Drawing of a 15th century macahuitl

The term macana, of Taíno origin, refers to a number of different wooden weapons used by the various native cultures of Central and South America. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (195x654, 79 KB) Image of a macahuitl from an illustration in Richard Burtons The Book of the Sword, 1884. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (195x654, 79 KB) Image of a macahuitl from an illustration in Richard Burtons The Book of the Sword, 1884. ... The Taíno are pre-Colombian indigenous Amerindian inhabitants of the Bahamas and the Greater Antilles islands, which include Cuba, Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Puerto Rico, and Jamaica. ... Map of Central America Central America is an area of the American continent in the Western Hemisphere. ... South America South America is a continent crossed by the equator, with most of its area in the Southern Hemisphere. ...

The earliest meaning attributed to macana is a sword-like weapon made out of wood, but still sharp enough to be dangerous. The term is also sometimes applied to the similar Aztec weapon, which is studded with pieces of obsidian in order to create a blade, though some authorities distinguish this item by using the Nahuatl name macahuitl. Sculpture commemorating the moment when Aztecs found the sign for Tenochtitlan foundation place given by Huitzilopochtli. ... Obsidian from Lake County, Oregon Top stone is obsidian, below that is pumice and in lower right hand is rhyolite (light color) Obsidian is a type of naturally occurring glass, produced from volcanoes when a fluid felsic lava cools rapidly and freezes without sufficient time for crystal growth, for example... Nahuatl (pronounced in two syllables, NA-watl ) is a term applied to some members of the Aztecan or Nahuan sub-branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family, indigenous to central Mexico. ... Drawing of a 15th century macahuitl The maquahuitl, an Aztec obsidian-edged sword-club, was a devastating cutting weapon capable of easily cleaving to bone, but lacked a point (and thus couldnt be used for thrusting), and did not balance like a true sword. ...

In modern Spanish the word has broadened to refer to various types of blunt wooden weapons, especially a police nightstick. Hercules fights the Lernaean Hydra with a club A club or cudgel is perhaps the simplest of all melee weapons. ...

External links

• Picture of a sharpened macana with no obsidian edge (Spanish)
• Pictures from the Ixtlilxochitl Codex featuring the macahuitl (Spanish)