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Sandstrom, Traditional Paper Making and Paper Cult Figures of Mexico  (at reserve desk)

Type your comments here . . .

(1)

[Dave Roberts, dlr4@geneseo.edu, 10-2]

1.) It is interesting that Sanstrom did not use the real names of the Nahua he studied so as to protect them from the dangers of the outside world.When did he study these people? Do these dangers still exist today? Or have these people already been modernized, industrialized, and Westernized?

2.) Be it Europe, Asia, neolithic South America, or present day United  States, it seems that the peasant-elite hierarchy has maintained the same basic relationship, with peasants laboring while the elite control them by buying their resources and cheap labor.

3.) I would like to look more into the conflict between the Tlakacans and the Aztec. Why didn't the Aztec share their cotton resources? Was hording the cotton worth a blood feud? Were Tlaxacans unable to  harvest cotton within their region? I would like to feel maquay sometime... I'm sure it can't be too comfortable.

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[Adam Saunders, ars11@geneseo.edu, 10-9]

1) The idea of the spirit weighs heavily in their ideology. Spirits during such events as the Nahua-Otomi Crop Fertility Ritual are represented by paper cut outs which directed by the Otomi master are cut out for each of the spirits that will be represented. Spirits represented are cut out in both female and male forms on a variety of different papers.

2) Cleanliness is also a highly depicted process of the ritual. The cleansing of various adornments especially alters is believed to be washing away any harmful spirits that may be present is necessary for harmful spirits will be attracted to the festivities due to the music and offerings that are present.

3) Harmful spirits come in many varieties one being the ejecatl. On the Nahua pantheon the ejecatl are responsible for disease, misfortune, drought, barrenness and death. These harmful form of spirit lurk about in anyplace that people my frequently visit. The ejecatl tend to prey on the weak, children, the aged or anyone else that is weakened is attacked most often.

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