Defining of Terms: Monsters and Clowns

The results of my search for Indigenous examples of physical deformity and transgressive behavior draw together a motley crew of characters and characteristics that I have termed the monster-clown complex. Although the terms “monster” and “clown” are commonly used by scholars, both are problematic in that they carry their own reservoirs of meaning in the Western tradition. Therefore, a clear definition of each is warranted before proceeding any further.

Early European observers of the Americas and its inhabitants frequently described visions of monsters among the Indigenous inhabitants of the land. The chronicles they wrote are filled with stories of people “with two heads but one body” (Lockhart Reference Lockhart1993:56), gentes que no tienen cabezas, sino en los pechos (Alvarado Tezozómoc Reference Alvarado Tezozómoc1987:692), and men who “lacked ears, thumbs, and big toes” (Durán Reference Durán1994:495). These beings, however, were figments of the European imagination, not the Indigenous. Regarding Nahua understandings of “monsters” and “monstrosity,” Echeverría García (Reference Echeverría García2018) has proposed two defining characteristics. First, he states that the monster was any being “that exceeded the limits of the natural,” typically expressed in exaggerated bodily dimensions. He goes on to add that in central Mexico the monster was typically identified by “abundant hairiness and its frizzy consistency” as well as “the absence of any lower limbs, their malformation or their substitution for an object” (Echeverría García Reference Echeverría García2018:335–336). The second quality he associates with monsters is their transgressive nature. He emphasizes the link between transgression and physical deformity, stating that the monster's deformity “alluded to its immorality” (Echeverría García Reference Echeverría García2018:336). He cites studies of pre-contact teteoh (plural of teotl, Nahuatl for “deity”) such as the Cihuateteoh and Tezcatlipoca, who bear the marks of their sexual transgressions in the form of deformed feet and twisted bodies.

These two characteristics of monsters, deformity and transgression, accord with what I have found in my search for material analogous to the descriptions of demons and sinners in the early colonial Nahuatl-Christian sources. I find the term “monster” problematic, however, inescapably linked as it is in the Western imagination with Frankensteins, vampires, and the like. In its place, I propose the Nahuatl term ahtlacatl. In his 1571 Vocabulario, Franciscan friar Alonso de Molina defines ahtlacatl as mal hombre (Online Nahuatl Dictionary 2000–2020). However, the literal meaning of the term is simply “not-person” or “non-human.” While Molina's definition reflects a European, moralizing perspective on the word, a related term, ahtlacacemelleh, strikes closer, I think, to the Indigenous understanding of “not-human.” According to R. Joe Campbell (personal communication 2019), ahtlacacemelleh carries the following range of meanings: “wild; madman; monstrous; one who is perverse; bewildered or foolish; a deformed thing”. This broader field of associations supports the idea that for Nahuas both physical abnormality and transgressive behavior stripped a person of the status of tlacatl (human, person) and rendered them ahtlacatl or ahtlacacemelleh (Echeverría García Reference Echeverría García2013:42). Nahuas associated many different kinds of beings and behaviors with the term ahtlacatl, from dwarfs and cripples to vagabonds, drunks, and ahuianimeh (“ones who indulge in pleasure,” prostitutes). Foreigners could also be ahtlacah (plural of ahtlacatl), people whose “otherness” was described both in terms of disordered behavior and physical abnormalities. Huastec warriors, for example, stood out in Mexica accounts as “wide-headed, broad-headed” people who let their hair “hang over the ear lobes,” descriptions that echo those of demons and sinners cited above (Sahagún Reference Sahagún, Dibble and Anderson1950–1982:bk. 10, pp. 185–186). As such, ahtlacatl seems a more suitable, emic term than “monster” to describe this category of Indigenous being or person.

