 Pred podobami prednikov pri.gejo sveee ter copal7 in vmes postavijo obredno hrano in pijaeo. Tla pred oltarji posipajo z borovimi iglicami. Sveee in kadila morajo biti pri.gane ves eas praznovanja, tako kot je tudi hrana izpostavljena na njem ves eas od 31. oktobra do 3. novembra. Jedi, ki jih navadno ponudijo pokojnikom, so: tamales, narejeni iz palmovih listov, mali sladki kruhki, kuhana eokolada, kava ter .ganje in cigarete, ee je pokojnik kadil in u.ival alkohol. Poleg vsega tega ponudijo pokojniku tudi tisto jed, ki jo je najraje u.ival. Sokeji pravijo, da du.e sicer ne morejo jesti te hrane, vonjajo pa jo, kar da je isto. Medtem ko poteka domaea priprava na sreeanje Sokejev in njihovih prednikov .e nekaj dni pred prvim novembrom, pa ei.eenje, barvanje in kra.enje grobov poteka .ele prvega dopoldne. Podobno je tudi med gorskimi Maji. Pokopali.e skozi vse leto ne 351 obiskujejo (prednike imajo doma na oltarjih), tako da je treba prvega novembra zjutraj najprej zavihteti maeeto in poeistiti grmovje, da se nato lahko zaene okra.evanje grobov. Nagrobno okrasje je podobno oltarnemu: eez grob obokajo veje ocote-ja, ki so jih okrasili s cvetjem, pod to pa naslednji dan postavijo hrano, sveee in kadila, enako kot na domaeih oltarjih.8 Prvega novembra popoldne pre.ivijo Sokeji doma, kjer se ob hi.nih oltarjih sreea vsa dru.ina. .ele 2. novembra gredo na pokopali.ee. Pokojnikom igrajo na instrumente - navadno na jarano, doma izdelano violino in kitaro - se z njimi pogovarjajo, jedo in pijejo.9 3. novembra obiskujejo Sokeji iz Chiapasa grobove svojih otrok 10 , nekateri Indijanci pa ta dan poeastijo pokojnike, ki so umrli nasilne smrti. Med umrlimi vlada namree posebna hierarhija in temu primerno je praznovanje: samo du.am odraslih in po.teno umrlih pripada osrednje praznovanje. Ker du.e umrlih lahko .kodijo zdravju in psihofizieni harmoniji .ivih, se je treba od njih pravoeasno posloviti.11 Po predkr.eanskem izroeilu Sokejev zaznavajo du.e umrlih (kot vsa druga transcendentna bitja) realnost .ivih samo prek vonja in zvoka, zato je edina mo.na komu 5 .Flor de muerto. ali cvet pokojnika, kakor tej moeno di.eei oran.ni cvetlici pravijo mestici, imenujejo Sokeji anima joya, Indijanci Nahua pa sempuchi ali cempasuchi.5 Di.eee oran.ne cvetove tagetesa uporabljajo Sokeji, Maji in Nahuaji tudi pri zdravljenju, zlasti pri t.i. limpias (.ei.eenjih.: v primeru, ko zdravljenec .izgubi du.o.) in vroeih kopelih (v primeru podhlajenja). 6 Kale, marjete in lilije rastejo v Sierri de Pantepec (pribl. 1300m nadm. vi..) kar v gozdu in v okolici naselij, medtem ko jih gorski Maji z obmoeja San Cristóbala de las Casasa posebej gojijo. 7 Skupno ime za smolo razlienih dreves iz dru.ine Burseracaee, kateri dodajo lokalna zeli.ea, suhe vejice cimeta in druge di.avnice. 8 V Pantepecu ima le nekaj grobov kamnite nagrobnike. To so grobovi tako imenovanih ladinos (akulturirano avtohtono prebivalstvo), vse drugo so parcele, zaznamovane s svetlimi modrozelenimi lesenimi kri.i, ki jih Indijanci vsakega prvega novembra zjutraj na novo prebarvajo. 9 Nekatere mehi.ke indijanske skupine poznajo tudi noene obiske grobov; na primer Taraski iz okolice jezera Pátzcuaro v Michoacanu, ki se v razsvetljenih eolnih ob polnoei spustijo z obale na pokopali.ee otoka Janitzio. 10 Obstaja veliko etnienih in lokalnih razlieic; Totonaki iz Veracruza, na primer, poeastijo umrle otroke na octavo, osmi in deveti dan po vseh svetih. 11 Ponekod, npr. v Veracruzu, ob koncu praznovanja posipajo pot med domovi in pokopali.eem s tagetesom, da se du.e la.je vrnejo na tisto mesto, ki tostranost povezuje z onstranostjo. Sokeji in gorski Maji poznajo razliene za.eite pred nevarnostjo du., med drugim prav tagetes uporabljajo kot terapevtsko sredstvo. Marija Mojca Tereelj nikacija med .ivimi in mrtvimi - med tostranostjo in onstranostjo - prek glasbe, di .av in kadil.12 Uporaba .tevilnih vonjev v obredju za rajne (cvetje, kadila, aromatiena hrana in pijaea, zlasti pa alkohol in tobak) postane s tem povsem jasna. Avditivne in olfaktoriene stimulanse, znaeilne elemente tako imenovanih obredov prehodnosti (rites de passage), so antropologi na.li med vsemi kulturami sveta, vendar jim nekatere, med njimi prav srednjeameri.ke, dajejo .e posebej visoko oznaeevalno vrednost.13 Eutni efekti postanejo konkretni simboli tranzicije, ker .e sami po sebi vsebujejo (ali pa nakazujejo) spreminjanje. Obredna glasba, ropot, kadila in pijaea pripomorejo k prehodu v .drugo. stanje in s tem oznaeijo tudi prehod kljuenih .ivljenjskih in socialnih kategorij. Po ugotovitvah kanadske antropologije eutil pa obstaja .e posebno tesna pove 352 zava med vonjem in prehodnostjo oziroma pojmom spremembe. Vzrok naj bi bil v sami vonjalni anatomiji in karakteristiki vonjav. Vonj je vedno v prehajanju, v spreminjanju, .that is because smells constantly escape from their objects, and because of the way they normally signal processes of transformation, ., that they are used to mediate (and manage transition) between social categories.14. Religiozni sinktretizem Da bomo bolje razumeli dana.nja sinkretiena obredja smrti in pokojnikov, moramo nujno poznati pojmovanje smrti v predkolonialni Mehiki. O njem prieajo razlieni viri: materialni ostanki, predkolumbovski kodeksi in zgodnje kolonialne kronike. Ee zdru.imo drobce tega mozaika, dobimo le pribli.no podobo predkolonialnega pojmovanja, saj so .panci temeljito poeistili s pisanim gradivom. Tako je dal na primer prvi .kof in kronist na polotoku Yucatán, Diego de Landa, za.gati vse majevske knjige, kasneje pa sam spisal zgodovino Majev.15 Da jo je prikrojil, ni dvoma, saj je gledal z dvojnim predsodkom: evropejskim racionalnim (partikularistienim) naeinom mi.ljenja, ovitim .e v misijonarsko strast pokristjanjevanja. Natanena doloeitev pred.panskih religioznih prvin je velikokrat nemogoea.16 Pri tovrstnih analizah nam je v veliko pomoe metoda pokristjanjevanja. Substitucijska politika Katoli.ke cerkve je bila naertna in premi.ljena: iskala je eim ustreznej.e analogije, nadome.eala pomembnej.e avtohtone kulte z obredjem pomembnej.ih svetnikov, pri 12 Podobno vlogo glasbe, cvetja in di.av, prek katerih pridejo Sokeji v stik z za.eitniki rodovitnosti, smo pokazali na drugem mestu; glej: .Joyo naque, joyo soc toc - flor costurada, flor amarrada. Flor y el simbolismo de los floreados., Cultura y etnicidad zoque, San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, México, UNICACH-UNACH, 1998, pp. 129-136. 13 Prav zato so postali obredi prehodnosti med mehi.kimi Indijanci, kot tudi med ljudstvi Indonezijskega arhipelaga (Molucca) in Indije, najbolj priljubljen predmet tako imenovane antropologije eutil. 14 David Howes, .Olfaction and transition: an essay on the ritual uses of smell., in: The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 24 /3, 1987, p. 398. 15 Diego de Landa: Relación de las cosas de Yucatán, 1557. (Ponatis v: Editorial Porrúa, México, 1986). 