User:Kmarschhausen/Ixiptla

Ixiptla, a term in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, can be commonly understood as costumed figure representing a deity. However it is more than just a representation or substitution for this figure but it is the belief that the item or person is actually becoming the deity, and most recently has been described as "the localized embodiment of a deity." Ixiptla is the animacy of an object or a person. This word is always written, spoken or understood in a possessive relationship with other things or beings. It is analyzed in Diana Magaloni Kerpel's book The Colors of the New World.