Like monsters, “clowns” constitute a category in need of reimagining, since one cannot help but conjure images of Bozo or Ronald McDonald when confronted by the term. Nevertheless, these contemporary personae—with their clumsy, comic behavior, their enlarged red noses, and outrageous hair—do hint at the ancient association in both Western and Indigenous American traditions of clowning with certain kinds of disordered behavior and physical abnormality. In the European context familiar to the friars of New Spain, clowns were linked to the long tradition of the fool, the jester, and the jongleur, as well as carnival and the burlesque performances of folk theater (Otto Reference Otto2007). Fools were performers whose antics were intended to elicit laughter. Since their performances could often involve burlesque and obscenity, not to mention biting satire and parody, they were frequently the targets of Church efforts to enforce strict moral standards on the masses who so enjoyed their work. New Spain's friars held a low view of such performances and the laughter they elicited, deeming them unseemly at best and blasphemous or diabolical at worst.

Using the term “clown” to describe certain Indigenous Mesoamerican performances which involved humor and laughter risks masking Indigenous phenomena beneath Western concepts. Brylak (Reference Brylak2015:332), in her work on pre-contact Nahua performance genres, notes that no word existed in colonial Nahuatl that approximated the English word for “actor” or “performer,” at least not as these categories are understood in Western usage. In this paper I will adopt one of the possibilities she discusses, the word mahuiltiani. It is derived from the verb, ahuiltia, which Molina defines as dar plazer a otro con algun juego regozijado, o retozar a alguna persona (Online Nahuatl Dictionary 2000–2020). Mahuiltiani, therefore, means someone who engages in such activities. It can, however, also signify one who mocks or makes sport of people. In this way, the word hints at the complex field of Indigenous performances that involved mimicry, humor, mocking play, as well as the trickster figure.

Performers such as these have been referred to as ritual clowns or sacred clowns in the literature. Ritual clowning is a well-documented and world-wide religious phenomenon, some of the best-described examples of which come from the Americas. Ritual clowns are figures who are ambiguous and difficult to classify, but in general they are performers who strive to “reverse and challenge accepted norms…through theatrics,” much of which is received by their respective audiences as humorous (Attardo Reference Attardo2014:646). Although best documented in the America Southwest among Native American tribes such as the Hopi and Zuni, sacred clowning was a pan-Mesoamerican phenomenon as well. In the absence of a precise term to label pre-contact Nahua sacred clowns, I will use mahuiltiani, given its association with mockery, play, and humor. The mahuiltiani, or sacred clown, is the second category in the monster-clown complex that I argue was indexed by early colonial Nahuatl descriptions of demons and sinners.

Ahtlacah (“Monsters”) in Pre-contact Mesoamerica

One of the principle ways pre-contact Mesoamerican ahtlacah manifested their alterity was through physical deformity. Miller and Taube (Reference Miller and Taube1997:75–76) note that fascination with physical abnormalities dates back to the early Formative period. One of the most ancient and ubiquitous examples of this fascination is the dwarf motif and its close cousin, the hunchback. Dwarfism refers to a number of genetic disorders, the most common of which is achondroplasia, or “short-limbed dwarfism.” Achondroplasia results in a host of physical abnormalities, most notably shorter-than-average limbs (which results in the overall small stature of dwarfs), but also including an enlargement of the head (macrocephaly), prominent foreheads, sway back (lordosis), and bowed legs. Another deformity associated with achondroplasia is kyphosis, or hunchback (U.S. National Libraries of Medicine 2019).

Starting with the Olmec, dwarf and hunchback imagery abounds in Mesoamerican art. Olmec carved stone figurines display a diverse array of human forms that appear to “exceed the limits of the natural,” referring again to Echevarría García's definition of Nahua “monsters,” or ahtlacah (Reference Echeverría García2018:335). At San Lorenzo, Potrero Nuevo Monument 2 shows dwarfs as “skybearers,” supporting the heavenly throne of the king (Taube and Taube Reference Taube, Taube, Halperin, Faust, Taube and Giguet2009:246). These and other images depict human forms that emphasize their squat stature, short limbs, enlarged heads, distorted facial features, and hunched backs (Figures 1 and 2). During the Maya Classic period, dwarf imagery multiplied, with dwarfs populating carved stone monuments, painted vessels, and appearing in numerous carved or molded clay figurines. Miller (Reference Miller and Benson1980:141) lists the characteristic features of Maya dwarfs as “small stature, abnormally short and fleshy limbs, a protruding abdomen, and a disproportionately-large head with prominent forehead, sunken face, and a drooping lower lip” (Figure 3). In addition to dwarfs, Maya figurines include a number of other types that also demonstrates physical deformities. Among these, Halperin (Reference Halperin2014:99) lists “fat men” (also “fat gods”) who are characterized by “big bellies, hanging jowly cheeks, closed or swollen eyes,” and large lips (Figure 4).

