Talk:Teotihuacan Spider Woman

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shes a second tier super heroine. Published by Marvel Comics.

[edit] How about some references??

It's hard to find scholarly or university-related sources that mentioned this Spider Woman. For example, when I google Teotihuacan Spider Goddess (without quotes), I can sort the first 12 hits into the following categories:

  • 1 Comic book character
  • 4 Wikipedia or Wikipedia mirror sites
  • 4 New Age-type sites
  • 2 fan-type sites
  • 1 article from the University of California, San Diego

I get similar results with "Spider goddess mesoamerican" or "Teotihuacan Spider Woman" (the name of our article). This Karl Taube who is mentioned in the article seems to be one of the only scholars discussing a Teotihuacan Spider Woman, which makes me wonder how real this purported goddess is.

Now, I definitely realize how much ancient goddesses have been neglected by our culture in favor of the gods, being something of a neo-pagan myself . . . but I think we need something with a few more scholarly references, folks. Madman 22:42, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

Taube's article is:
Taube, Karl
Journal of Latin American Lore 9 no 2 Wint 1983, p 107-189.
ISSN: 0360-1927
Publication Year: 1983
Yes she is real, Coe mentions her in Mexico (Coe, M.D. and R. Koontz, Mexico : From the Olmecs to the Aztecs. 5th ed. 2002, London: Thames & Hudson. 248 p.) - She is also thought to be the same spider woman seen all across Mesoamerica.
Posted by 69.86.57.172 3 October 2006
Thanks, I ran across Coe's mention last night. For what it's worth, Taube is a student/collaborator of Coe's. I will list this citation as a reference and I'm going to phrase the article to let folks know how widely accepted Taube's proposal is. Madman 13:13, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
I edited this article and reduced the "gee whiz" tone of the article somewhat. I do believe that a more appropriate title would be "Great Goddess of Teotihuacan", since that is a bit more neutral a name, but decided not to move it (today). I also added a dissenting viewpoint. This article could use an image. Madman 17:13, 6 April 2007 (UTC)