Translation:True History of the Profound Mexico/6
5. THE OLMECS.
Also called the "Mother Culture"[1], represent the final achievement of thousands of years, during which previously nomad peoples, hunters—gatherers, settled themselves for thousands of years in a given place and, there, generation after generation, investigated and observed nature, the skies, and explored their inner spiritual selves. Eurocentric scholars[2] , with a colonized vision, do not consider important this long preclassical period that successfully culminates with the formation of the Olmec culture between 1500 and 1200 BCE, and is of great value to our civilization, as it helped define the early cultures of ancient Mexico, for our present; because part of what we are today, is rooted in the early Olmecs and specially for our future, because they remind us of our capabilities, our desire to be and transcend time, but above all, talks to us about continuity and direction.
The Olmecs should not be considered to be the "beginning", but rather, the end of a huge period of cultural formation that took more than four millennia (two Christian eras) and is quite unknown to ordinary Mexicans.
"One of the most controversial aspects about the Olmecs, in addition to their chronological position in relation to other Mesoamerican cultures, has been the elucidation of their ethnic, linguistic and racial affiliation of this culture that, in the south of Veracruz and east of Tabasco, experimented with new forms of social, economic, political, and religious organization. This was completely different from the village and tribal life that preceded them, and which existed in most of the geographical space that, with the passage of time, would build the macro cultural area called Mesoamerica." (Tomás Pérez Suárez. 1994).[3]
However, it is necessary to point out that the philosophical synthesis which was embodied in the Olmec iconography[4] will remain as a common thread throughout the entire developmental process of the Anahuac civilization. The Spanish invaders found the roots of the Olmec culture alive in the 16th century. This is how Quetzalcoatl, whose image was engraved in the stones of Chalcatzingo, Morelos, during the Preclassical, is also found in Teotihuacan, during the Classic, with the Toltecs, and in Tenochtitlan, with the Aztecs, in the Postclassical. Rattlesnakes, felines, the Quincunx[5], and representations of Tlaloc through the use of two opposing snake faces, in profile; talk to us about a knowledge, philosophy and religion, which were alive and evolved for at least 3 thousand consecutive years and which somehow survives in the mystical and spiritual being of native peoples and peasants of contemporary Mexico.
"Neither warriors nor traders, but civilizing agents, the Olmecs fulfilled their self—assigned destiny. They reached as far as they could, and extended their knowledge over time; thus building what was to be the spiritual backbone of our ancient culture.
The concept of humanity they forged provided the foundation of the perpetual optimism of the men that succeeded them. Their heirs, whether Teotihuacan, Zapotecs, Mayan, Mixtecs, Huastecs, Totonacs, Aztec, succeeded, thanks to the momentum provided by them, in the endless proliferation of happy cultural constructions whose vestiges still educate and dazzle.
Teotihuacán, Tula, Xochicalco, Cacaxtla, El Tajín, Tikal, Palenque, Toniná, Uxmal, Monte Alban, Mitla, Malinalco, Chichen Itza, Tenochtitlan, and many other similar cities, bear witness to this justified and enduring optimism.
Offensively, scholars still speak of primitive cultures, of totemism, of rain worship, bloody rites and focus their attention in the “Guerra Florida” (flower war) and the so-called Aztec human sacrifices, in an attempt to legitimize the contempt with which they justify our exploitation." (Rubén Bonifaz Nuño. 1992)
When the Anahuac civilization manages to neatly produce what we call today the Olmec culture, the knowledge foundations were already in place, both the tangible kind: agriculture, engineering, architecture, medicine, etc., as well as intangible ones, like philosophy, mathematics, religion, art, astronomy, among others. They already had in operation the four basic systems, foundation of every society, regardless of the culture to which they belonged and which were developed and perfected, almost entirely, during the first four thousand five hundred years of civilization, between the advent of agriculture and the appearance of the Olmec culture.
These four systems are: food, health, education, social organization and a body of laws. They represent the four indispensable foundations for the development of any culture.
The food system.
In those four and a half thousand years, our old grandparents, not only invented agriculture, the milpa, Chinampa and the edible Cactus, but also developed a sophisticated and complex nourishing system, for which tortillas, nachos, empanadas, tamales, sauces, chocolate, atole , flavor water, tejate,[6] pulque, mezcal,[7] “Alegrias” or amaranth, corn, the various types of chili peppers, pinole, the use of plants, meat of hunted animals and dried and salted fish, lots of vegetables including algae, the extensive use of insects, honey, seeds, as well as the Turkey and Xoloitzcuintle dog[8] domestication. The food system consisted not only of food but delicious and very sophisticated dishes that are perfectly balanced plant and animal proteins, sugars and fats. Altogether it provided ancient Mexicans enough energy, health and time to develop their civilizing projects, both in construction and in research.