Figure 1.

Crouching Figure (Olmec), 10th–4th century b.c. ©The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Accession Number: 1979.206.691 (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/312878).

Figure 2.

Seated Hunchback Holding Mirror (Olmec), 1000–500 b.c. ©The Dallas Museum of Art. Object Number: 1993.81 (https://collections.dma.org/artwork/5070493 ).

Figure 3.

Dwarf Figurine (Maya), a.d. 550–850. ©The Walters Art Museum. Accession Number 2009.20.36 (https://art.thewalters.org/detail/80191/dwarf-figurine/).

Figure 4.

Costumed Figure (Maya), a.d. 7th–8th century. ©The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Accession Number 1979.206.953 (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/313151).

In ancient Mesoamerica, dwarfs were closely linked with the royal family, appearing as attendants and entertainers, but also may have been associated with royal lineage, sacrifice, the journey to the underworld, and the Mesoamerican ballgame (Figure 5). “Royal dwarfs” are well documented for the Maya, as the examples above make clear; however, colonial chronicles suggest that the phenomenon was common in the civilizations of central Mexico as well. For example, in his account of Moteuczoma's court, conquistador Díaz del Castillo (Reference Díaz del Castillo and Carrasco2008:168) relates how “sometimes at meal times there were present some very ugly humpbacks, very small of stature and their bodies almost broken in half.” Duran's (Reference Durán1994:295–296) survey of the Mexica tlahtoqueh (pl.; tlahtoani, “ruler”) corroborates this account and contains numerous mentions of “slaves, hunchbacks, and dwarfs” as members of royal households. Durán (Reference Durán1994:307) relates that upon the death of Tizoc in a.d. 1486 “many slaves and hunchbacks and dwarfs were killed, with all the slaves of the king's household, so that not one was left and so they would accompany the king to serve him in the other world,” a statement that hints at a supernatural understanding and function of these special individuals.

Figure 5.

Maya ruler attended by a dwarf holding an obsidian mirror. ©Justin Kerr, K1453, Justin Kerr Maya Vase Archive, Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University, Washington, DC.

Dwarfs and hunchbacks were also linked with Mexica teteoh. Muñoz Camargo (Reference Muñoz Camargo1892:154–155) writes of the goddess Xochiquetzal that “in her service there were a large number of dwarves and hunchbacks, scoundrels and vulgar ones, who gave her comfort with great music and dance,” a description of a heavenly retinue that finds parallels in the earthly retinues of the tlahtoqueh described above. In Book 3 of the Florentine Codex, Sahagún's (Reference Sahagún, Dibble and Anderson1950–1982:bk. 3, p. 37) informants relate how Quetzalcoatl was accompanied by “the dwarfs, the hunchbacks, his servants.” Another figure associated with Quetzalcoatl was Xolotl, his canine spirit double, or nahualli, who accompanied his master on his journey to the underworld. The word xolotl may be related to xolochoa, “to wrinkle, fold something,” which suggests a semantic field that could index both the effects of age as well as the deformations of achondroplasia, which “folds” bodies over with swayed and hunched backs (Online Nahuatl Dictionary 2000–2020). According to colonial chroniclers like Tezozomoc, dwarfs and hunchbacks were in fact referred to as xolomeh (plural of xolotl; Brylak Reference Brylak2015:108). This usage may perhaps be due to the belief that they, too, would accompany their masters on their journeys to the underworld (Brylak Reference Brylak2015:104); it also alludes to the supernatural power with which certain individuals whose bodies have been “wrinkled or folded” by deformity were endowed.

