Huexotzincatl (Mdz42r)
Huexotzincatl (Mdz42r)
This compound glyph for the ethnic name Huexotzincatl doubles as the place name, Huexotzinco. The glyph includes two elements plus a man's head. Aside from the head, one element is a tree known as a white willow (huexotl). The other is a man's buttocks or bottom (tzintli) used here to provide the phonetic value for the locative suffix (-tzinco), place. The tree is a two-tone green. It has a leader and two side branches. The lowest element is a male (with a visible white waist band of a loincloth), the skin tone is a terracotta, and the lower half of the body is in a profile view with the man facing to the viewer's right. The head is attached to the glyph with a line. The head is in profile looking to the viewer's right. The man has a red (leather?) headband and short dark hair tucked behind his ear. A white, curving ornament (labret, according to Berdan and Anawalt) appears on his chin, perhaps coming out of his lip (not visible). [See Berdan and Anawalt, The Codex Mendoza, 1992, vol. 1, pl. 188.]
Stephanie Wood
The person's head could be considered not just iconographic, perhaps, but also part of the glyph, providing the -catl postposition (which says this person is affiliated with Huexotzinco). The hairstyle, headband, and lip ornament, appear to be iconographic ethnic identifiers. Guy Stresser-Péan (1995, 45) discusses a tezacanecuilli (or bezote, in Spanish) that curls and is warn by warriors of Huexotzinco. (See the full citation for his book in our Bibliography.)
Stephanie Wood
huexotzincatl
Huexotzincatl
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest
Stephanie Wood
ethnicity, etnicidad
huexo(tl), white willow tree, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huexotl
tzin(tli), buttocks, bottom, rear end, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tzintli
-tzinco (locative suffix), little, lower, or new, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tzinco
-ca(tl), a person from or associated with, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/catl#
"Persona de Huexotzinco"
Stephanie Wood
Codex Mendoza, folio 42 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 94 of 188.
The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).