16 Pri sestavljanju preteklosti moramo upo.tevati kar najrazlienej.e informacije; pri opiranju na enovrstne vire se rado zgodi, da zaidemo v zmotne razlage. Tako se veasih zgodi, da i.eemo izvor v starih srednjeameri.kih kulturah, nazadnje pa odkrijemo, da ima religiozni element korenine v Evropi. .panci so skupaj s kr.eanstvom zanesli na novo celino tudi predkr.eanske prvine iberskega polotoka in v Mehiki je pri.lo do veekratnega sinkretizma. Pojmovanje smrti v stari Mehiki in religiozni sinkretizem v dana.njih obredih ob smrti eemer je lahko pri.lo do nakljuenih prekrivanj ali pa do koledarske spremembe evropskih praznikov. Praznik vseh svetih je v cerkveno praznieno leto vpeljal pape. Bonifacij IV v 7. stoletju.17 .tevilo mueencev je bilo tako naraslo, da jim Cerkev ni mogla pravieno razdeliti godov. Zato je doloeila 13. maj za dan, ko se je spominjala vseh mueencev skupaj. Pape. Gregor IV je iz praktienih razlogov prestavil praznik s 13. maja na 1. november, kjer se je sreeal s starodavnimi obredi za rajne du.e. Verne du.e (2. november) je uradna zahodna Katoli.ka cerkev priznala kot liturgieni dan .ele ob koncu 13. stoletja. Cerkev si je namree ves srednji vek moeno prizadevala loeiti uradno liturgijo od predkr .eanskega obreda smrti in izkoreniniti poganski .kult prednikov.. .e leta 390 je hotel Avgu.tin odpraviti .ege u.ivanja hrane in pijaee na grobovih, Amalarij iz Metza (780 -353 850) pa je prvi vpeljal bogoslu.je za umrle 2. novembra z utemeljitvijo, da je poganska obredja bolje nadomestiti kot pustiti nenadzorovana. Kljub dolgotrajnim prizadevanjem za reformo poganskih obredov so se ti v Evropi ohranili skozi stoletja, sprva na grobovih, kasneje kot hi.ni obieaji. Danes spominjajo nanje le .e pri.iganje svee in kra .enje grobov. Darovanje hrane, pijaee in kadil se je z grobov umaknilo na domove.18 Po vsej Evropi je bila .e dolgo ohranjena vera, da se rajni te dni vraeajo na svoje domove ali pa na grobovih opazujejo .ive. Lahko bi torej sklepali, da je obredno u.ivanje hrane, obilica kadil in prisotnost glasbe na pokopali.eih mehi.kih Indijancev morebiten vpliv Evrope. Da ni tako, bomo videli v nadaljevanju. .panci so, na podoben naein kot v Evropi, hoteli izkoreniniti kult prednikov tudi na novi celini. Zakaj pa se je tam obdr.al kljub petsto letom pokristjanjevanja, pa je na.e nadaljnje vpra.anje. V 16. stoletju se je kr.eanstvo, pome.ano s starimi iberskimi elementi, preselilo na novo celino in v Mehiki na.lo .e plodnej.a tla. Tukaj so se bila med seboj oplodila .e razliena kulturna in verska izroeila Srednje Amerike in se stalila v tisto obliko, ki so jo spoznali osvajalci in misionarji ob svojem prihodu. Prvi kronisti .estnajstega stoletja: Bernardino Sahagún, Bernal Díaz de Castillo in Diego Durán poroeajo o razlienih praznovanjih v east umrlih. Ta praznovanja so bila razporejena eez vse obredno koledarsko leto, najvee pa jih je bilo med Azteki v njihovem 9., 10., 13., 14. in 18. mesecu.19 Najpomembnej.a praznika umrlih sta bila Miccaihuitl, praznik .velike smrti. ali spomin na vse odrasle pokojnike, in pa Miccalhuitontli, praznik .male smrti. ali vseh umrlih otrok. Durán poroea, da je bil slednji praznik vseh nedol.no umrlih, pravkar rojenih ali mrtvorojenih otroeieev, od tod pomanj.evalnica v imenu. Miccailhuitl so zaeeli praznovati 3. avgusta in ga nadaljevali 23. avgusta, ko so rajnim na grobove prina.ali naslednje darove: tamales, kuhano eokolado, purane, sadje, cvetno okrasje, kadila ter podobe bo.anstev posmrtnega .ivljenja in 17 Niko Kuret, Praznieno leto Slovencev, Dru.ina, Ljubljana, 1989, str. 92-93. 18 Mimogrede naj omenim, da sem pri terenskih raziskavah na Dolenjskem in Kozjanskem .e pred dobrimi desetimi leti sreeala obieaj, da so v noei s 1. na 2. november pustili rajnim kozarec vina in kozarec vode na kuhinjski mizi. 19 Azte.ko soneno leto je bilo razdeljeno na osemnajst easovnih enot po dvajset dni in se je konealo s petimi posebnimi prese.nimi dnevi. Maji so poznali dva koledarja: sonenega, ki je bil prav tako razdeljen na osemnajst easovnih enot po dvajset dni, in obrednega, ki ga njihovi potomci v Chiapasu in Gvatemali .e uporabljajo. Marija Mojca Tereelj rodovitnosti, narejene iz .eirovih semen in lubja. Durán tudi omenja, da so na grobovih obredno plesali in igrali. Ti obredi so bili v kolonijalnem obdobju prestavljeni na 1. november, a so do dana.njega dne ohranili veliko elementov, na primer: u.ivanje iste obredne hrane, glasba, cvetni darovi, kadila itd. Pojmovanje .ivljenja in smrti Religije in ideologije razlienih civilizacij stare Mehike so temeljile na splo.ni kozmolo.ki razlagi sveta in eloveka v njem. To razlago je pogojevalo dobro in nataneno opazovanje naravnega okolja, vremena in nebesnih teles. Stvarstvo so uravnavale sile 354 nasprotij, katerih temeljno je bilo - tako pri Majih kot pri Nahua: Praoee - Pramati. Iz tega prvega para sledi vsa nadaljnja dialektika: mo.ko - .ensko, svetloba - tema, vroee hladno, moeno - .ibko, rojstvo - smrt, stvarjenje - unieenje itd. Pojmovanje .ivljenja je bilo v ciklienem ponavljanju: iznieenje rojeva vnovieno stvarjenje, smrt omogoea novo rojstvo. Rojstvo nosi seme smrti, tako kot smrt .e vsebuje svoj antipod. Zato so bili isti bogovi udele.eni pri stvarjenju sveta (Quetzalcóatl, Tezcatlipoca) in pri njegovem iznieenju. Bili so stvarniki in unieevalci hkrati. V tem tiei skrivnost nerazdru.ljivega prepletanja simbolov in obredij rodovitnosti in smrti. Deseti mesec azte.kega koledarja, v katerem so prebivalci Tenochtitlana obhajali enega svojih .tevilnih praznikov smrti (Miccailhuitl), se je imenoval xócotl huetzi ali .pobiranje sade.ev.. V tem mesecu so se vrstila obredja rodovitnosti: darovanju cvetja (tlaxochimaco) in prazniku ognja je sledilo obredje .velikega drevesa., ko so posekali drevo s petindvajsetimi vejami in ga okrasili s plodovi .matere Zemlje. (koruza, sadje, cvetje, tamales). Drevo je moralo sprva le.ati (horizontalna raven), kasneje pa so ga postavili pokonci in ga okrasili .e s podobami bogov (vertikalna raven). Elemente rodovitnosti in umiranja je vsebovalo tudi praznovanje boginje Teteo innan, imenovane Toci (kar pomeni .na.a stara mati.). Teteo innan je bila mati vseh mehi.kih bogov, tudi stvariteljev, nekak.na .pramati.. V enajstem mesecu so ji darovali plodove zemlje v obliki sade.ev in hrane, hkrati pa tudi cvetove smrti campoalxóchitl ali tagetes. V .tirinajstem mesecu ali quecholli so so spomnili boga Mixcóatla. Darovali so mu su.nje, hrabrim voj.eakom (bog je bil povezan z bojem) pa so na grobove postavili hrano, ki so jo nato za.gali (po nakljueju so to obredje izvajali okoli 1. novembra). Darovi in obredno u.ivanje hrane ob praznovanju mrtvih je bilo vee kot le pomoe du.am v onstranstvu - bilo je simbol .ivljenja oziroma vnovienega .ivljenja v smrti. O nerazdru.ljivi povezavi .ivljenja in smrti in njeni veliki simbolni vrednosti prieajo daritve elove.kih .ivljenj, ki so jih namenjali vsem pomembnej.im bogovom stvarnikom. Obredna smrt je nosila poslanstvo prenavljanja oziroma vnovienega vstajenja, zato so darovalci lastnih .ivljenj pojmovali svojo smrt kot najvi.ji, transcendentni cilj. Umirali so s ponosom, saj so predstavljali samo bo.anstvo, kateremu so bili darovani. Sahagún poroea, da so se veselili tudi njihovi sorodniki, v trdni veri, da gredo .rtve neposredno k bogu. .enska, ki so jo darovali boginji Toci, je poosebljala samo boginjo. Obleeena v njena oblaeila je igrala bo.jo namestnico, zato so vsi njeni deli pomenili relikvijo. Tudi Pojmovanje smrti v stari Mehiki in religiozni sinkretizem v dana.njih obredih ob smrti su.nji, ki so jih prvega dne xócotl huetzi .ive in z zvezanimi rokami in nogami pometali v ogenj, so predstavljali boga ognja Xiuhtecutli. Pobarvali so jih rumeno. .e preden so izdihnili, so jih izvlekli iz plamenov in jim izrezali srca. Ta so predstavljala bo.jo hrano, torej seme ali zametek novega ognja. Enako pomembno vlogo so imela srca (semena, sade.i) novega de.ja in novega sonca. Doloeena bo.anstva so tudi u.ivali: darovane .rtve so razkosali, jih razdelili in pojedli, kar je pomenilo prila.eanje bo.je moei. Religiozna simbolika stare Mehike je bila zelo figurativna in konkretna, vsaj ko je .lo za resniena elove.ka telesa. Azteki so poleg tega poznali tudi abstraktnej.o, simbolno obliko u.ivanja bo.jega telesa. Lomljenje .eirovega kruha, ki so ga bojevniki u.ili pred vojskovanjem, presenetljivo spominja na kr.eansko obhajilo. Z u.ivanjem tega kruha so voj.eaki prejeli moe boga Huitzilopochtlija. V tem primeru gre za isto simbol-355 no obliko, ki jo pozna dana.nja kr.eanska evharistija. Napak bi bilo, ee bi trdili, da so vse srednjeameri.ke kulture poudarjale .ivljenje in smrt na tako drastieno ekspliciten naein, kot sta ga poznala vrhunca dveh izrazito ekspanzivnih imperijev, azte.kega in majevskega, ki sta fenomen elove.kega darovanja vpeljala relativno pozno in bolj iz politieno-ideolo.kih vzrokov, seveda z religiozno prevleko. Arheolo.ke najdbe