The evidence reveals a strong link between physical deformity and supernatural beings and powers in Mesoamerican cultures. In particular, physical deformation seems to have been understood to be the result of behavior that transgressed moral boundaries. The Nahua classified certain types of people as “other,” including those Echeverría García (Reference Echeverría García2013, Reference Echeverría García2018) labels “the vagabond,” “the lunatic,” and “the drunkard.” These are people whose actions or behaviors were deemed disordered, excessive, or otherwise transgressing of clearly-stated moral boundaries. It is notable that, in each case, their immoral status was manifest either physically (in deformed bodies) or behaviorally (in disordered behavior). The vagabond is one who abandons the orderly world of the urban center and wanders aimlessly through dangerous, peripheral spaces. In the metaphorical language of the Nahua, he or she has “become a rabbit, become a deer” (in otitochtiac, in otimaçatiac; Sahagún Reference Sahagún, Dibble and Anderson1950–1982:bk. 6, p. 253), a transformation that spoke of the loss of human status (ahtlacatl). The transgressive wanderings of the vagabond could manifest as crooked hands and feet, as illustrated in the Codex Mendoza (Figure 6), or by the chaotic or filthy state suggested by the diphrastic couplet in tzonpachpol, in cuitlanexpol, “big old mossy head, big old ash-colored one” (Sahagún Reference Sahagún, Dibble and Anderson1950–1982:bk. 6, p. 243).

Figure 6.

Vagabond, from the Codex Mendoza (c. 1541:MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1, fol. 70r). Photograph © Bodleian Libraries.

The lunatic behaves like one who has drunk mixitl, tlapatl, the psychotropic jimson weed and Datura (Sahagún Reference Sahagún, Dibble and Anderson1950–1982:bk. 6, p. 253). In the huehuetlahtolli (“speech of the elders”) recorded by Olmos, the ensuing behavioral display of such a person is described thus: “he beats his neck, he hangs his shoulders, he raises his shoulders, he raises his voice, he shouts…he turns back and forth, he turns around…he screams madly, he calls out loud” (García Quintana Reference García Quintana1974:155). The Florentine Codex describes the behavior of the drunkard using similar language (“he threw himself down, he fell on his face…he went howling and shouting…he chattered, jabbered, gibbered, and mumbled”; Sahagún Reference Sahagún, Dibble and Anderson1950–1982:bk. 4, pp. 12, 15) as well as physical transformations of the face (ixchichilpul, “big-old red face,” yxovcpul, “decrepit drunkard's face”), hair (quapopolpol, “big-old twisted hair,” quatzompapol, “big-old matted hair”), and eyes (ixchichilivi, “red-eyed,” yxpupuçaoa, “his eyes were inflamed,” ixtenmjmjlivi, “his eyelids drooped,” ixquatoleeoa, “his eyelids burned”; Figure 7; Sahagún Reference Sahagún, Dibble and Anderson1950–1982, bk. 4, pp. 11, 13). These brief examples, notable for their repeated deployment of Nahuatl's -pol derogatory suffix, suggest that the ethnographic data collected by Olmos and Sahagún were likely the immediate sources for the descriptions of demons and sinners excerpted above. This makes sense in light of the fact that both ethnographic and doctrinal textual production took place in the scriptoria of New Spain's Franciscan convents and involved the same group of Nahua informants and writers.

Figure 7.

Drunk, from the Florentine Codex (Sahagún Reference Sahagún1575–1577), bk. 4, f. 8v. Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Med. Palat. 218–220. Courtesy of MIBACT (Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo).

In addition to the drunks, lunatics, and vagabonds—individuals whose behavior clearly labels them as moral transgressors—the Florentine Codex is replete with instances where vivid language emphasizing bodily transformations can be found. With the assistance of Campbell (personal communication, 2019), I have gathered passages employing Nahuatl's derogatory suffix, -pol, a common lexical denominator in much of the data collected for this paper. There are a number of subject areas where -pol words appear, just the briefest representative examples of which include: descriptions of foreigners: otompol, cuaxoxopol, cuatilacpol, cuexcochchichicapol, otontepol, otompixipol (“you are a miserable Otomí, a green-head, a thick-head, a big tuft of hair over the back of the head, an Otomí blockhead”; Sahagún Reference Sahagún, Dibble and Anderson1950–1982:bk. 10, p. 178), descriptions of various kinds of animals: ololpol, catzacpol, yayacpol […] cuitlatolpol, cuitlatolompol (it is round, dirty, dark […] it is very fat, very corpulent,” i.e., a toad; Sahagún Reference Sahagún, Dibble and Anderson1950–1982:bk. 10, p. 72), and descriptions of pre-contact gods and rites: texxaxacaltic, tenxaxacalpol, ihuan ixtotolompol (“it had large lips, it had huge lips; and it had big, round, protruding eyes,” i.e., a ritual mask; Sahagún Reference Sahagún, Dibble and Anderson1950–1982:bk. 2, p. 156).

Another highly suggestive passage appears in the well-known description of the teixiptla (deity impersonator) of Tezcatlipoca from Book 2 of the Florentine Codex. Designated for sacrifice at the climax of the high holy day of Toxcatl, the teixiptla was chosen for his perfect physical characteristics. Thus he can be seen as a kind of “manifesto” of Nahua aesthetics. Intriguingly however, he is described primarily in terms of negatives stating what he should not look like. The list produced by the Nahua informants of this passage fills an entire folio (Sahagún Reference Sahagún, Dibble and Anderson1950–1982: bk. 2, pp. 66–68) and offers one of the most striking parallels to the passages describing demons and sinners cited above. The words used to describe what the perfect human form ought not to look like are some of the very words certain Nahua writers borrowed—and modified with -pol—to describe hideous and sinful beings of the Christian realm. For example, the teixiptla of Tezcatlipoca is described as amo quacocototztic (“not curly-haired”), amo ixquaxitontic (“did not have a forehead like a tomato”), amo ixpopotztic (“not of bulging eye”), amo tencaxtic (“not bowl-lipped”), and amo iacacocoiactic (“he did not have a nose with wide nostrils”; Sahagún Reference Sahagún, Dibble and Anderson1950–1982:bk. 2, pp. 66–67). This passage was a rich resource from which writers could mine vivid language, transforming it with the addition of Nahuatl's derogatory suffix, and thereby conjure beings who were the epitome of Nahua views of ugliness and revulsion.

The Florentine's Nahua informants also described transformations of the human form that were not the direct result of moral transgression, but rather due to coming into close contact with more mysterious forces. For example, Sahagún's Nahua informants relate that when one who is weak (cenca auhtic, “very puny”) eats the seeds or ingests the sap of the Teopochotl tree, his or her body swells dramatically. The swelling victim is called nacatica tlamomotlalpol, tlacamimilli, xocopaticapol (“lumpy with flesh, round, an old clod of flesh with two eyes”), is said to have camatalapol, cantetepol, zan huihuiyocpol (“fat cheeks, heavy cheeks, quivering cheeks”), and yacatatamalpol, yacahuiyocpol, yacaololpol (“tamal-like nose, quivering nose, round nose”; Sahagún Reference Sahagún, Dibble and Anderson1950–1982:bk. 11, p. 216). Another example linking physical deformity to contact with some unseen power is found in Book 11's description of the tezcatl, the black obsidian mirror used in divination rituals and associated with the deity Tezcatlipoca. Regarding its magical properties, it was said that in aquin ic motezcahuia, in ompa ommotta camatalapol, ixcuatolmimilpol, tenxipaltotomacpol, camaxacalpol (“when someone uses such a mirror, from it is to be seen a distorted mouth, swollen eyelids, thick lips, a large mouth”; Sahagún Reference Sahagún, Dibble and Anderson1950–1982:bk. 11, p. 228).

