Necihuatl (MH524v)

Necihuatl (MH524v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Necihuatl (or Nencihuatl?) is attested here as a woman's name. It is a frontal view of what appears to be a human with a face and two rectangular points on its head. These points could be a simulation of the classic hairstyle that married sedentary women (cihuatl) wore (with the hair twisted up into two points above their foreheads). But this shape on the head also echoes the rectangular points recalling the doll or deity image (nenetl) that is so common in the Matrícula de Huexotzinco, providing the "nen-" syllable. This nen- syllable seems to be a negative in most cases. Perhaps here it means "Idle Woman" or "Useless Woman." An exception to this negative sense of nen- is Chalchiuhnene (with the reduplication); it is a name that seems to refer to precious female genitals (personal communication from Gordon Whittaker, April 2023).

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

In contemporary Nahuatl, the Ne- start to the name could be a first-person singular, "I," as in "I am a Woman." Looking through early Nahuatl, we find something to do with being a woman in union with a man (see necihuahuatiliztli). So further research remains to nail down a translation. This could be a lazy or idle woman, an image of a female divine force, a girl doll, or even imply female genitals--four widely divergent possibilities. There is a woman on the Internet who is named Necihuatl Tonantzin Huerta Lara. Her first name appears without an "n" before the "c," which leans against the Idle Woman interpretation.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

maria neçivatl

Gloss Normalization:

María Necihuatl (or Nencihuatl?)

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:

adjective

ne or nen syllable

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Children, Childhood, Adolescence

Gender (female)

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Religion (Indigenous)

Toys

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

frontal view

Keywords:

women, mujeres, dolls, muñecas, efigies, effigies, imágenes, religious images, ixiptla

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

cihua(tl), woman, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cihuatl
necihuahuatiliz(tli), a man’s marriage to a woman, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/necihuahuatiliztli
nen-, in vain, uselessly, for nothing, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nen
nenca, to be idle, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nenca
nencauh, one’s servant, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nencauh
nene(tl), doll or female genitals, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nenetl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Mujer Inactiva (?)

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 524v, World Digital Library.
https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=128&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).

Historical Contextualizing Image: