Contrary to common belief, marriage was the foundation of Aztec society. However, there was a huge difference in the conception of sex for non-reproductive means. In other words, Aztecs were completely conscious about the two main purposes of sex: pleasure and reproduction. Far from Christian morals, sexual relationships were openly explored according to the couple’s purpose.
We can see this differentiation in two of their deities: Xochiquetzal and Tlazoltéotl. The first one is the goddess of beauty. She represents sensuality and is often seen as an erotic manifestation of free love and sexual pleasure, since sex wasn’t considered an impure activity for Pre-Columbian societies. In the same way, Tlazoltéotl, goddess of lust, is also the representative of fertility and reproduction. She was a dual deity that also embodied the harms of sexual excesses, as it was also believed that they could be punished with sexual (venereal) diseases and other physical affections.
Pre-Columbian societies understood the distance between eroticism and reproduction, up to the point where they followed the aforementioned deities’ principles and differentiated methods and rituals according to the purpose of sex.
When it was time to stimulate lust and optimize sexual desire, they used hallucinogenic mushrooms (teonanacátl) and other plants like the cozolmécatl. According to Spanish chronicler and botanist, Francisco Hernández, “devuelve las fuerzas de un modo notable a los que están agotados por excesos venéreos” (“it gives back strength in a remarkable way to those exhausted by venereal excesses”). Mazacóatl, a species of snail, was also commonly used for sexual purposes. According to Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, they “alimentaban la lujuria” (“fed lust”).
In order to keep a constant but controlled growth of the empire’s population, pregnant women were assisted by midwives, their family, and rituals dedicated to the being that was growing inside her belly. If a couple wanted to have sex with reproductive purposes, they could only do it when their youngest child was able to walk by themselves, that is, when they were about three or four years old.
Conception (and contraception) was a fundamental theme for the Aztecs. In the same way as they had many sorts of beverages and recipes to take care of pregnant women and their health, traditional medicine and its beliefs also developed many techniques to prevent conception. They used many plants that provoked impotence like tetexquilitl –exclusively for men– and axoxoquilitil for both sexes.
In the same way, people believed hummingbirds had properties that caused infertility and prevented pregnancies. Another highly used contraceptive was eating ocelot meat. It was more effective because it inhibited the sexual response and “enfriaba el cuerpo cuando estaba necesitado de Mujer” (“cooled down the body when it was in need of women”).
Pre-Columbian physicians also developed beverages with endemic plants to prevent unwanted pregnancy. As mentioned before, hummingbirds (the bird that represented Huitzilopochtli, the God of War) were thought to provoke infertility, so they would eat its meat as a contraceptive method.
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Both birth control and reproduction have been very important matters for ancient cultures, not only for their biological purpose, but also for the social component that determined what was accepted, thought as perverted, or forbidden in each civilization. Find out what was the sacred ritual of masturbation for Pre-Columbian societies.
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Source:
Noemí Quezada, Métodos anticonceptivos y abortivos tradicionales, (Contraceptive and Abortive Traditional Methods)
Anales de Antropología Vol. 12, no. 1, UNAM, 1975.
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Translated by María Isabel Carrasco Cara Chards