dokazujejo, da je izrazito poudarjanje elove.kih .rtev v veeji meri prisotno .ele v postklasienem obdobju (900-1520 po Kr.).20 Kozmieni model Vsaka mehi.ka piramida, ki je bila za podstavek templju, je upodabljala majhen kozmieni model. Razvitej.e civilizacije Srednje Amerike so si kozmieno realnost predstavljale kot geometrijsko telo stopnieasto piramidalne oblike, zgrajeno iz vee horizontalnih ravni stvarnosti ali svetov, ki jih med seboj povezujejo vertikalne kozmiene osi. Sredi.ee stvarstva je bil svet dane zemeljske realnosti. Imel je obliko pravokotnika, ki ga je na vsakem vogalu podpiral en bo.ji steber (.tirje Tlaloki pri Aztekih). Vsako stran neba je simboliziralo eno bo.anstvo, ena barva, lastnost itd. Sredi.eno, navpieno os so navadno upodabljali v obliki ceibe, svetega drevesa ali drevesa .ivljenja. Sredi.ea vasi (trgi) gorskih Majev iz Chiapasa imajo .e danes pravokotno obliko. V sredini trga stoji ceiba, na vsakem izhodu pa stoje po trije svetlo modri kri.i. Ti niso kr.eanski znak, temvee ostanek majevske dedi.eine. Kri. je predstavljal .tiri strani neba z vsemi njihovimi religiozno-simbolnimi pomeni. Prostor je v stari Mehiki igral vee kot geometrijsko vlogo. Bil je svét. Pod ravnjo tuzemske stvarnosti so si Maji predstavljali .tiri spodnje svetove, Azteki pa v poznem obdobju kar devet. Vsak svet ali raven je igrala posebno vlogo in imela svojega bo.jega za.eitnika, navadno par. Enako so si predstavljali tudi zgornje ravni ali svetove. Maji so poznali devet zgornjih svetov, Azteki so jim dodali .e .tiri, tako jih je bilo skupaj trinajst. Najvi.ji zgornji svet je bil svet boga Omeotla, ki je imel mo.ki in .enski znaeaj hkrati, najni.ji spodnji svet pa je bilo kraljestvo smrti. 20 Predhodne arheolo.ke najdbe, razen nekaj izjem, ne upodabljajo elove.kih .rtev. Protoolme.ke reliefne skulpture okostnjakov, ki so jih na.li v Izapi v Chiapasu, so tako za svoj eas (8. st. pr. Kr.) prava izjema. Tudi v zgodnjeklasienem obdobju (200-900 po Kr.) je tovrstnih upodobitev malo, saj so v Teotihuacanu na.li le dve freski, ki predstavljata smrt. Marija Mojca Tereelj Bog .ivljenja in bog smrti ter posmrtno .ivljenje Zemlja, kot .tirivogalna ravna ploskev, je ljudstvom stare Mehike predstavljala sredi.ee stvarstva. Vladali so ji tako imenovani .gospodarji zemlje., z najstarej.o boginjo, iz katere so iz.la vsa druga bo.anstva staromehi.kega panteona. V neposredni povezavi s tem svetom so bili tudi bogovi, ki so podpirali zemeljsko plo.eo in njene .tiri vogale. Zgornje svetove so si stara mehi.ka ljudstva predstavljala kot .goro sveta. ali piramido s trinajstimi stopnicami, .estimi na vzhodu, .estimi na zahodu in eno sredi.eno na vrhu neba. Razlienim nebesnim ravnem so vladala razliena bo.anstva, stvarniki eloveka, .ivali in rastlin. Spodnji svetovi so v skladu z zgornjim oblikovali podzemno piramido z 356 devetimi stopnicami spodnjega stvarstva, .tirimi na zahodu, .tirimi na vzhodu in sredi.eno, ki ji je vladalo bo.anstvo podzemlja. Sonce je v .tiriindvajsetih urah ob.lo vse stopnice: vsako jutro se je po vzhodnem stopni.eu vzpelo do zenita in popoldne po zahodnem spustilo za obzorje. Od tod se je odpravilo na noeno pot. Tako kot mora ponoei sonce obiti vseh devet spodnjih svetov, so morale tudi du.e umrlih na dolgo pot po devetih podzemljih, da so pri.le v Mictlán, svet mrtvih ali senc (pri Aztekih), ki mu je vladal Mictlantecuhtli, bog smrti. Potovanje v Mictlán je bilo te.ko. Du.e so .le najprej prek gora, potem prek osmih pu.eav, nazadnje pa so morale prebroditi .iroko reko. Celotna pot je trajala .tiri leta, du.e pa so bile ves ta eas izpostavljene nevarnostim: lahko so jih po.kodovale kru.ljive skale, zadele strupene pu.eice ali ostri obsidianovi no.i. Zato so poznala nekatera ljudstva stare Mehike posebna obredja za du.e pokojnikov, ki so trajala natanko .tiri leta po smrti svojcev. Tovrstna obredja so se v prirejeni obliki ohranila do danes. Sokeji jih po .pansko imenujejo cabo del ano. Ob vsaki obletnici smrti postavijo pred pokojnikovo sliko na hi .nem oltarju cvetje, kadila, sveee in hrano. Tla posipajo z borovimi iglicami, kamor pokleknejo poklicane .ene molivke. Osem veeerov zapovrstjo molijo ro.ni venec, deveti dan zjutraj pa vse darove s hi.nega oltarja odnesejo na grob, kjer ponovijo deveti obred. Vse du.e pa niso .le v Mictlán -ta je bil le za tiste, ki so umrli normalne smrti. Juna.ka smrt je pokojnika vodila neposredno v nebo, v Tonatiuh ichan. Du.e umrlih voj.eakov so tam spremljale boga sonca na poti od vzhodnega obzorja do zenita, du.e .ena, umrlih pri porodu (mohihua quetzque ali .hrabre .ene.), pa so ga spremljale od zenita do zahodnega obzorja. Po .tirih letih so se spremenile v kolibrije. Du.e umrlih v nesreeah (utopljenci, zadavljenci itd.) in po hudih boleznih so .le v Tlalocan, svet boga de.ja Tlaloca. V Tlalocanu je vladala veena pomlad, trpljenja pa niso poznali. Otro.ka smrt je vodila v kraj blizu Tlalocana, v Chichihuacuauhco, kjer so morale du.e eakati na unieenje tega sveta in reinkarnacijo v nova elove.ka bitja. Medtem so se hranile z mlekom, ki je kapljalo z vej svetega drevesa huahuahuete. Medtem ko je dan rojstva (konstelacija zvezd in vpliv bogov) doloeal usodo .ivljenja na zemlji, je usodo posmrtnega .ivljenja doloeal naein smrti. Mehi.ki pregovor .e danes pravi: Dime cómo mueres y te dire quien eres (.Povej mi, kako umre., in ti povem, kdo si!.). Zaslu.no .ivljenje na zemlji in moralne vrline, ki so .e kako pomembne za posmrtno .ivljenje kristjanov, niso imele nobenega vpliva na posmrtno .ivljenje starih Majev in Mexikov. Prihodnost je bila v umiranju samem. Zaslu.nej.a smrt je doloeala zaslu.nej.e Pojmovanje smrti v stari Mehiki in religiozni sinkretizem v dana.njih obredih ob smrti posmrtno .ivljenje. Sicer pa tudi navadna smrt ni vodila v pekel, temvee v Mictlán, kraj, kamor pridejo du.e sicer res po dolgi in naporni poti, a ko pridejo, so dele.ne gostoljublja njegovega gospodarja Mictlantecuhtlija. Ljudstva stare Mehike niso poznala pekla in njegovega terorja kazni. V Mictlánu (ali Metnali pri Majih), ki je bil zadnji svet podzemlja, je tudi ponoei sijalo sonce in du.e so .ivele podobno kot na tem svetu. Ko govori o pojmovanju starosti, razlaga Laureano Reyes Gómez primerjavo sone nega obhoda s elove.kim .ivljenjem v dana.njem izroeilu Sokejev21 . Sonce ima .estnajst razlieno poimenovanih dnevnih faz: vzhod, tri dopoldanske faze med vzhodom in zenitom, zenit, tri popoldanske faze med zenitom in zahodom, zahod, tri noene faze med zahodom in polnoejo, polnoe ali eas nie in tri temne jutranje faze med polnoejo in vzhodom. Analogno sonenim fazam imenujejo Sokeji en zdrav .ivljenjski cikel, na pri-357 mer: noman pijtu jama22 (dete), kimun jama (otrok pri osmih-devetih letih), yujk jama (adolescent - .ko sonce .ge.), kujk jama (soneno poldne ali tudi .elovekovo poldne.), jama dsu.e (zrelost), tsai.a, pitse.a, notjeykah jama (zaton), tsu.an itd. - adolescent je rastoee sonce, mladenie je poldne, zrel elovek je rano popoldne, pozna srednja leta so vee faz zahajajoeega sonca (do devetinpetdesetega leta), s .estdesetim letom je elovek vstopil v noe; od tega leta pa do petinosemdesetega poznajo Sokeji tri faze noei, ko nastopi .mrk. ali riziena toeka odhoda. Opolnoei pride .e na vrsto zanostitev, novo seme sonca, ki mu sledijo tri embriolo.ke faze do rojstva ali vzhoda. Ta ekliptieni obhod sonca (eloveka) ka.e na predkolumbovsko izroeilo sonenega obhoda okoli piramide in na prepletanje smrti in novega rojstva. Smrt je torej prehod v novo rojstvo. Sklep Naj sklenem svoj prispevek z naslednjimi mislimi: Na obmoeju dana.nje Mehike je kljub prepletanju vee predkolumbovskih religioznih izroeil in preplastevanju le-teh s kr.eanstvom mogoee ugotoviti, da so se med omenjenimi etnienimi skupinami ohranili tisti bistveni elementi, ki so povezani s predkolumbovskim, predazte.kim in celo predmajevskim kultom rodovitnosti: .ivljenja in smrti hkrati. Medtem ko je naertna .panska evangelizacija uspela zabrisati meje med elementi razlienih kulturnih izvorov in izkoreniniti marsikatero pred.pansko religiozno prakso, so na dejanskem obrednem kot tudi miselno-simbolnem nivoju ostale zelo evidentne tiste kulturno-religiozne sestavine, ki so neposredno vezane na najbolj temeljno eksistencialno bistvo fizienega in kulturnega pre.ivetja doloeene (eeprav transformirane) dru.be: njeno nadaljevanje. To je predvsem vidno v kultih rodovitnosti in kultih prednikov med pre.ivelimi avtohtonimi skupinami. Navsezadnje je vidno tudi v dejstvu, da je mnogo elementov avtohtonih kultur prevzela mehi.ka mesti.ka in urbana sredina. Umreti v Mehiki, pa eeprav v tridesetmilijonskem glavnem mestu, ni isto kot umreti v Evropi. 