Cihuacahual (MH741v)

Cihuacahual (MH741v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name or life status, Cihuacahual (“Widow”), is attested here as pertaining to a woman (cihuatl). The glyph simply shows the head of a woman in profile, facing left. Her hair is done in the traditional style of the neaxtlahualli. The -cahual part of the name (left, abandoned, widowed) is not shown visually.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Widows and widowers were common in a world where epidemic disease was taking the lives of so many people, especially given that germs were brought in by the colonizers, and the Indigenous people did not have immunities to these germs. Glyphs portraying many widows and widowers show them with tears running down their cheeks.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Source Manuscript:

Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)

Date of Manuscript:

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories:

personal name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Emotions

Family, Kinship, even Friendship

Gender (female)

Hair (human or animal)

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing left

profile view

Keywords:

viuda, nombres de mujeres, estatus de mujeres

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

cihua(tl), woman, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cihuatl
cahual(li), someone left, abandoned, widowed, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cahualli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Viuda

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 741v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=561&st=image

Image Source, Rights:

This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).

Orthography:

"çi" for ci

"v" for u, uh, or hu

intrusive "n"

Historical Contextualizing Image: