chichihua (FCbk10f105r)
This iconographic example, featuring a breastfeeding woman (chichihua, or, with the glottal stop, chichihuah), is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the Nahuatl text near the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows a woman whose blouse is lifted over one shoulder, exposing her bare breasts. She is kneeling on the ground. She holds her left nipple in her left hand. In her right hand she holds a bowl. As the contextualizing image shows, another woman near her is preparing a root-based remedy for an ailment that inhibits her from nursing her baby. The fabric of the women’s clothing includes shading for a three-dimensionality, a European artistic style that has been learned by the tlacuilo.
Stephanie Wood
While nursing a baby is a widespread phenomenon, there are few glyphs showing breasts or referring to raising babies. The dolls or sculptures depicting perhaps goddesses often seem to have bare breasts. A Quick Search of nenetl will provide several examples. See also two examples showing bare breasts below, where another ailment is portrayed graphically in color, and a woman tries to give her breast to the toddler on her lap. In both cases, breast milk is given the color of turquoise blue, indicating preciosity.
Stephanie Wood
chichioa
chichihua
Stephanie Wood
1577
Jeff Haskett-Wood
niñeras, mujeres senos, pecho, amamanta, amamantamiento, enfermedades
chichihua , a breastfeeding woman, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chichihua
la niñera
Stephanie Wood
Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 10: The People", fol. 105r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/10/folio/105r/images/0 Accessed 10 September 2025.
Images of the digitized Florentine Codex are made available under the following Creative Commons license: CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International). For print-publication quality photos, please contact the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana ([email protected]). The Library of Congress has also published this manuscript, using the images of the World Digital Library copy. “The Library of Congress is unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection. Absent any such restrictions, these materials are free to use and reuse.”