21 Laureano Reyes Gómez, .Gradación zoque de la edad., Cultura y etnicidad zoque, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, México, UNICACH-UNACH, 1998, pp. 167-187. 22 Jama (hama) pomeni sonce. Marija Mojca Tereelj VIRI IN LITERATURA CARMICHAEL, Elizabeth and Chloe Sayer 1991 The Skeleton of the Feast. British Museum Press, London. CLARK, John E. 1994 .Antecedentes de la cultura olmeca., v: Los olmecas en Mesoamérica, México, 31-43. DÍAZ DEL CASTILLO, Bernal 1992 Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva Espana. Editorial Porrúa, México. DURÁN, Diego 1984 Historia de las Indias de la Nueva Espana. Editorial Porrúa, México. HOLLAND R., William 1989 Medicina Maya en los Altos de Chiapas. INI, Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, México. HOWES, David 1987 .Olfaction and transition: an essay on the ritual uses of smell., v: The Canadian Review of Sociology 358 and Anthropology 24 /3, 1987. KURET, Niko 1989 Praznieno leto Slovencev. Dru.ina, Ljubljana. LEE, Thomas 1989 .La lingüística histórica y la arqueología de los zoque-mixe-popoluca., v: 1. Reunión de Investigadores del Area Zoque, Tecpatán, Chiapas, 1986, CEI-UNACH, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, México, 7-36. LEON PORTILLA, Miguel 1986 Tiempo y Realidad en el Pensamiento Maya. Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas de la UNAM, Serie de Culturas Mesoaméricanas: 2, México. LÓPEZ-AUSTIN, Alfredo 1984 Cuerpo Humano e Ideología. Las concepciones de los antiguos nahuas. Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas: Serie Antropológica 39, 2 vols., México. PAZ, Octavio 1975 El Laberinto de la Soledad. Fondo de Cultura Económica, México. REYES GÓMEZ, Laureano 1988 .Introducción a la medicina zoque, una aproximación Etnolingüística., v: Estúdios recientes en el área zoque, CEI-UNACH, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, 158-382. 1997 .Los zoques de Chiapas: salud, enfermedad y atención en la viejez., v: 2. Reunión de Investigadores del Area Zoque, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, México, 1997, CEI-UNACH, v tisku. 1998 .Gradación zoque de la edad., v: Cultura y etnicidad zoque. Nuevos enfoques en la investigación social de Chiapas. San Cristóbal de los Cases, Chiapas, México, UNICACH-UNACH, pp. 167-187. SAHAGÚN, Bernardino 1989 Historia general de las cosas de la Nueva Espana. Editorial Porrúa, México. TEREELJ, Marija-Mojca 1990 Terenski zapiski / Field notes: Pantepec, Tapalapa - Chiapas, Mehika. 1991 Terenski zapiski / Field notes: Pantepec - Chiapas, Mehika. 1992 Medicina in magija med Sokeji v Chiapasu (Mehika). Magistrska naloga. Oddelek za etnologijo in kul turno antropologijo FF, Ljubljana. 1996 Terenski zapiski / Field notes: Pantepec, Chamula, Tuxtla Gutiérrez - Mehika. 1997 Terenski zapiski / Field notes: Tuxtla Gutiérrez - Mehika. 1997 .Joyo naque, joyo soc toc - flor costurada, flor amarrada. Flor y el simbolismo de los floreados., 2. Reunión de Investigadores del Area Zoque, CEI-UNACH, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, México, 1997, v: Cultura y etnicidad zoque. Nuevos enfoques en la investigación social de Chiapas. San Cristóbal de los Cases, Chiapas, México, UNICACH-UNACH, pp. 129-136. WESTHEIM, Paul 1983 La calavera. Fondo de Cultura Económica, México. THE CONCEPTION OF DEATH IN ANCIENT MEXICO AND THE RELIGIOUS SYNCRETISM OF PRESENT-DAY DEATH RITUALS (With Special Emphasis on the Zoque Culture, Chiapas) Marija Mojca Tereelj Key words: Mexico, death, humor, rituals !Dime cómo mueres y te diré quién eres! (Tell me, how you die, and I.ll tell you, who you are!.) (Mexican proverb) A foreigner who is not acquainted with Mexican pre-Christian tradition and its specific attitude to death, could be surprised during the days preceding November 1 when he is confronted with the stacks of candy skeletons and skulls which embellish the street stalls of all major towns in central Mexico. About a fortnight prior to November 1, Mexicans buy special sweet bread with coils of dough depicting skeletons or skulls baked on top, toy skeletons and chocolate skulls, to present their friends and relatives with them. From these multi-coloured skulls names like .Jorge., .Pepe., .Oscar. smile at you. These presents and the indulgence in one.s own death are accompanied by a particular kind of humour. Friends exchange little notes with witty and pungent ideas about human errors, life and death, like for instance1 : Mojca vino a los zoques estudiar, Más un día arribó la Calaca para lograr un sabio doctorado, y la llevó a pasear entre tumbas más, nunca se puso a pensar, sin saber que le gustaba la maraca que su sapiencia aquí ha fracasado. y el ritmo de sabrosas cumbias. 1 Mojca came to study the Zoques, One day the Skull came, to become a learned doctor; and took her for a walk among the graves, but never did she think, not knowing that she likes dancing too and the that all her science would fall through here. hot rhythm of the cumbia. And look, the sweet talking Death is already dragging Mojca. To join the other skeletons and indulge in her highbrow works and bookish study in a dark pit she now dances her danzón. Marija Mojca Tereelj Ya que, zalamera, la Muerte la atrajo, y, junto a otros esqueletos disfruta de grandes estudios y mucho trabajo bailando danzón en tenebrosa gruta. In Mizquico, a small place close to the capital, every year a .Festival of Skulls . is organised on November 1, during which prizes are given to the best costumes and toys. In the last two decades Mizquico has seen an invasion of .Batmen., .Draculas. and similar movie characters , imported from the USA. The making of sugar skulls is actually a Mexican derivative of the Anglo-Saxon Halloween pumpkins, but that the sweets are actually eaten is an exclusively Mexican phenomenon. Another entirely Mexican 360 feature is the following scene on one of Mexico City.s main avenues: a large parade accompanies a decorated coffin, in front of which elegant mariachis march in the glitter and sound of loud trumpets, while traffic is directed by merry clowns in multi-coloured clothes who sprinkle the spectators with confetti. But as soon as we leave behind the major urban centres, we get to know a rather different kind of celebrations November 1. In the Mexican countryside there are no sugar skulls, parades or festivals: here people foster the rich repertoire of a millennia old ancestor cult which in the course of the past five hundred years has taken the syncretic image of .all living and all dead.. Celebrating death with special emphasis on the ritual of the deceased ancestors occupies a special place in the Mexican festival calendar. In some places activities start as early as St Lucas. Day (October 18) and last until St Andrew.s Day (November 30), culminating on November 1, 2 and 3. To the various autochthonous ethnic groups and to the mestizo population All Saints Day does not only remind them of the dead, but also of the real encounter of two worlds: the world of the living and that of the deceased. During the first days of November the deceased visit their homes and the living prepare for this occasion very carefully. The different autochthonous groups and mestizos ornate their house altars and prepare festival dishes which always include tamales 2, sweet bread and cacao3. The Zoques4 and Mayas from Chiapas decorate their house altars on which we find portraits of the family.s patron saints and of the deceased. Over the altars arches of green branches twigs are set up among which the major role is reserved for branches of the American high-mountain pine (ocote) which is generally used for ritual purpo 2 Tamal: maize dough with added beans, spicy sauce, meat and/or herbs, wrapped in a maize or palm leaf. 3 Sweet chocolate drink, caca, cacao (Zoque) or chocolatl (Nahua) is prepared in Mexico in the old, Mesoamerican way: three cubes of raw cacao are boiled in one litre of water, to which some sugar is added (boiling takes half an hour to one hour). When the drink is homogenous enough, it is served in small cups. The word caca is derived from the proto Mixe-Zoque-Popoluca language which formed around 1400 BC on the coast of Soconusca (Chiapas), where a Pre-Olmec people domesticated maize, beans, pumpkins, Chilean peppers and cacao which later became the staple food of the permanently settled, highly developed agricultural civilisations of Mesoamerica: the Olmecs, Mayas, Toltecs and Mixtecs. 4 I have been able to witness the celebration of All Saints in Mexico four times: in October and November of 1990 and 1991 in the villages of Pantepec and Tapalapa in the north-eastern cordillera of Chiapas (Zoque), in 1996 in Pantepec and in the western high mountains of Chiapas (Maya-Tzotzil), and in 1997 in Tuxtla Gutiérrez (Zoque). The Conception of Death in Ancient Mexico and the Religious Syncretism of Present-day Death Rituals ses. Among the flowers given to the deceased the most commonly used are: tagetes5 , lilies, marigolds and chrysanthemums.6 In front of the images of the ancestors candles and copal7 are lit and in between ritual food and beverages are placed; the floor before the altar is strewn with pine needles. The candles and incense must remain lit during the entire celebration period, and the food too is set before the altar from October 31 to November 3. The dishes usually offered to the deceased consist of tamales, made of palm leaves, sweet rolls, cocoa, coffee, brandy and cigarettes, if the deceased was a smoker and enjoyed alcohol. Beside all this the deceased is also offered his favourite dish. The Zoques say that though the souls cannot eat the food, they can smell it and that amounts to the same. While the domestic preparations for the meeting of the Zoques and their ance-361 stors are under way already some days prior to November 1, the cleaning, painting and embellishing of the graves has to wait until the morning of November 1. A similar sequence is observed among the mountain Mayas. Cemeteries are not visited during the year (since people have their ancestor on the house altars) and as a consequence in the morning of November 1 they first of all have to swing the machete to clean the shrubs before they can start decorating the graves. The grave ornamentation is similar to those on the house altars: over the grave an arch of ocote branches is erected, decorated with flowers and under this arch food, candles and incense will be placed during the following days, just as it is done with the home altars.8 The Zoques spend the afternoon of November 1 at home and the whole family congregates around the house altars. On November 2 the cemetery is visited. There they play for the deceased on instruments - usually on a jarana, a home-made violin and guitar - they talk to them, eat and drink.9 On November 3 the Zoques from Chiapas visit the graves of their children 10 , while some Indians worship on this day the deceased who were the victims of a violent death. Among the dead a special hierarchy is indeed observed and celebrations are adapted to it: the central celebration is dedicated exclusively to the souls of adults and to those who died honestly. Because the souls of 5 .Flor de muerto. or flower of the dead as the mestizos call the strongly scented orange flower, is called anima joya by the Zoques, sempuchi or cempasuchi by the Nahua Indians. The strongly scented orange flowers - tagetes are used by the Zoques, Mayas and Nahuas also for healing purposes, especially for so-called limpias (.cleansing., when a patient has .lost his soul.) and in hot baths (in case of hypothermia). 6 Marigolds and lilies grow wild in the woods in Sierra de Pantepec (approx.. 1300m a.s.l.) and close to settlements, whereas the mountain Mayas from the area of San Cristóbal de las Casas have to grow them. 7 Common name for resin of different trees from the family of Burseracaee, to which local herbs are added, dry cinnamon sticks and other aromatics. 8 In Pantepec only a few graves have tombstones. They are the graves of the so-called ladinos (autochthonous population turned mestizo), the rest are lots marked by light blue-and-green wooden crosses, which the Indians repaint on the morning of every November 1. 9 Some Mexican Indian groups also visit the graves at night; for instance the Tarasca from the environs of Lake Pátzcuaro in Michoacan, who in lighted boats set out at midnight from the coast to the cemetery on the island of Janitzio. 10 There are many ethnical and local varieties; the Totonaca from Veracruz, for instance, worship dead children on octavo, on the eighth and ninth day following All Saints. Marija Mojca Tereelj the dead can do harm to the health and psychophysical harmony of the living, it is necessary to take leave from them in time.11 According to the pre-Christian tradition of the Zoques the souls of the dead (like all other transcendent beings) can perceive the reality of the living only through smell and sound and therefore the only possible communication between the living and the dead - between this world and the other world - is through music, smell and incense.12 The abundant use of smells in the rituals for the dead (flowers, incense, aromatic food and drinks, and especially alcohol and tobacco) is thus quite clear. Auditory and olfactory stimuli, characteristic elements of so-called rites of passage (rites de passage), have been discovered by anthropologists among all cultures of the world, but some of them, and 362 among them precisely the Mesoamerican ones, attribute a particularly high significance to them.13 Sensory effects change into concrete symbols of transition, since all by themselves contain (or refer to) change. Ritual music, noise, incense and beverages are instrumental to the transition into the .other. state and also denote the transition of the essential vital and social categories. According to the findings of the Canadian anthropology of senses there exists a particularly close connection between smell and the transition or the concept of change. The reason for this seems to be in the very olfactory anatomy and in the characteristics of smells. A smell is continuously in transition, changing, .that is because smells constantly escape from their objects, and because of the way they normally signal processes of transformation, ., that they are used to mediate (and manage transition) between social categories14. Religious syncretism In order to better understand the present-day syncretic rituals of death and the deceased, we have to know about the conceptions of death in pre-colonial Mexico. There are several sources on this issue: material remains, pre-Columbian codices and early colonial chronicles. If we combine the pieces of this mosaic, all we get is an approximate idea of pre-colonial conceptions, because the Spaniards thoroughly eradicated all written material. Take for instance the first Bishop and chronicler on the peninsula of Yucatan, Diego de Landa, who had all Mayas books burned and later wrote a history 11 In some places, for instance in Veracruz, the end of the celebrations is marked by strewing the road from home to the cemetery with tagetes, to make it easier for the souls to return to the place which connects this world with the other world. The Zoques and mountain Mayas have various protective means against the dangers the souls threaten them with, among others tagetes are used for therapeutic purposes. 