Oztomecatl (MH876r)
This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name, title, or occupation, Oztomecatl (“Vanguard Merchant” or “Person from Oztoman) is attested here as a man’s name. The glyph shows a man as though walking with a stick in front of him, in profile, facing the viewer’s right. His legs are just suggestions. On his back is a basket that is attached to a tumpline that goes over his forehead. The man has the look of a merchant who carries his goods over long distances (often called an oztomecatl).
Stephanie Wood
If not a merchant, this could be a person from Oztoman, but presumably the Oztoman merchants became famous for their role in imperial expansion, and the ethnic designation became entwined with the commercial one. Lockhart (The Nahuas, 1992, 191) links his discussions of the oztomeca with the pochteca, suggesting we watch for distinctions about the distances traveled and the quality of the goods marketed.
Apparently, the walking stick is a hallmark of these merchants, although they did not have a uniform design. The stick or staff in this glyph here is very simple. The gloss also has an error, where the first “to” in the gloss got crossed out. Also, below, are some other examples of merchants who walked carrying their goods, such as the pochteca. The verb “to carry” is tlamama.
Stephanie Wood
po. oztomecatl
Pedro Oztomecatl
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
comerciantes, larga distancia, mecapalli, nombres de hombres
oztomeca(tl), a merchant with an imperial expansion role, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/oztomecatl
Comerciante de la Vanguardia, o Persona de Oztoman
Stephanie Wood
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 876r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=824&st=image.
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).