Nahuatl-speaking peoples understood physical mutations like those described above as divine punishment for transgression. Two groups of teteoh were responsible for punishing transgressors this way: the five male Macuiltonalequeh (also Ahuiateteoh) and their five female counterparts, the Cihuateteoh. As punishment for excessive drinking, sex, and other kinds of pleasures, these frightening deities would strike the transgressor with various forms of disease, misfortune, and physical deformation. Speaking of the Cihuateteoh, Book 1 of the Florentine Codex records, “When one was under their spell, possessed, one's mouth was twisted, one's face was contorted; one lacked use of a hand; one's feet were misshapen – one's feet were deadened; one's hand trembled; one foamed at the mouth” (Sahagún Reference Sahagún, Dibble and Anderson1950–1982:bk. 1, p. 19). Klein (Reference Klein, Klein and Quilter2001:208) notes that “reversed or contorted bodies, limbs, and head often specified sexual misconduct in Colonial-period Nahua manuscript paintings” and cites an illustration of one of the Cihuateteoh in Codex Vaticanus B who is shown her with feet twisted inward.

Bodily deformation was also associated with Tlaloc, the Nahua god of rain, lightning, and storms. Beings called tepictoton were mountain deities considered aspects of Tlaloc. According to Sahagún's informants, they punished those who drank pulque before it was fully prepared, afflicting them with gross bodily disfigurations. In Book 1 we read: “And of him who secretly tasted it, who in secret drink some, even tasting only little, it was said that his mouth would become twisted, it would stretch to one side; to one side his mouth would shift; it would be drawn over” (Sahagún Reference Sahagún, Dibble and Anderson1950–1982:bk. 1, p. 49). Clendinnen (Reference Clendinnen1991:50) notes that although we tend to find the behavior associated with drunks “no more than irritating or embarrassing,” “for the Mexica it could attract the lightning strike of the sacred.” Inebriation, whether from pulque or through the ingesting of psychotropics, like a murderous rage, or a warrior in the frenzy of battle, or sexual ecstasy, “brought the sacred dangerously near” and therefore required controlling through rigid social norms, punishments, or properly carried-out rituals (Clendinnen Reference Clendinnen1991:51). Twisting of mouths, like the contorting of bodies, marked the transgressor and left them transformed by such “close encounters” with the sacred. Such could also be said of those guilty of looking into the depths of Tezcatlipoca's black obsidian mirror or ingesting the sap of the Teopochotl tree.

Although little understood, it appears that physical deformity in pre-contact Mesoamerica was a condition that marked an individual as somehow special, so much so that kings would keep them close by and society would countenance their sacrifice—often in the form of children—to the gods of rain. It seems likely that dwarfs and others with physical deformities (like the pulque-taster cited above) were thought to have been touched by sacred power, their deformation a visible mark of that awesome and frightening encounter. Such an encounter rendered them liminal beings whose status as human was ambiguous, not-quite-human (ahtlacatl).

Mahuiltianimeh (“Ritual Clowns”) in Pre-contact Mesoamerica

The “royal dwarf” of ancient Mesoamerica lies at the center of the Venn diagram whose outer rings encompass the Indigenous categories of “monsters” and “clowns.” Because of their physical appearance, dwarfs were ahtlacah, beings whose deformation conferred upon them a special status. In their well-documented roles as performers in the courts of the tlahtoqueh, however, they were also mahuiltianimeh, “ones who make fun, who mock, who play,” in other words, ritual clowns. These individuals were both entertainers and important ritual specialists. Their performances were therefore simultaneously profane and sacred, humorous and terrifyingly powerful. Like ahtlacah, ritual clowns were powerful liminal beings who demonstrated their alterity both through physical deformity and what society deemed behavior out of place.

