http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publicat...m=1&id=330
The Spanish contamination idea seems more viable than any inherent wisdom in the supernatural drivel of primitives.
Quote:One of the more controversial aspects of the Quetzalcoatl myth is his promise to return, which O'Brien mentions quite frequently. Some scholars contend that many of the accounts referring to this particular legend have a Spanish influence. A prime example of this scenario is in Letters from Mexico,6 where the Aztec king Motecuzoma (incorrectly spelled by O'Brien as Mutezuma in Fair Gods) supposedly speaks to the Spaniards, relating a tale of his people's ancestral relationship with them. He asserts that the natives are descended from "foreigners who came from a very distant land" and that "a chieftain . . . brought our people to this region." According to this report, the foreign chieftain went back to his native country but then returned to Motecuzoma's ancestors, by whom he was rejected; he departed again but promised to return. O'Brien accepts this story as an accurate historical account (see p. 26), but did Motecuzoma really believe the Spaniards were his long-lost relatives? This may very well be a tainted history promulgated to ensure a Spanish stronghold in the New World. By manipulating what may be, in part, a factual report, the Spaniards may have made the developing conquest look as though Motecuzoma was welcoming his lord home after a long separation.7
The Spanish contamination idea seems more viable than any inherent wisdom in the supernatural drivel of primitives.
