IT TURNS out that TlÄlÅcÄn also has vibranium. Where does that leave Wakanda? But is the MCU’s fictional paradise for Namor at par with the mythological TlÄlÅcÄn: “The spirits of those who were drowned, or struck by lightning; of those who died with dropsy, tumors, wounds, or similar diseases; went, with the souls of children who had either been drowned or sacrificed in honor of Tlaloc, ‘the god of the Water,’ to a delicious place named Tlalocan, where that god resided, surrounded by everything that could contribute to pleasure and happiness.”
“Tlaloc, ‘the god of Water;’ the fertilizer of the soil, the protector of temporal goods. His image was painted blue and green, to represent the hues of water, and in his hand he held an undulating and pointed rod to signify his control over storms and lightning.” [Brantz Mayer. “Mexico, as it was and as it is –Letter XVII.” 1847]
It is supposed to be a terrestrial (not undersea) paradise “where food-plants and flowers flourished in miraculous fertility and summer was perpetual.” Location of the heart-shaped herb that pulsates blue? “Simple inhumation was certainly practiced by the Aztec, though it was usually reserved for those whose manner of death entitled them to a place in the terrestrial paradise Tlalocan.” The MCU Namor cheated death and became a Mutant. “The interment of individuals whose souls were supposed to be destined for the paradise of Tlaloc is easily explained, since that god appears to have been the deity principally worshipped by the agriculturists of the valley, and it is only natural that the form of burial characteristic of his early worshippers should be retained in such cases.” [Thomas Athol Joyce. Mexican Archaeology (Chapter 4). 1914]
How about Namor’s kingship? “The ‘kingdom of Mexico’ as it stands in the early histories, and the ‘empire of Mexico’ as it appears in the later, is a fiction of the imagination. At the time there was a seeming foundation for describing the government as a monarchy, in the absence of a correct knowledge of their institutions; but the misconception can no longer be defended. That which the Spaniards found was simply a confederacy of three Indian tribes, of which the counterpart existed in all parts of the continent, and they had no occasion in their descriptions to advance a step beyond this single fact. The government was administered by a council of chiefs, with the cooperation of a general commander of the military bands. It was a government of two powers; the civil being represented by the council, and the military by a principal war-chief. Since the institutions of the confederate tribes were essentially democratical, the government may be called a military democracy, if a designation more special than confederacy is required.” [Lewis H. Morgan. Chapter VII: The Aztec Confederacy. Ancient Society. London: MacMillan & Company, 1877]
‘If Wakanda and TlÄlÅcÄn wish to exist forever, they need to democratize.’
Namor was also branded the K’uk’ulkan: “The first Kukulkan-Quetzaquatal may have been a tentacle of a Phoenician or a Libyan octopus. The feathered serpent may have been the Phoenician adventurer’s headdress, or it may have been the deity on the ship’s prow. The man from afar would not have spoken a language foreign to the villagers who greeted him, but a language familiar to them. He would not have spoken of terms of trade, but of the cycle of vegetation and the cycles of life, death and regeneration, of sacrificial giving, of Baal. The hospitable villagers would have outdone themselves in giving all they had to the god-like foreigner who emerged from the sea.” [Fredy Perlman. Chapter 21. Against His-story, Against Leviathan. 1983]
Namor, the Manager: “Scarcely less important was the great god Kukulcan, or Feathered Serpent, the personification of the West. It is related of him that he came into Yucatan from the west and settled at Chichen Itza, where he ruled for many years and built a great temple. During his sojourn he is said to have founded the city of Mayapan, which later became so important. Finally, having brought the country out of war and dissension to peace and prosperity, he left by the same way he had entered, tarrying only at Chakanputun on the west coast to build a splendid temple as an everlasting memorial of his residence among the people. After his departure he was worshipped as a god because of what he had done for the public good. Kukulcan was the Maya counterpart of the Aztec Quetzalcoatl, the Mexican god of light, learning, and culture. In the Maya pantheon he was regarded as having been the great organizer, the founder of cities, the framer of laws, and the teacher of their new calendar. Indeed, his attributes and life history are so human that it is not improbable he may have been an actual historical character, some great lawgiver and organizer, the memory of whose benefactions lingered long after death, and whose personality was eventually deified. The episodes of his life suggest he may have been the recolonizer of Chichen Itza after the destruction of Chakanputun. Kukulcan has been identified by some as the ‘old god’ of the picture-writings, whose characteristics are: Two deformed teeth, one protruding from the front and one from the back part of his mouth, and the long tapering nose. He is to be distinguished further by his peculiar headdress.” [Sylvanus Griswold Morley. An Introduction to the Study of the Maya Hieroglyphs. Smithsonian Institution Bureau Of American Ethnology Bulletin 57. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1915]
Namor, Anti-Hero: “Kukulcan is considered as the founder of civilization, as the builder of cities, as hero-god, and appears in another conception as the rain-deity, and–since the serpent has a mythologic relation to water–as serpent deity.” [Paul Schellhas. Representation of Deities of the Maya Manuscripts. Cambridge: Peabody Museum Of American Archaeology And Ethnology, Harvard University, 1904]
The real mystery: “Yet if the pyramids, the statues and sometimes the buildings endured, the societies which produced them sooner or later entered deep crisis…And just as the rise of civilization was replicated in Meso-America, so was the record of sudden collapse. People abandoned, in turn, Teotihuacan, Monte Alban and the southern Maya centres, leaving whole cities as empty monuments to bewilder, in turn, the Aztecs, the Spanish Conquistadores and ourselves.” [Chris Harman. Part 1 Chapter 5: The first ‘dark ages’. A People’s History Of The World. London: Bookmarks Publications, 1999]
Over-exploitation by the native elites led to the collapse: “A growing upper class, together with its various retainers and other members of the incipient ‘middle class’, would have increased economic strain on the total society…Malnutrition and disease burdens increased among the commoner population and further decreased its work capacity…Despite these internal stresses, the Maya of the late classic period apparently made no technological or social adaptive innovations…In fact, the Maya elite persisted in its traditional direction up to the point of collapse.” [G.R. Willey and D.B. Shimkin, The Maya Collapse]
If Wakanda and TÄlÅcÄn wish to exist forever, they need to democratize.