12 How a similar role is played by music, flowers and aromatics, through which the Zoques enter into contact with the protectors of fertility, is discussed elsewhere, see: .Joyo naque, joyo soc toc - flor costurada, flor amarrada. Flor y el simbolismo de los floreados., Cultura y etnicidad zoque, UNICACH-UNACH, 1998, pp. 129-136., San Cristó bal de las Casas, Chiapas, México. 13 For this very reason the transition rites among the Mexican Indians as well as among the peoples of the Indonesian Archipelago (the Moluccas) and India have become the favourite subject of the so-called anthropology of senses. 14 David Howes, .Olfaction and transition: an essay on the ritual uses of smell., in: The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 24 /3, 1987, p. 398. The Conception of Death in Ancient Mexico and the Religious Syncretism of Present-day Death Rituals of the Mayas himself.15 There is no doubt that he faked this history for he have viewed it with a double prejudice: that of a European rationalist (particularist) way of thinking, wrapped in addition in his missionary zeal to christianise. Accurate determination of religious elements as pre-Spanish is often impossible.16 In analyses of this kind we can, however, deduce quite a lot from the method of evangelisation. The substitution policy of the Catholic Church was systematic and premeditated: it always looked for the closest possible analogy, replaced major autochthonous cults with the rituals of major saints, and in this process accidental overlapping or calendar modifications of the European festivals may have occurred. The festival of All Saints was introduced in the church festival year by Pope Bonifatius IV in the 7th century.17 The numbers of martyrs had increased to an extent the 363 Church was no longer able to award every saint his own day. May 13 was therefore determined to be the day to remember all martyrs. For practical reasons Pope Gregory moved the festival from May 13 to November 1, where it met with the ancient rituals for the deceased souls. All Souls (November 2) was accepted by the official Roman Catholic Church as a liturgical day only toward the end of the 13th century. Throughout the Middle Ages the Church engaged in huge efforts to separate the official liturgy from the pre-Christian ritual of death and to eradicate the pagan .ancestor cult .. As early as 390 AD Augustine wanted to abolish the custom of consuming food and drinks over graves, and Amalarius of Metz (780 - 850) was the first to introduce mass for the dead on November 2, with the justification that it was better to replace pagan rituals than to leave them unsupervised. In spite of centuries of efforts to reform pagan rituals they survived in Europe throughout the centuries, in the beginning at the graves and later as house customs. Nowadays only the lighting of candles and decorating of graves remind us of those customs. Offering food, beverages and incense moved from the graves to the homes.18 Throughout Europe the belief survived for a very long time that the deceased return to their homes on these days or to watch the living from their graves. The above short survey might induce us to conclude that the ritual consummation of food, the abundant incense and the presence of music in the cemeteries of Mexican Indians might be the result of European influences. We shall see below that this is not so. The Spanish wanted to eradicate the ancestor cult in the New World in the same way as they had done in Europe. Our next question must then be: how did it manage to survive five hundred years of christianising efforts? 15 Diego de Landa: Relación de las cosas de Yucatán, 1557. (Reprinted in: Editorial Porrúa, México, 1986). 16 In recomposing the past we have to take account of the most different information sources; relying on a single section of sources often leads to erroneous explanations. It often occurs that the origin is searched for in ancient Mesoamerican cultures, and that in the end we discover that the religious elements have their roots in Europe. Together with Christianity the Spanish brought with them pre-Christian elements from the Iberian peninsula to the New Continent and this caused a range of syncretic developments in Mexico. 17 Niko Kuret, Praznieno leto Slovencev, Dru.ina, Ljubljana, 1989, pp. 92-93. 18 It is worth mentioning that field research which I carried out in Dolenjsko and Kozjansko some ten years ago among others revealed the custom that during the night between November 1 and 2 a glass of water were left for the deceased on the kitchen table. Marija Mojca Tereelj In the 16th century Christianity, mixed with ancient Iberian elements, was transferred to the New World and found an even more fertile soil in Mexico. Here indeed the different cultures and religious traditions of Mesoamerica had already fertilised one another and melted into the specific form the conquerors and missionaries met with upon their arrival. The first chronicles of the sixteenth century: Bernardino Sahagún, Bernal Díaz de Castillo and Diego Durán report on different celebrations in the honour of the dead. These celebrations were spread all over the ceremonial calendar year, among the Aztecs most of them were concentrated in the 9th, 10th, 13th , 14th and 18th months.19 The principal festivals of the dead were Miccaihuitl, the festival of the .great death. or 364 the memory of all deceased adults, and Miccalhuitontli, the festival of the .little death., that of all deceased children. Durán reports, that the latter was the festival of all innocent who died immediately after birth and of dead-born babies, which explains the name.s diminutive form. The celebrations of Miccailhuitl commenced on August 3 and were continued on August 23 when the following offerings were brought to the graves of the deceased: tamales, cocoa, turkeys, fruit, flower ornamentations, incense and images of the deities of life after death and fertility, made of foxtail grass seeds and bark. Durán also reports that people used to dance and play music on the graves. During the colonial period these customs were transferred to November 1, but even today they still preserve many ancient elements, for instance: consummation of the same ritual food, music, flower offerings, incenses etc. The conception of life and death The religions and ideologies of different civilisations of ancient Mexico were based on a general cosmological explanation of the world and man in it. This explanation was determined by reliable and accurate observation of the natural environment, the weather and the celestial bodies. The creation was governed by opposite forces, who with the Mayas as well as with the Nahuas had their origin: in the first Father - the first Mother. From this first pair all the remaining dialectics follow: man-woman, light-darkness, hot-cold, strong-weak, birth-death, creation-destruction etc. The conception of life lay in its cyclical repetition: destruction gives birth to new creation, death enables rebirth. Birth carries in it the seed of death, as much as death already contains its antipode. Therefore, the same gods were involved in the creation of the world (Quetzalcóatl, Tezcatlipoca) and in its destruction. They were creators and destroyers at the same time. Here lies the mystery of the inseparable interconnected- ness of the symbols and rituals of fertility as well as of death. The tenth month of the Aztec calendar, during which the inhabitants of Tenochtitlan celebrated one of their numerous festivals of death (Miccailhuitl), was called 19 The Aztec solar year was