The health system.
The health system is another of the great contributions to civilization. Our old grandparents developed a deep knowledge of the human body and its diseases. They investigated healing substances from plants, insects, animals and minerals. Doctors and anahuaca medicine reached levels nowadays unsuspected; especially since European barbarism devalued and persecuted this wisdom, it managed has managed to survive history. In fact, all this knowledge legacy was able to survive the three hundred years of persecution and in the last two hundred years has lived marginalized and disregarded by the dominant culture.
But without a doubt it has been a most valuable resource to maintain the health of the poorest Mexicans, neglected by the Government and exploited by the dominant society. Native peoples and peasants, and somehow the proletariat who lives in the great misery belts of the great cities of the country have maintained these traditional knowledge in extinction, by the action of the greedy multinational laboratories and the mass media. "Home remedies", infusions, massage, the use of plants, animals, insects and minerals for the ancestral remedies remain amazingly alive. As well as the rituals that have powerful results in the psyche of the patients, while mentioning "power plants" that occupy a special place in the ancestral wisdom.
The education system.
The educational system was one of the major pillars of the Anahuac civilization. Although, because of its importance a special chapter on education is provided, we could point out that from the "system" point of view, the ancient Mexican, surely from 1500 BCE, with the appearance of the filtered Olmec culture, already had an education system that systematically reached every child and young society in the most advanced cultures, up to the spaniards arrival.
The educational system is a basic structural element in order to develop a civilization project, since education is the method to produce and reproduce knowledge within a society. Thanks to this system, we can understand the mega projects in the long term of the Anahuac cultures, knowledge centers that took centuries to build, such as Teotihuacan, Palenque, Monte Alban and Xochicalco, among the tens of thousands built in the country.
The education that generated the Anahuac civilization applies not only to the academic aspect, which was taught in the Telpochcalli, Cuicacalli and Calmécac. But education from a deeper point of view. We refer to the philosophical and spiritual spectrum. In fact, the foundations so that the individual can understand himself, family, society, nature and the universe in an integral and comprehensive manner. The relationships that exist between each other. Responsibilities, limits and possibilities. All of this as a whole and over eight thousand years of human development, with its ups and its downs, have given us an "own face and a real heart", as individuals and as a civilization. This immense wealth of wisdom and experience is what makes us anahuacas or "Mexican" as we were "baptized" by the Spanish Creoles as of 1821.
Education, as the rich experience that has been selected and systematized over hundreds of generations. Not all the peoples of the world have this experience that we include today in the so-called "Cultural Heritage". Peoples emerging from millenary “Mother” ancient civilizations are those who have managed to systematize and incorporate into their “being” this wisdom of life. And if for western culture the upper vertex of their knowledge is supported in the domain of the material world, for the Anahuac civilization the upper knowledge vertex is in the possibility of releasing the spirit from matter. This is what unites all the anahuaca origin peoples and makes us culturally sensitive to the mystical and spiritual aspects of life. To conceive our ancient culture, we must think that our old grandparents lived in educational societies for more than thirty centuries.
To decolonize our history, we must no longer see ourselves the way foreigners described us, based on their interests, conception and ideology: as a disjointed series of "primitive" cultural islands, which had nothing to do with one another. We have always been investigated by our differences, not our similarities; which are greater. The Olmecs had much to do with the cultural development processes since the agriculture invention until the formation of the first villages; and at the same time with Olmec later cultures and the Mexico of today, with the eight thousand years of cultural development that human beings produced in what today is our territory.
To understand us as a civilization, must consider that in the Anahuac during at least 3000 years a schooling system was maintained, in which our ancestors lived uninterrupted and systematically from generation to generation, and that certainly it was truncated during the last five colonization centuries, but that in the "genetic bank of cultural information"[9] or "genetic memory", we Mexicans should find in education, a valuable and powerful tool for human development. We are a civilization with an ancient educational experience as there is no other in the planet.
Social organization system.