Ritual clowning is a world-wide phenomenon that is particularly well-documented among the Indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and North America (Halperin Reference Halperin2014; Mitchell Reference Mitchell1992; Taube Reference Taube, Hanks and Rice1989; Tedlock Reference Tedlock, Tedlock and Tedlock1975; Wright Reference Wright1994). Ritual clowns operate in sacred contexts, not in the secular ones that are the typical habitat of their European counterparts. Masked and costumed, they engage in the “ritual enactment of reversals,” flipping deeply-ingrained societal concepts like gender roles, sexual norms, political relations, and kinship rules (Attardo Reference Attardo2014:646). Clowns are specially sanctioned to employ ridicule, joking, parody, buffoonery, and juxtaposition—they are taboo breakers and mockers of the powerful whose principal weapon is laughter. Some researchers understand this laughter as providing “psychotherapeutic release” for the audience, while others argue it serves an apotropaic role, and still others note that it marks important moments in the religious and emotional lives of people (Mitchell Reference Mitchell1992:29; Wright Reference Wright1994:x). What is clear is that ritual clowns provide far more than “comic relief,” and are in fact regarded as very powerful individuals.

In the Mesoamerican context, pre-contact ritual clowning is best documented among the Maya. Taube (Reference Taube, Hanks and Rice1989) employs the terms “festival humor” and “ceremonial jesting” due to the association of the phenomenon of humor with major annual religious rituals. Festival humor involving mocking, joking, and burlesque were forms of “symbolic inversion” that aimed to reinforce the very structures they targeted. Elsewhere, Taube and Taube (Reference Taube, Taube, Halperin, Faust, Taube and Giguet2009:246) note that one fundamental function of royal dwarfs, perhaps the most common form of ritual clown in pre-contact Mesoamerica, was to serve as the king's mirror-bearer. This is suggestive of what may have been one of the primary functions of the royal dwarf: to magnify and honor the king as the ideal of physical perfection by way of contrast with the dwarf's anti-ideal of deformity and ugliness. This aspect is vividly illustrated in a polychrome painted vessel (Figure 5). Standing up on the royal dais, we see a royal dwarf holding up an obsidian mirror so that the ruler can gaze upon himself in all his finery. The Olmec figurine depicting a hunchback holding a mirror (Figure 2) suggests that this essential symbolic function of dwarfs and hunchbacks stretches back to the very dawn of Mesoamerican civilization.

Beyond reinforcing the kingly ideal, Taube asserts that Maya ritual clowns played key roles in rituals marking critical transitional moments in the calendar (such as the nameless Wayeb’ days) or in matters of royal succession. These were moments of uncertainty and danger which would surely have aroused anxiety among rulers. Although we do not know precisely how humorous ritual performances functioned in the Mesoamerican context, the liminal status of ritual clowns and their ability to serve as intermediaries between humans and deities may have endowed them with the powers necessary to ensure peaceful transition from one calendrical cycle or dynasty to the next.

Although best documented for the Maya region, ritual clowning was a pan-Mesoamerican phenomenon. Surveying the material evidence, Taube (Reference Taube, Hanks and Rice1989) summarizes the main physical traits of pre-contact ritual clowns. He notes that depictions of clowns are characterized by “ugliness, old age, drunkenness, wanton sexuality, animal impersonation, and shabbiness,” are frequently “grotesquely ugly,” “old and wrinkled,” while others are depicted vomiting on themselves while imbibing alcohol by cup or enema (Figures 4 and 5; Taube Reference Taube, Hanks and Rice1989:377). The similarities between these traits and those described by Halperin, whose survey of Maya figurines was noted above, show how closely Mesoamerican ahtlacah aligned with mahuiltianimeh. Halperin (Reference Halperin2014:107–108) states as much, situating the “old men, “fat men,” “dwarfs,” and “grotesques” in what she calls the “trickster/ritual clowning complex.” Each one of these categories was associated with the Maya royal court and are assumed to be representations of “entertainers, musicians, dancers, buffoons, and assistants” (Halperin Reference Halperin2014:108). Their performative function is highlighted by the fact that many are depicted holding fans and rattles, wearing masks, and donning costumes (Figure 4).

