The article under analysis is The ‘Great Goddess’ of Teotihuacan: Fiction or Reality by Zoltan Paulinyi who discusses the problem of the presentation of the Goddess of Teotihuacan as the Great one. The article title arouses the problem of reality and the imagination nature of the Goddess that helps the reader understand what the further information is going to focus on.
The author wants to contradict the idea that the Goddess of Teotihuacan which has become the Great for the recent twenty years is the real personality as for the author’s research it is just the desire to spoil the reality.
The author struggles for the idea that the image of the Goddess of Teotihuacan is the combination of at least six different gods and goddesses which been created by different scholars and were united under some circumstances.
The article under consideration dwells upon the culture-historical framework, as the personality of the Great Goddess of Teotihuacan is in the focus of discussion and her originality and value for the people of her time. Moreover, the aspects of iconography are described within the context of the goddess.
Even though the author states at the beginning that the research has proven that the Great Goddess of Teotihuacan has become too great which was not the quality of her character twenty years ago (which seems as an assumption), the author of the research supports this information with the evidence from a number of research papers and additional credible sources.
However, the author assumes that the character under consideration is the imaginary one and tries to make sure that his information may be proved. The author uses ancient painting and iconography to prove his assumption. This iconographic analysis helps the author consider the idea from the primary sources without referencing to the works of other people.
However, it is impossible to state that all the evidence is gathered as according to Jacobs (n.p.) there is little archeological expeditions have been held and many items are unexcavated. Basing the discussion on great many of icons and pictures, the author is able to transfer his ideas into reality by means to comparing and contrasting each of the pictures with the previous ones.
The choices have been made by the ruler as the Goddess is discussed. The culture-historical search for additional pictures and written text may be a key in understanding the personality of the Goddess of Teotihuacan.
It is possible to predict that the society under discussion is like ours as trying to depict their goddess they as if wanted to deliver the information about the present to the future generations. The documentary approach is used in the article which is helpful in complicating the already existing idea and proving that the Goddess of Teotihuacan is the collection of at least seven images.
While considering the origin and the personality of the Goddess of Teotihuacan the author refers to various points of view considering the alternative theory even though he is arguing it. Using the research and data gathered by other scholars, Zoltan Paulinyi tries to find out the truth without being too prejudiced in the relation to personal theory.
Referencing to various visual art aspects, searching for the portraits of various gods and goddess Zoltan Paulinyi tries to make sure that the idea he has stated cannot be contradicted (1). According to Jacobs (n.p.) the tribe of Teotihuacanos did not have written language and the information is considered by the historians on the basis of the lots of remaining of the pieces of art, iconography and symbolism.
However, the interpretation of Teotihuacan art still remains a complicated affair as most of the historians cannot agree on the meaning of those pieces of mural art. Much attention is paid to the members of descendant communities as only on the basis of the archeological discoveries the true may be discovered.
The author of the article tries to consider the search and the evidence based on the archeological information. The possibility to create an imaginary Great Goddess out of a simple rules equal to others may cause the problems in the American society with the rewriting the history.
The research according to some particular personalities still continues and the scholars may “find out” something interesting about the simple people of the past with the purpose to make it possible to raise the person in the eyes of the world community and make the North America the leader in something which is not really true.
Therefore, it may be concluded that he article under consideration depicts a thorough analysis of the information trying to base the discussion on the arguments and apply the primary data for proving the stated assumption.
The Goddess of Teotihuacan was an important figure of its time, butt he appearance is has been provided with makes many scholars doubt this idea which has make it possible to for the present research take place even though much primary data still remains undiscovered.
Works Cited
Jacobs, James Q. Teotihuacan Mural Art: Assessing the Accuracy of its Interpretation. 2002. Web.
Paulinyi, Zoltan. “The ‘Great Goddess’ of Teotihuacan: Fiction or Reality?” Ancient Mesoamerica 17(2006): 1-15. Print.