The social organization system and legal regime is another of the fundamental foundations that were created in the first four and a half thousand years that occurred from the invention of agriculture up to the Olmec culture emergence. Indeed, we could not understand the construction of the so-called "archeological sites", without the social organization and regulation of a legal order that would allow the regulation and harmonious and orderly interaction of individuals and peoples. The social organization and legal system allows the other three systems -food, health and education- to fully develop in harmony.
"Just as the thought and belief of the people are the result of observation and human meditation, the political organization is in close relationship with the economic, scientific and religious thinking of the peoples.
From the mathematical, astronomical, physical, and biological concept that the Anahuacas had of the universe anahuacas, by observing nature, reflection on what they saw, conforming to it, and also overcoming it, they established a political and social order appropriate to the physical, economic and scientific conditions, with the fundamental purpose of promoting and preserving community life in the country, reaching thereby a high degree of culture and knowledge, both for nature and the universe". (Ignacio Romerovargas Yturbide. 1978)[10]
The Tollan[11] concept which has been translated as city or metropolis was a daily reality in the Anahuac cultures. Whether in the Maya area, Nahuatl, Zapotec, Mixtec and Totonac, Tarascan or any other, the large human concentrations of the classical and postclassical period were impressive. As far as the city of Tenochtitlan, the most conservative estimates a population of half a million inhabitants, but surely that in the classical period human concentrations exceeded these figures. The Tlatócan, Calpulli, Hueytlahtocáyotl, Tequíyotl, Tetlatzontequilíca concepts, are intimately linked to the formidable social organization which was the fruit of wisdom accumulated and systematized by centuries and centuries of work in partnership to achieve human development. Ancient Mexicans would have never been able to achieve the civilizing prodigies, both tangible and intangible, without a complex network of values, attitudes, principles, institutions, laws and authorities that would make them possible, not only to maintain its social order, but its development. Each pyramid, every work of art, each Codex, or Stele, could not exist without the backing and support of the social organization system and legal regime that sustained them.
"They established a type of federal and interstate superstructure in political, educational, scientific and cultural matters with a tax system, mentioned earlier, appropriate to the needs of both the Government and the various Federation entities, to cater for public expenditure or for production redistribution from some regions to others in combination with a special commercial organization.
Given these fundamental concepts, two classes of organizations can be distinguished:
A.- Territorial, which were: 1.- The rural calpulli (autonomous and disperse); 2.- Urban calpulli (autonomous and concentrated in sorts of neighborhoods); 3.- The region or calpótin icniúhtli, brotherhood, fraternity, housing groups (autonomous regional entities) called Tlatocáyotl, government; 4.- State Territories or Lordships (autonomous, but authority depended on the State) called tecúhyotl, lordships; 5.- The State (independent) called hueytlahtocáyotl, great government; and 6.- The State Federation called Tlatacaicniuhyotl, brotherhood or governors friendship, or tecpíllotl, principals complexes or palaces.
B.- The institutional, centralized Government hierarchies, which could be: local (religious organization, industrial groups, lords societies) or federal (educational, administrative, fiscal, judicial, governmental or political hierarchies, the commercial and military).
The Government of any group, both territorial and institutional, corresponded to an elder’s assembly or subject experts, elected by the members of the grouping. "Nothing was done, according to chroniclers, without assembly consultation ". This was invariably led by two heads, whose posts were usually lifelong; one was administrator and the other executor, almost always the first was an elder person with succession right, and the other younger, elected by the Assembly, depending on the particular circumstances of each group, the determination of rules and procedures for implementation. The Assembly was called in cohuáyotl, circle or as a snake". (Ignacio Romerovargas Yturbide. 1978)
This complex system of social organization took the Anahuac civilization several millennia to filter and perfect it. The truth is that at the decline of the Olmec culture it was already formed and was the same found and even used by the Spanish invaders. Currently some structural elements of this system are still alive in the indigenous and farming communities. The "charge system", communal lands, tequio,[12] work tasks, assembly, the council of elders, the stewardships, the temple committees, schools, drinking water, etc., bear witness of the survival of this ancient wisdom of social organization.
