Malcahuitl (MH785r)

Malcahuitl (MH785r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Malcahuitl is attested here as a man's name. It appears to have something to do with a captive (malli), but the -cahuitl is unclear. The captive, a human head in profile, looking toward the viewer's right, is being held by his hair.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Sometimes a glyph that looks much like this is labeled Malcahual (also difficult to decipher beyond the Mal-). See other glyphs below showing hair pulling that also have other readings. To pull or cut someone's hair in Nahua culture was a grave insult and cause of intense emotion. Sonya Lipsett-Rivera writes about the ritual humiliation of hair pulling in Religion in New Spain, eds. Susan Schroeder and Stafford Poole (2007), 79.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

ant^o malcavitl

Gloss Normalization:

Antonio Malcahuitl

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

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:

Anatomy, human body parts

Gender (male)

Hair (human or animal)

Hair pulling

Names (personal and/or theonym)

War or Conflict

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing right

profile view

Keywords:

nombres de hombres, cautivos, tirón de pelo

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

mal(li), captive, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/malli
cahu(itl), time, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cahuitl

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 785r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=644&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:

"v" for u, uh, or hu

Historical Contextualizing Image: