Pochteca Deity Yacatecuhtli

From: Aztec Mythology: The Influence of Aztec Mythology on Mexican Culture and History

By: James W. Salterio Torres

Description of the Yacatecuhtli:
"Yacatecuhtli, like the Greek Hermes, is the god of merchants, traders and travelers. He is pictured with white and black facial decorations, his hair is bound in a high sheaf, and he carries a staff and a flywhisk. He is honored by having his statues wrapped in paper wherever they are found. Merchants hold their walking stick, a massive cane called an utlatl in high esteem. They carry these walking sticks when traveling and when they arrive at a place they are to sleep, they gather all of their sticks in one bundle and tie them together, lay them at the head where they are to sleep and spill drops of blood in front of them from their tongue, ears or arms and legs; they offer copal and light a fire that burns before the walking sticks which they hold as the image of the god himself. This is their way of asking for the god’s protection from all dangers. (Restored by the author from the Codex Fejervany Mayer)"













I'm not sure how the deity of the pochteca affects the embodied rhetoric of the pochteca as a figure. Although Dolores Delgado Bernal has looked at the role of spirituality in the academic identity of Latin@ students, so this could be an aspect to consider.

New Space, Continuing Idea

From Academia de Cruz

The idea for this blog as a place to compile ideas that are a part of a larger project came into conception on my somewhat long running blog Academia de Cruz.

Here is the first post that is a cross-post from my other blog, but I thought it was a good way to start.

This is the third of my blogs that I am currently solely contributing to, but I believe that they are indicative of some of the multiple identities that I will address in the content of this blog. Academic identity will be a thread as a part of discussions of the pochteca, an Aztec traveling merchant detailed in the Florentine Codex.