Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Winter 1991

Journal / Book Title

Conjunctions

Abstract

The Aztec upright drum, tlalpan huehuetl, stood totally silent in the Metropolitan exhibit from Mexico, headless, covered with a swirling visual text which includes two carved eagles and three jaguars, each uttering the sign of holy conflagration in war," blazing water" on one side a transfigured warrior rising up in eagle attire—quauhtlehuanitl" eagle rising," a figure of the sun from dawn to midday—and opposite him a drooping eye at the axis of a quincunx, pierced south to north by a short, angular dart—the calendrical sign 4 Motion, the name of this fifth age of the world, destined to collapse in earthquake, pestilence and fire.

Published Citation

Gingerich, W. (1991). Drum of Poetry, Drum of War. Conjunctions, (16), 272-279.

Download
COinS