pepena (MH488v)

pepena (MH488v)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the element pepena, the verb meaning to choose or pick, is the same image as the compound glyph for Xochipepena. The idea here is that the hand is performing the action of picking a flower.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Pehpena (here showing the glottal stop) was used in many cases to refer to a kind of labor, a harvesting. Frances Karttunen notes how the term is combined with many "harvestable" or "collectable" items, such as firewood, maize, and tomatoes (see our Online Nahuatl Dictionary). If flowers were a required item for harvesting, that says something interesting about the culture.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Syntax: 
verb
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Flowers
Plants, Flora
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing right
frontal view
profile view
vertical, upright
Keywords: 

escoger, recoger, trabajar

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

pepena, to choose or pick, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pepena

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

escoger

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 489r, World Digital Library. https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=57&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).

See Also: 

Xochipepena (MH489r)