Leiden University Student Repository

Janssen, Suzanne (2011)

The use of paper objects in ancient and contemporary Nahua society of Mexico

Master thesis | Archaeology (MA/MSc)

A special kind of paper was used in Mexico since the first century BC. This kind of paper bares the name amate. It has developed, from the Mexica era (14th century) onwards, for many uses of which one relates to the fabrication of objects which play a role in ritual and social context. Until recently amate paper objects were used extensively until the 1960s and ‘70s as material expression in ritual context to address spirits of the cosmic world. After the 1960s it became a material for commercial purposes and is even substituted by industrial paper nowadays. However, the paper objects have adapted their meaning and religious significance to the change of the material. Among the Nahua, the providence of industrial paper to the people made the use of amate disappear. Nonetheless, industrial paper substituted amate paper and the use of paper objects in ritual context continued. The use of these paper objects have been of interest among various scholars through time. Furthermore,...Show moreA special kind of paper was used in Mexico since the first century BC. This kind of paper bares the name amate. It has developed, from the Mexica era (14th century) onwards, for many uses of which one relates to the fabrication of objects which play a role in ritual and social context. Until recently amate paper objects were used extensively until the 1960s and ‘70s as material expression in ritual context to address spirits of the cosmic world. After the 1960s it became a material for commercial purposes and is even substituted by industrial paper nowadays. However, the paper objects have adapted their meaning and religious significance to the change of the material. Among the Nahua, the providence of industrial paper to the people made the use of amate disappear. Nonetheless, industrial paper substituted amate paper and the use of paper objects in ritual context continued. The use of these paper objects have been of interest among various scholars through time. Furthermore, analogies between the use of amate paper object in the Nahua and Mexica society are interesting in order to detect similarities or differences in the role amate paper in ritual context of both societies. However, a new perspective can shed a different light on the analysis of the role of these amate paper objects in ritual context and their religious significance. Since ritual theory is used in general to explain rituals in indigenous cultures, a theoretical perspective on ritual in the Mesoamerican erea, where differences of worldview exists, could question the applicability of ritual theory to the rituals of the Nahua and the Mexica in which amate paper objects play a major role.Show less

Author

Janssen, Suzanne

Faculty

Faculty of Archaeology

Supervisors

Jansen, M.E.R.G.N.

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en