"All those territorial autonomies were not isolated and abandoned to its own fate, but were articulated, harmonized, related and integrated to the State, through hierarchical institutions which together accounted for two great powers in each State: administrative power whose head was the Cihuacoátl, literally serpent woman, ideologically the Tlatoani twin Supreme administrator with regard to women (manage) that governed, with right to succession from father to son; and the Executive Branch, whose head was, the Tlatoani, literally who speaks, ideologically who performs, orders or governs, was an election post from the members of a family from earlier sovereigns, possessors of land; but did not succeed from father to son..." (Ignacio Romerovargas Yturbide. 1978)
At the time of the Spaniards arrival, in the decadent period known as the Postclassical, the invaders did not find Kings or Queens, Princes or Princesses, much less European style kingdoms or empires. In their short-sightedness and ignorance the Spaniards interpreted this democratic and sophisticated form of social organization as a decadent and vertical "monarchy", such as they had in Europe.
To such extent was their inability to appreciate and understand this ancient form of Government that Hernán Cortés (1485-1547), when he took Moctezuma (1502-1520) prisoner in his house and after having ordered the killing of Templo Mayor, which led to the Aztec people insurrection against the invaders, he ordered that Moctezuma was taken handcuffed to the roof, for to him to order people to cease the insurrection. To the Spaniards surprise, the Tlatócan[13] had already dismissed the Tlatoani Moctezuma and transferred power to Cuitláhuac. For the European culture the King was the representation of God on earth and his succession was hereditary through the Royal houses. Cortés believed that by taking Moctezuma prisoner he had control of the Aztec people and didn't understand how the Aztecs could dismiss their ruler. To date, the system of social organization and the legal regime of ancient Mexico are still not understood and scholars continue to talk about "Kings, kingdoms and pre-Hispanic princesses".
"Considering it all his remedy hope, he determined one day to take Moctezuma out in public, so he ordered and pleaded to the Mexicans to cease and stop of mistreating them." And so it was, while Mexicans were bravely fighting, that almost wanted to tear down houses with stones, the Marquis and another one, one with a cover and the other with a steel shield to protect themselves from the stones and lances, took Moctecuhzoma to the roof of the House, that faced the place where the Indians were fighting, and taking him so covered, led him to the roof parapet and the good Moctecuhzoma gave a hand sign to quiet down as we wanted to speak to them, they quieted a bit and ceased to beat the house, and removing the shields which had covered them, he begged them to stop causing evil to the Spanish and that he ordered them to stop harming them.
The captains standing in front began to shout very nasty words, telling him that he was the woman of the Spanish and that, as such, he had confederated with them and agreed with them to have them killed, as they killed, their great lords and brave men and that he was no longer recognized as King", nor he was their Lord..." (Fray Diego Durán.) [14]
The Mother Culture.
The Olmec culture is the essence and foundation of our civilization. The most important cultural traits that were in force for at least three millennia of human development, that was implemented in which today makes up the national territory and of which we are the unique and legitimate heirs.
The iconography, architecture, the snake, the jaguar, the Eagle philosophical-religious symbols, which appeared clearly defined in the testimonies of the Olmec culture, shall remain current during successive periods up to the invasion time. The optimism for life, capable of performing immeasurable spiritual projects that left an impressive footprint in the topic; whether pyramids, complex structure systems of rooms without any domestic or residential use, up to the formidable hydraulic systems, with dams and canals or kilometers of paved roads.
"And now judge the progress of the cultural phenomenon occurred in the territory of Mesoamerica for nearly three millennia;" thinking about the nature of the human energy that possessed the ability to build, among others, the above cities, cities in which the arts and Sciences fruitfully flourished; where wisdom served as root and crown of the huge material efforts required by such building.
Must be concluded that only a moral view fully optimistic and happy, taken by man about himself and the world, could engender the core of such incalculable power. A joyful humanist conception of reverence for life in all its manifestations". (Rubén Bonifaz Nuño. 1992)
The truth, the current and palpable Olmec heritage, which has been transmitted to subsequent cultures, that in turn developed and led to exquisite expressions of culture and art, each adding their touch and personal accent. It is undoubtedly their life optimism and their mystical and spiritual sense of existence and the universe.
"With them (the Olmecs) definitely begins what can rightfully be deemed the Mesoamerican culture in its fullness. Due to a reason which I will explain later, they were able to propagate the principles of the idea of man and of the world to their contemporary peoples, and what is even more significant, they managed to make people live on the integrity of cultural ways that arose in Mesoamerica, even when they had disappeared thousands of years earlier, achieving that their cultural ways were, by their common background, a unique culture." (Rubén Bonifaz Nuño. 1992)
Much more remains to be discovered about the ancient Olmec civilization and discredit all the lies that have been written by scholars against it. Indeed, as American universities can finance their researchers, these have written much about the Olmecs. Most are their "own conjectures” born of wrongful judgments from their inception and that have accumulated over time.