divided into eighteen time units counting twenty days each and ended with five special surplus days. The Mayas had two calendars: a solar one which was similarly divided into eighteen time units of twenty days each, and a ritual calendar, which is still used by their descendants in Chiapas and Guatemala. The Conception of Death in Ancient Mexico and the Religious Syncretism of Present-day Death Rituals xócotl huetzi or .picking the fruit .. During this month a number of fertility rituals took place: offering flowers (tlaxochimaco) and the festival of fire was followed by the ritual of the .big tree., when a tree with twenty-five branches was cut down and decorated with the produce of .mother Earth. (corn, fruit, flowers, tamales). The tree first had to be stretched out flat (the horizontal level), later it was erected and decorated with images of the gods (the vertical level ). Elements of fertility and dying were also incorporated in the celebration of the goddess Teteo innan, called Toci (meaning .our grandmother.). Teteo innan was the mother of all Mexican gods, even of the creators, some kind of .the Mother.. During the eleventh month she was offered the produce of the earth in the form of fruit and food, but also the flower of death campoalxóchitl or tagetes. During the fourteenth month or quecholli the 365 god Mixcóatl was remembered. To him slaves were sacrificed and food was placed on the graves of brave warriors (the god was connected with war) and then burned (accidentally, these rituals were performed around November 1). Offerings and ritual consummation of food as part of celebrating the dead represented more than only assistance to the souls in the other world - it symbolised life or the new life in death. The inseparable connection between life and death and its high symbolic value is witnessed to by the sacrifices of human lives, dedicated to all the major gods, the creators. Ritual death carried in it a message of renewal or resurrection and therefore those who sacrificed their own lives viewed their death as the highest, transcendental goal. They died proudly since they represented a deity to which they were sacrificed. Sahagún reports that their relatives too rejoiced, firmly believing that the sacrificed beloved would join god directly. A woman sacrificed to the goddess Toci personified the goddess herself. Dressed in the goddess.s clothes she acted as god.s deputy and all her parts were therefore reliquaries. Even the slaves who were thrown into the fire alive and with tied arms and legs on the first day of xócotl huetzi represented the god of fire Xiuhtecutli. They were painted yellow and before they actually died they were dragged out of the fire and their hearts were cut out. The hearts represented divine food, that is the seed or embryo of new fire. An equally significant role was played by the hearts (seeds, fruits) of the new rain and the new sun. Certain deities were also consumed: the sacrificed victims were cut to pieces, divided among the people and eaten and this act amounted to taking possession of divine power. The religious symbolism of ancient Mexico was highly figurative and concrete, at least when real human bodies were involved. But the Aztecs also knew a more abstract, symbolic form of consuming god.s body. The sharing of foxtail bread which warriors ate before going to battle cannot fail to remind us of the Christian holy communion. By eating this bread the warriors were endowed with the strength of the god Huitzilopochtli. In this case the same symbolic form is involved as is known in present-day Christian Eucharist. It would, however, be erroneous to claim that all Mesoamerican cultures focused on life and death in such drastic and explicit ways as was the case with the peaks of two notably expansive empires, those of the Aztecs and the Mayas, which both introduced the phenomenon of human sacrifice relatively late and primarily for political and Marija Mojca Tereelj ideological reasons, though, of course, under a religious cover. Archaeological findings prove that the striking focus on human sacrifices was not really common to any greater extent prior to the Post-classical period (900-1520 BC).20 The cosmic model Every Mexican pyramid which functioned as the base of a temple represented a small cosmic model. The more developed civilisations of Mesoamerica imagined cosmic reality as a geometric body of terraced pyramidal shape, constructed with several horizontal levels or worlds, interconnected by vertical cosmic axes. The centre of the 366 universe was the world of the given earthly reality. It had the form of a rectangle, supported at every corner by a divine pillar (four Tlalocs with the Aztecs). Every side of the sky was symbolised by one deity, one colour, one property etc. The central vertical axe was usually depicted in the form of a ceiba, a holy tree or the tree of life. The centres of the villages (markets) of the mountain Mayas in Chiapas still have a rectangular form today. In the centre of the market stands a ceiba and at each exit from it stand three light blue crosses. These are not Christian signs though, but belong to the Mayan heritage. The cross represented the four sides of the sky with all their religious and symbolic meanings. In ancient Mexico space played more than a geometric role. It was holy. Below the level of earthly reality the Mayas imagined four underworlds, and the Aztecs in their late period even nine. Every world or level played a special role and had its divine protector, usually a pair of them. Similar was the idea of the upper levels or worlds. The Mayas knew nine upper worlds, the Aztecs added four more so that there were a total of thirteen. The highest upper world was that of the god Omeotl, who had a male and female nature alike, and the lowest underworld was the realm of death. The god of life, the god of death and life after death Earth, a four-cornered flat surface, meant to the peoples of ancient Mexico the centre of the cosmos. It was ruled by the so-called .masters of the world., including the oldest goddess from which all other deities of the ancient Mexican pantheon stemmed. Directly connected with this world were also the gods who supported the earth plate and its four corners. The upper worlds were imagined by the ancient Mexican peoples as .the mountain of the world. or as a pyramid with thirteen steps, six to the east, six to the west and a central one on top of the sky. Different celestial levels were ruled by different deities, the creators of man, flora and fauna. In accordance with the upper worlds the underworlds formed an underground pyramid with nine levels of the subterranean creation: four to the east, four to the west and a central one ruled by the deity of the underworld. 