"In this chapter I will show that the Nahuas [sic] viewed the warrior deity as a set of characteristics that combined male and female, incorporated notions of violent masculinity and maternal care, and signified fertility. Thus Tezcatlipoca, an icon of Nahua warrior masculinity, still revered today in much of Mexico, combined masculine and feminine attributes in a bisexual whole; and Tlazolteotl, a mother goddess who signified the excesses of feminine sexuality, had a phallus. We shall see that the presence of these and other deities makes it impossible to place Nahua thoughts, histories, and memories into binary formations of gender and sexuality."
I don't think Pete really developed the fascinating idea of the warrior deity incorporating notions of maternal care, sadly, as the specific gendered connection there (war/mother) is more fascinating to me, I think, than the general gender connection (male/female). He does, however, quite ably demonstrate the bigender (what he calls bisexual, following perhaps the biological terminology) nature of the two deities and also of warfare in that chapter.
Wait a minute, realizing upon reflection that he does so by connecting war to sex. Really, Pete, are you conflating sex with maternality? Cuz while one certainly can connect to (and, one might say, is a prerequisite of) the other, they are certainly not inherently the same thing!
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