"With respect to the Olmecs, it has rightly been conjectured over the possibility that they had established an empire; according to such conjecture, they would have extended their influence in the Mesoamerica of that time using the strength of military forces. Nothing thus far found to prove such argument, not in their visual representations or other archaeological remains. There are no traces of weapons of aggression or defense, except for a handful of arrowheads discovered at La Venta.” (Rubén Bonifaz Nuño. 1992)
However, intelligent researches, un-colonialized and free of prejudice publications are being now published in Mexico, such as that of Dr. Rubén Bonifaz Nuño, who points to a new path. See with our own eyes, think with our own ideas and feel with our own feelings, is the school created by Bonifaz Nuño. But there are other ways, such as oral tradition, knowledge lineages or by the careful use of entheogens.[15]
"Such that, using a similar analog complicity, American scholars have formed, with respect to the Olmec civilization, a system of conjectural lies whose main features are disdain and ignorance.
Condemnable as it may be, it is not, in my opinion, the worst; the worst is that Mexican scholars, voluntarily submit to a perverse form of foreign colonization, are usually subjected, to the systematic mistakes of American scholars, and repeat them and confirm them as truthful, perhaps with the desire and the hope that they will be considered as peers. Of these cases, for an obvious principle of human dignity, I shall not provide examples." (Rubén Bonifaz Nuño. 1995)
Although it may seem daring to suppose, we need to discover what remains of the Olmec culture in the Mexicans of the twenty-first century. Understand our historical and cultural continuity throughout these eight thousand years, is one of the most important challenges facing those that want to put an end to the colonization and to build a just and harmonious society. The Olmec and wisdom fruit have not died or it is missing. It is an intrinsic part of what we are today. It is our own culture, not shared by any other people in the world.
"Victorious over foreign insults and contempt, there are still signs of that spiritual lighting system that built our cities.
There urban planning, engineering, architecture, sculpture, metallurgy, painting, all arts, sciences, mathematics, astronomy, measurement of the time, flourished obedient to the same enthusiasm of the self-assured man, proud to be the source and ascending path to perfection of life.
Happy, man lived and built the glorious testimony of his passage on earth for about 30 centuries.
Ideal foundation for the happiness of current men, the Olmec creation, that is the wonder of the Mesoamerican culture, remains there, multiplied in works that provide exemples without truce.
And this wonder is our particular heritage that honors and distinguishes us among all.” (Rubén Bonifaz Nuño. 1992)
All Olmec subsequent cultures will have its influence. The philosophical—cultural structure bequeathed by the Toltecs to the Anahuac is one of the testimonies that confirm the existence of a single civilization with many different cultures in time and space. But all born with Olmec root, all sharing the same philosophical essence.
Hence, we affirm that there is a cultural and civilizing continuity, not only just before the invasion, but what colonizers refuse to accept, that there is a civilizing and cultural continuity in these 500 years of colonization. It cannot be denied that during this period there was a brutal "cultural pruning", but the root has continued living. It can also not be denied that the cultural root has taken other external elements, not only from the western culture, but from other peoples of the world. Which has enriched and strengthened it.
The great challenge is to overcome the mental and spiritual colonization. Achieve a conscious awareness of the cultural heritage and use it to rebuild our present and design our future.
- ↑ A Mother Culture is a term for an early people and their culture, with great and widespread influence on later cultures and people. Though the original culture may fade, the mother culture's influence grows for ages in the future. Later civilizations either learn and build upon their old ways, or can learn them through peaceful or military assimilation. This term can be found in the novel Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. Mother Cultures in history include that of Kemet in the Mediterranean, and the Olmec in Mesoamerica.
- ↑ Those who see Europe as the center and origin of human civilization.
- ↑ Tomás Pérez Suárez, Mexican archaeologist, researcher at the Center for Mayan Studies of the Institute of Philological Research, UNAM. Archaeologist for the National School of Anthropology and History,with an advanced degree in Mesoamerican studies from the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of UNAM. He is a researcher at the Center for Mayan studies and his areas of research are: the sites of the early Preclassic in the coast of Chiapas, the history of Olmec archaeology and Mayan epigraphy. He is a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters and the National School of Anthropology and History of the National Conservatory school, of restoration and museum technology.
- ↑ The science that studies images and structures a line of thought from the designs.
- ↑ The Law of Center, according to Laurette Séjourné. The four cardinal points and the center that unifies them in a fifth, upward and downward direction.