20 Previous archaeological findings, with few exceptions, do not depict death nor human sacrifices. Proto- Olmec relief sculptures of skeletons found in Izapa (Chiapas) were a high exception in their period (8th century BC). During the Early Classical Period (200-900 AD) there are few such depictions: in Teotihuacan only two frescoes were found which represent death. The Conception of Death in Ancient Mexico and the Religious Syncretism of Present-day Death Rituals In the course of twenty-four hours the Sun travelled across every step: every morning it climbed the eastern steps up to the zenith and in the afternoon descended by the western steps behind the horizon. From there on it went on its nightly journey. In the same way the Sun has to travel all nine underworlds, the souls of the deceased had to cover the long road through the nine underworlds to arrive at Mictlán, the world of the dead or shadows (with the Aztecs), ruled by Mictlantecuhtli, the god of death. The journey to Mictlán was very hard. The souls first had to cross mountains, than eight deserts, and finally they had to wade across a wide river. The whole journey lasted four years and all the time the souls were exposed to various dangers: they could be injured by falling rocks, hit by poisonous arrows or by sharp obsidian knives. Some peoples of ancient Mexico therefore had special rituals for the souls of the deceased which lasted 367 exactly for four years after their death. Such rituals have been preserved into the present, though in a modified form. The Zoques call them (in Spanish) cabo del ano. Upon every anniversary of his or her death they place flowers, incense and food in front of the deceased.s picture on the house altar. The floor is strewn with pine needles and women prayers kneel there. Eight nights in a row they pray the rosary and on the ninth day they carry all the offerings from the house altar to the grave where the ninth ritual is repeated. Not al souls, however, went to Mictlán, because is was reserved to those who died a normal death. A heroic death sent the deceased straight away to heaven, to Tonatiuh ichan. The souls of fallen warriors there accompanied the god of the Sun on his way from the eastern horizon to the zenith, and the souls of women who died in child birth (mohihua quetzque or .brave women .) accompanied him from the zenith to the western horizon. After four years they changed into humming-birds. The souls of those who died in accidents (drowned of suffocated etc.) or in great pain went to Tlalocan, the world of the rain-god Tlaloc. In Tlalocan eternal spring reigned and no suffering ever occurred. A child.s death took it to a place near Tlalocan, to Chichihuacuauhco, where the souls had to wait until the destruction of this world and to be reincarnated into new human beings. Until then they were fed by milk which dripped from the branches of the holy tree huahuahuete. While the day of birth (the constellation of the stars and the influences of the gods) determined a person.s fate on Earth, the fate of a deceased.s life after death was determined by the way he died. A Mexican proverb of the present still says: Dime cómo mueres y te dire quien eres (.Tell me how you die and I.ll tell you who you are!.). A deserving life on Earth and moral virtues which are of the upmost significance to life after death of a Christian, did not have the least impact on life after death of the ancient Mayas and Mixtecs. The future was harboured in the act of dying. A more deserving death led to a more deserving life after death. But even a quite normal death did not lead to hell, but to Mictlán, the place at which the souls arrive only after a long and hard journey, but when they get there, they enjoy the hospitality of its master, Mictlantecuhtli. The peoples of ancient Mexico did not have to fear hell or the terror of punishment after death. In Mictlán (or Metnal with Mayas), the last world of the underworld, the sun shone even at night and the souls lived similarly as in this world. Marija Mojca Tereelj Laureano Reyes Gómez explains the comparison of the Sun.s jorney with man.s life in the present-day tradition of the Zoques21 . The Sun has sixteen differently named daily phases: sunrise, three morning phases between sunrise and the zenith, three afternoon phases between the zenith and sundown, sundown, three nightly phases between sundown and midnight, midnight or zero time and three dark morning phases between midnight and sunrise. In analogy with the Sun.s phases they call one healthy life cycle for instance: noman pijtu jama22 (child), kimun jama (child from eight to nine), yujk jama (adolescent-.when the sun burns., kujk jama (high noon or .man.s high noon.), jama dsu.e (maturity), tsai.a, pitse.a, notjeykah jama (sundown ), tsu.an etc.. - an adolescent is a rising sun, a young man is high noon, a mature person early afternoon, and the senior middle 368 years are several phases of the setting Sun (until the age of fifty-nine), upon his sixtieth birthday a person enters the night; between sixty and eight-five years of age the Zoques know three phases of the night; when .solar eclipse. occurs or the risky point of departure. But when midnight comes new insemintion already occurs, the new semen of the Sun, which is followed by three embryological phases up to birth or sunrise. This ecliptic journey of the Sun (and of man) indicates that there must have been a pre-Colombian tradition of the Sun.s passage around the pyramids and to the interconnectedness of death and rebirth. Death is thus the transition into rebirth. Conclusion I would like to conclude this article with the following reflections: In the area of present-day Mexico despite the presence of several interwoven pre- Columbian religious traditions and overlaying Christianity it is possible to establish that among the mentioned ethnic groups those essential elements have been preserved which are connected with Pre-Columbian, pre-Aztec and even pre-Mayan fertility cult of life and death alike. Whereas the systematic Spanish evangelisation succeeded in erasing the boundaries between the elements of different cultural origins and eradicate many pre-Spanish religious practices, on the actual ritual as well as mental and symbolic level those cultural and religious elements have remained quite evident which are directly connected with the most fundamental existential essence of physical and cultural survival of a certain (though transformed) society, that is its continuation. This is quite evident from the fertility cults and ancestor cults among the remaining autochthonous groups. And, after all, it is also evident from the fact that many elements of the autochthonous cultures were adopted by the Mexican mestizos and urban centres. To die in Mexico, even in a capital which counts thirty million of inhabitants, is not the same as to die in Europe. 21 Laureano Reyes Gómez, .Gradacíon zoque de la edad., Cultura y etnicidad zoque, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, México, UNICACH-UNACH, p. 167-187. 22 Jama (hama) = the Sun. The Conception of Death in Ancient Mexico and the Religious Syncretism of Present-day Death Rituals SOURCES AND LITERATURE see page 358 BESEDA O AVTORICI Marija Mojca Tereelj, mag., etnologinja in filozofinja, je kustosinja Slovenskega etnografskega muzeja za stike Slovencev z neevropskimi kulturami. Kot nova raziskovalka Oddelka za etnologijo in kulturno antropologijo Filozofske fakultete v Ljubljani je med letoma 1988 in 1994 v presledkih raziskovala kozmologijo, medicino in obredja rodovitnosti med Indijanci Zoques v Mehiki. V Slovenskem etnografskem muzeju je zaposlena od leta 1996. V letu 1997 je v muzeju pripravila .tudijsko razstavo z naslovom Baragova zbirka predmetov iz Severne Amerike, leta 1998 pa razstavo in obse.ni katalog z naslovom Iz de.ele sonenega sijaja in meseeevih senc : Beblerjeva indonezijska zbirka. Vzporedno pripravlja doktorsko nalogo z naslovom Sokejevska kozmologija kot interpretacijski model in kot predmet etnolo.ke (antropolo .ke) razlage. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Marija Mojca Tereelj is an M.A. in ethnology and philosophy and curator at the Slovene Ethnographic Museum for the Relations between the Slovene and Foreign Cultures. As a new resarcher at the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology of the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana she studied with intervals from 1988 to 1994 the cosmology, medicine and fertility rites among the 369 Zoques Indians of Mexico. She has been employed at the Slovene Ethnographic Museum since 1996. In 1997 she prepared in the museum a study exhibition entitled The Baraga Collection of objects from North America, and in 1998 the exhibition and extensive catalogue entitled From the land of sun shine and moon shadows: The Bebler Indonesian Collection. She is also working on her doctoral dissertation on the subject .Zoques cosmology as an interpretation model and as the object of ethnological (anthropological) explanation..