Unusual Aztec Statue: Xipe Totec

I mentioned a sloth as it has a rounded, smaller head than an ape without large brow bones. It has a longer sleeker body than an ape. The more I look at the picture I'm starting to convince myself now lol

Reptile feet have claws . . . these feet (and hand?) pretty clearly have nails

Leading me to think likely not reptile

Googleing on Xipe Tolec (the flayed god, god of renewal and regeneration) all sources available on the net refer to the fact that the flayed skin is of human origin. Humans were sacrificed and their skin used by ‘priests’ or shamans for a 20 day ceremony as a symbol for fertility, e.g. like the corn sheds a layer before germinating or the snake sheds a skin before a new cycle. After the death of a sacrificed individual, its heart was always and firstly removed which could explain the cut on the chest and the rough stitching.

The various representations of Aztec statues as Xipe always depict a human underneath the flayed skin. This skin seems to sometimes be of human origin and sometimes of some ape-like origin. I wonder if this might have to do with the ban of human sacrifice (anybody here with some knowledge on that subject?).

It could be that the human skin was substituted with a similar animal skin. Also, statues were often used for the ceremonies. So, to consider the size of the ape or money skin used, it could very well fit over any suitable statue resp. the statue could be built to suit the available skin.

The statue we are presented with in the op is but a statue of both, the statue and the skin, not the statue used to for wearing the skin. In either case I could not find any reference to the size of them.

However, following the link offered by Slayer, the first picture shown on that site is most intriguing: I think it does show that the suit is of human origin and the wearer having most unusual legs (actually reminding me of Sumerian gods). The reason might be, that this image is referring to the god Xipe Tolec himself, whereas the statues show the shamans representing the god.

Has anyone mentioned that it sort of looks like reptilian hands and feet?

reply to post by SLAYER69

what about a second set of hands?

finger and toe length look identical. unable to determine the thumb size from the pic.

reply to post by SLAYER69


Your correct, that is a monkey/ape skin over the human skin. And as you said unless they had ape's or very large monkey's who lived in the new world, they got this from across the ocean. Good find, good find.

The braiding that looks like a helix is the rope or twine that was used to close the opening of when they skinned the ape or monkey. If you look at it, he wore that thing like a suit.

Originally posted by SLAYER69
After breakfast this morning I was surfing through some Aztec and Mayan archeological sites and came across the following image. It in my opinion is very interesting in that it shows an Aztec god wearing what appears to me to be a primates skin and not a human skin which is often how the deity is described

It's a human skin. There's a number of depictions of this practice, including the one about the feast of the deity Ochpaniztli. Details here. Not for the faint-of-stomach

Besides, there aren't any anthropoids in South America or Central America large enough to cover a human being.

Originally posted by INEPTUSER
reply to post by SLAYER69

 

what about a second set of hands?

finger and toe length look identical. unable to determine the thumb size from the pic.

That's the hands and feet of the flayed person. In this statue it appears they left the bones of the hands and feet in when the priest/god wore the skin (possibly because it'd be difficult to neatly flay the material out.) These skins weren't tanned or preserved -- a fresh one was worn each time.

Originally posted by Byrd

Originally posted by INEPTUSER
reply to post by SLAYER69

 

what about a second set of hands?

finger and toe length look identical. unable to determine the thumb size from the pic.

That's the hands and feet of the flayed person. In this statue it appears they left the bones of the hands and feet in when the priest/god wore the skin (possibly because it'd be difficult to neatly flay the material out.) These skins weren't tanned or preserved -- a fresh one was worn each time.

What do you make of the inside toes (a person's big toe) of the skin suit stretched back to the heel of the priest wearing the skin? If the bones were left intact in the feet, wouldn't the skin suit's big toes align with the rest of the other toes?

It is the proof we have all been waiting for that validates the belief that uneducated, mushroom loving artist. fron 2k years ago can carve some wacky crap in their spare time. I wonder what 3010 man will make of Spong Bob.

Heres a picture that seems to show the peeling of skin but also shows wearing of what looks like a cow and a very large bitd in the same picture.

It's not a monkey or primate but actually a reptile. Maybe half reptile/half human or some link between the two. Notice the line pattern on the hands and feet.

reply to post by Tasty Canadian

reply to post by SLAYER69


A memorial to a child that died rom eating a bad bananna? Thats my guess. These are some crazy statues. The thing that caught my eye in the first one was the structure around the waist. Then you said something about a 'lord o bondage'. Maybe the waist thingy is a restraint of some sort, and this guy was so fertile and genetically awesome that he could impregnate chimps as well as humans, this is why he needed both kinds of hands. and he was forced to be a breeder..the two posts below the waist are like pull up bars because he was also a giant?

reply to post by SLAYER69


Sorry, all you have to do is look at the details.

The garb is NOT human AT ALL, it is a possum !

Look at the feet observing the details, and then look at the skin above it, scales, a second sheathe of skin over the fingers at their base, NOT AT ALL THE WAY THE HUMAN FEET ARE DEPICTED.

IT IS A OPOSSUM SKIN !!!

The statue depicts a human in a OPOSSUM costume ! I wonder what the family jewels are about, maybe that is the opossum's lair.

I know what it is ...

It is a native dressed to go hunting.

The rope like bundle on his chest holds some kind of dart or knife, many, that are stabbed into it to hold them.

The table on the out fit allows the hunter to prepare his weapons out in the field, perhaps loading poison on the darts.

Look how sloped the forehead is and the how THICK the body and feet are, the Mayan's DID NOT have our genes.

If he got on his knees with this on, the table might rest on the ground or maybe it is meant to be removed and is left in the field and is a lure for rodents. It seems to have a rodent face and body built in under that table.

It might NOT be a opossum it might be a wild pig

Wearing skins next to the flesh for hunting are done to hide human sent and create an animal like appearance.


I think if he got on his knees then the Rabbit thing between his legs would go into the box. There seem to be flaps of leather above the Rabbits head, that maybe a hinge. Then he could slip his fingers over the top edges of the box and work those two knobs to move the rabbit like a puppet.

Now is that for hunting, or for entertaining children or even adults, I don't know

Can't help but notice the two types of homosapiens in this one sculpture. You got Human feet, then Chimpanzee feet. Same with the hand's. This is unusual; but then, just maybe. The Aztecs had the same understanding of the world as we do now, enough to say that a chimpanzees DNA is %98 relative to our own; Humans. Kind of weird. This thread can take the course of a religious aspect or the side of scientology. Now that I think about it, This thread is confusing.

I think the body is the skin of a chimp. Well, the common ancestor of chimp and man.
But there appears to be stitching around the neck, and the face that of a man.
I think this is portraying something similar to the bible story that god made us "from the Earth", but with his likeness.
That is mind, body and soul... I guess the guy's junk is the representation of his soul.

Originally posted by SLAYER69

Originally posted by Tasty Canadian
S&F for this one Slayer. I have to agree with BlackOops, Sonnny & Mustard, in that the item on Xipe's chest does indeed look like a DNA strand. What I also observed is that the 2 symbols above his "junk", as one poster put it, are the fallopian tubes of a woman (top) and the vas deferens (seminal tubes) of a man (below)

This is sort of related....

I found and saved this image of an Olmec figurine found in Mexico a couple of years ago. The Olmec predate the Aztec and Mayans. I still don't know what to make of it

I found it on a site that was auctioning off Olmec relics and had no other information regarding it's history or what it supposedly represented...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/8aa80aa47bd5.jpg[/atsimg]
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/bec6666e2f9f.jpg[/atsimg]
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/69ed66f84d87.jpg[/atsimg]