- ↑ Tejate is a maize and cacao beverage traditionally made in Oaxaca, Mexico, originating from pre-Hispanic times. It remains very popular among the indigenous Mixtec and Zapotec peoples, especially in rural areas. It's also very popular for anyone who lives in Oaxaca and the surrounding regions. Principal ingredients include toasted maize flour, fermented cacao beans, mamey pits and flor de cacao (also known as rosita de cacao). These are finely ground into a paste. The paste is mixed with water, usually by hand, and when it is ready, the flor de cacao rises to the top to form a pasty foam. It can be served as-is or with some sugar syrup to sweeten.
- ↑ An investigation conducted by the anthropologists of the Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM), Mari Carmen Serra Puche, Jesús Carlos Lazcano Arce and Manuel de la Torre, under the direction of the first, provided sample this knowledge that if confirmed, would establish that mescal distillation does not date from 1650, as indicated by initial reports, but 400 years before Christ. La Jornada April 19, 2004.
- ↑ The Mexican Hairless Dog is a rare, hairless breed of dog whose size varies greatly. It is also known as Xoloitzcuintle (Spanish pronunciation: [ʃoloit͡sˈkwint͡ɬe]; English: /ʃoʊlɔɪtsˈkwiːntli/ SHOH-loyts-KWEENT-lee). The Xolo is native to Mexico. Archaeological evidence shows that the breed has existed in the New World for more than 3,000 years. Most likely, early forerunners of the Xolo originated as spontaneous hairless mutations of indigenous New World dogs. Hairlessness may have offered a survival advantage in tropical regions. Indigenous peoples of Central and South America had Xolo dogs as home and hunting companions, and today they are still very popular companion dogs; even as the national dog of Mexico. Their value in ancient native cultures is evidenced by their frequent appearance in art and artifacts, e.g., those produced by the Colima, Aztec and Toltec civilizations in Mexico.
- ↑ Human experience is kept and systematized in the collective unconscious of people. If genes possess biochemical information, humans should also "Keep" the information of his existential experience.
- ↑ Dr. Ignacio Romerovargas Yturbide, posseses four doctoral degrees in Europe and one in Mexico on Law.
- ↑ Tollan, Tolan, or Tolán is a name used for the capital cities of two empires of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica; first for Teotihuacan, and later for the Toltec capital, Tula-Hidalgo, both in Mexico. The name has also been applied to the Postclassical Mexican settlement Cholula. The name Tōllān means "Among the reeds" in the Nahuatl language, with the figurative sense of a densely populated "place where people are thick as reeds". Names with the same meaning were used in Maya and other native Mexican languages. It was also the way of saying "City", the word "Toltec" also derives from the expression Nahuatl toltecatl which is "the inhabitant of Tollan".
- ↑ The tequio (from the Nahuatl tequitl, labor or tribute) is an organized form of work for the collective benefit, consists in that members of a community must provide materials or its workforce to perform or to build a community work, e.g. a school, a well, a fence, a path, etc.
- ↑ Supreme council, where important decisions were made.
- ↑ Diego Durán (c. 1537–1588) was a Dominican friar best known for his authorship of one of the earliest Western books on the history and culture of the Aztecs, The History of the Indies of New Spain, a book that was much criticized in his lifetime for helping the "heathen" maintain their culture. Also known as the Durán Codex, The History of the Indies of New Spain was published c. 1581. Durán also wrote Book of the Gods and Rites (1574-1576), and Ancient Calendar, (c. 1579) (Heyden, xxviii). He was fluent in Nahuatl, the Aztec language, and was therefore able to consult natives and Aztec codices as well as work done by earlier friars. His empathetic nature allowed him to gain the confidence of many native people who would not share their stories with Europeans, and was able to document many previously unknown folktales and legends that make his work unique.
- ↑ An entheogen ("God inside us," en εν-"in, within," theo θεος- "god, divine," -gen γενος "creates, generates"), in the strict sense, is a psychoactive substance used in a religious, psychotherapeutic, shamanic, or spiritual context. Historically, entheogens were mostly derived from plant sources and have been used in a variety of traditional religious contexts. With the advent of organic chemistry, there now exist many synthetic substances with similar psychoactive properties, many derived from these plants. Entheogens can supplement many diverse practices for healing, transcendence, and revelation, including: meditation, psychonautics, art projects, and psychedelic therapy.