amantecatl (Mdz70r)
This example of iconography is provided here as a comparison for identifying feathers, feather workers, and men (with a certain hairstyle and type of clothing). This is a man in profile view, facing to the viewer's right. He wears a white cape tied at his right shoulder and a white loincloth. He is seated on a small device made of petlatl (woven reeds). In his right hand he holds three feathers (one green, one yellow and red, and the third is red), and in his left hand he holds a tool. In the gloss his occupation is said to be a feather worker.
Stephanie Wood
The amanteca (plural) can be simply artisans, or people who work specifically with feathers. Red and yellow feathers were especially valuable. Feathers hold a great importance in Nahua culture. The birds that produce the feathers are also prized, and they were especially held in esteem prior to contact with Europeans. As we see here, the occupation of working feathers was given special attention in this manuscript and in the Florentine Codex. Here is a sample search in the Digital Florentine Codex for the term amanteca. Here is a page with beautiful illustrations of feather working.
Stephanie Wood
maeso de guarneçer
con plumas
maestro de guarnecer con plumas
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest
Stephanie Wood
feathers, plumas, men, hombres, oficios, occupations, plumajeros, amantecah, amanteca, amantecas
amanteca(tl), artisan or feather worker, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/amantecatl
Codex Mendoza, folio 70 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 150 of 188.
Original manuscript is held by the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1; used here with the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0)