Brylak's (Reference Brylak2015:262) work sheds more light on the form and function of ritual clowning among the Nahua of central Mexico. Spanish observers applied the general concept of “play” (using the word juego) to encompass a very diverse spectrum of cultural phenomena which served as sources of diversion, amusement, and laughter for Nahuas. Among these she lists betting games (netlatlaniliztli), board games (patolli), ballgames (tlachtli), and fake battles. Chroniclers, however, also made note of activities that were more akin to performances. These events they tended to refer to as entremeses, farsas y regocijos de truhanes (Durán Reference Durán2006:vol. 1, p. 257). Torquemada (Reference Torquemada1986:vol. 2, p. 554) describes one such display in the following manner: “One [performer] throwing himself onto his back with his feet raised high, takes a round stick, as long as three rods, and places it on the soles of his feet, turns it and turns it again, throwing it high, and catching it again with the same feet so quickly it is barely visible.” In an illustration from the Florentine Codex that accompanies the description of the same type of entertainment, the artist has included three squat figures in the same frame as the performers, two of whom are clearly hunchbacks, the third a dwarf (Figure 8). This silently attests to the close association of people with these distinctive physical features with performances intended to inspire delight, amusement, and laughter.

Figure 8.

Performance with hunchbacks and a dwarf from the Florentine Codex (Sahagún Reference Sahagún1575–1577), bk. 8, f. 19v. Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Med. Palat. 218–220. Courtesy of MIBACT (Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo).

Torquemada (Reference Torquemada1986:vol. 2, p. 554) wrote off these amusing performances as monerías (“monkey business”), but other acts witnessed by Spaniards were viewed in a more sinister light. Various juegos de prestidigitación (“conjuring games”; Brylak Reference Brylak2015:276) and performances involving tiny effigies (what Brylak [Reference Brylak2015:105] calls “puppet shows”) involved forms of magic and divination which the friars condemned as immoral and diabolical. The colonial sources are clear that central Mexican royal courts retained the services of many diverse forms of performers, including those the friars labeled conjurers and sorcerers. But what class of people were they? Were they ritual specialists or merely “entertainers”? Brylak writes that the difficulty we have in answering these questions underscores how little we really understand pre-contact performance and humor. Brylak (Reference Brylak2015:288–289) raises the salient point that whereas non-Indigenous colonial observers made a clear distinction between “entertainment” and “ritual,” no such clear distinction existed in Mesoamerican cultures. The same could be said for the categories of “humor” and “ritual,” categories both deeply implicated in the performances of ritual clowns. The role of play in Nahua culture, like that of humor, was both a means of diversion and a means of opening humans to the sacred power of teotl. Ritual clowns, through their “monerías” and by virtue of their liminal status, performed ritual openings among their audience and played a central role in maintaining the equilibrium of existence that was the general function of Mesoamerican religion.

Based on my research, I argue that Mesoamerican ritual clowns likely all bore some form of physical deformity, that exaggerated facial features (eyes, noses, ears, or lips), deformed heads and disorderly hair, and bodies either shrunken or bent over were integral aspects of what gave the clown its liminal status and endowed it with power. Formative period “skybearers,” Classic Maya “fat men,” and Mexica royal dwarfs attest to the antiquity of this Mesoamerican fascination with individuals bearing the marks of physical deformity, as well as the close association of these individuals with ritual performance and clowning. Colonial ethnographic sources like the Florentine Codex contain the written artifacts of such a tradition, translating the visual culture of the pre-contact era into the new alphabetic system of the colonial world. Early colonial Nahuas who were the writers of Christian texts would have been well aware of this ancient association of deformity with sacred power and clowning; texts like the Florentine Codex and the huehuetlahtolli provided them with a rich lexicon to draw upon, even decades after the voices of the first Nahua informants had faded into the past.