Mesoamerican societies developed complex cosmological systems where nature and the human body were seen as sacred and inter-dependent entities that kept the cosmos working and preserved life. Sexuality and eroticism transcended private, biological functions to be understood as vital and generative forces, serving as the articulating axes of society, economy, and religion. As cosmological processes, they can be found throughout the life cycle and extend into the universe in general through the dynamic of separation and union of opposites, such as man-woman, hot-cold, life-death, and others. This complementarity allows for play and the struggle that set time in motion, regulate the work of individuals and situate death as a feminine force that requires a masculine counterpart to give life and revitalize beings.
The sexualization of the cosmos becomes manifest in different ritual acts, in human bodies and in many elements, spaces and practices, such as in agriculture. The codices, oral tradition and sculptures show numerous examples of this relationship between the sexual act, fertility and fecundity, since the human body is considered to be analogous to arable land. In this way, seeding is understood as a sexual act in the milpa: with the seed planter (a phallic symbol), the farmer “opens” and “deflowers” the soil to “plant” the seed inside. Semen is seen as a vital liquid of a cold nature, similar to the seed that gives life to comestible plants, in particular maize. This fecundating and reproductive act is repeated in contemporary ceremonies, such as between the O’ de püt (Zoques) from Santa María Chimalapa, where the foreman enacts a ritual coitus with the earth by spilling semen into a hole dug in the middle of his bedroom.
The analogies between human and vegetal fertility are frequent referents and have ancient roots. In the past, male generative power was expressed through self-sacrifices, where the penis was perforated to get blood to fertilize the earth. In traditional myth, Quetzalcóatl turned to this practice to bring humans to life. In the agricultural ceremonies dedicated to Tlazoltéotl, a goddess associated with sexuality and purification, eroticism was directly related to fertility and the renewal of the earth and life: the goddess’s ritual ingestion of filth resulted in the birth of new and purified gifts.
An example of the symbolic relationship in Pre-Hispanic times can be seem at the Museo Nacional de Antropología e Historia in Mexico City, which has an exhibit of a piece that is representative of the sculpture in Huasteca stone in the shape of a 154 centimeter high phallus which was found in Yahualica, Hidalgo.