cihuatl (Osu38r)

This painted compound Nahuatl hieroglyph represents a Nahua woman (cihuatl), a domestic worker who was being tapped for tribute labor by the Spanish colonizers. She is shown kneeling in profile, facing toward the viewer's right. She wears a skirt and a huipilli, a hand made blouse with a reinforced red patch at the base of the v-neck. Her feet are bare. Her hairstyle (neaxtlahualli) involves the hair being twisted up into two points above the forehead. She reaches out with her left hand, index finger pointing, almost touching a grinding stone (metlatl) upon which she would be expected to grind maize kernels into a dough for making tortillas and other foods. This tool is quintessentially female, but it also points to the kind of domestic work expected of her.