User:Brittanyn clarke/sandbox

Initial Evaluation for Aztec Calendar Stone

 * 1) Seems to be confusion/disagreement about title of monument. Sun stone? Calendar stone?
 * 2) Fair introduction. Clear and easy to read.
 * 3) Physical description does not really include mention of anything outside of the middle of the stone.
 * 4) The interpretation section uses the idea of "theory" a lot. Would need to look at sources and reevaluate that use.
 * 5) Include some images from the Getty website
 * 6) Reference #2 is not a scholarly source
 * 7) The see also section could be incorporated better (Benito perhaps)

From the moment the Sun Stone was discovered in 1790, many scholars have delved into making sense of the stone’s complexity. This provides a long history of over 200 years of interpretation of the stone. As Eduardo Matos Montezuma states:

“In addition to its tremendous aesthetic value, the Sun Stone abounds in symbolism and elements that continue to inspire researchers to search deeper for the meaning of this singular monument.”

"“In addition to its tremendous aesthetic value, the Sun Stone abounds in symbolism and elements that continue to inspire researchers to search deeper for the meaning of this singular monument.”"

Work on Mayahuel
* Contributions to Mayahuel are already published on Mayahuel page but a copy of my final version is pasted here

Notes:

female “divinity”? instead of deity, aztec religion instead of mythology

incomplete last paragraph (I ended up deleting the section about myths/breasts)

missing any talk of primary sources (added 4 and images in a useful gallery)

need more background about maguey plant (added sentence and a few more products)

Mayahuel - My Version:
Mayahuel is the female deity associated with the maguey plant among cultures of central Mexico in the Postclassic era of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican chronology, and in particular of the Aztec cultures. As the personification of the maguey plant, Mayahuel was also part of a complex of interrelated maternal and fertility goddesses in Aztec religion and is also connected with notions of fecundity and nourishment.

Origins from the Maguey Plant
Maguey is a flowering plant of the Agave genus, native to parts of southwestern modern United States and Mexico. The depictions of Mayahuel in the Codex Borgia and the Codex Borbonicus (see Figure 1. and Figure 3.) show the deity perched upon a maguey planet. The deity's positioning in both illustrations, as well as the same blue pigment used to depict her body and the body of the maguey plant on Page 8 of the Codex Borbonicus, give the sense that she and the plant are one. Furthermore, the Codex Borbonicus displays Mayahuel as holding what looks like rope, presumably spun from the maguey plant fibers. Rope was only one of the many products extracted from the maguey plant. Products extracted from the maguey plant were used extensively across highlands and southeastern Mesoamerica, with the thorns used in ritual bloodletting ceremonies and fibers extracted from the leaves worked into ropes, netting, bags, and cloth. Yet, perhaps the maguey product most well-known and celebrated by the Aztecs is the alcoholic beverage octli, or later named pulque, produced from the fermented sap of the maguey planet and used prominently in many public ceremonies and on other ritual occasions. By extension, Mayahuel is also often shown in contexts associated with pulque. Although some secondary sources describe her as a "pulque goddess", she remains most strongly associated with the plant as the source, rather than pulque as the end product.