quecholli (Mdz42r)

quecholli (Mdz42r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This element has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Quecholac. It shows a cluster of wing and down feathers, probably from the quecholli bird, whose feathers were important in rituals associated with the 20-day month (veintena in Spanish) of the same name.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The divine force or deity called Chantico includes a quecholli (warrior's feather ornament) in her headdress. (See below.) As Eloise Quiñones Keber {Codex Telleriano-Remensis, 1995, 186) notes, this female figure wears both a skirt and a loincloth, the latter being a "martial attribute" that complicates the gendering of her representation.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

calendrics

Syntax:

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Gender (female)

Religion (Indigenous)

Time, Calendar, Frequency

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood, Xitlali Torres

Colors:

brown

gray

white/neutral

Keywords:

headdresses, tocados, feathers, plumas

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/quecholli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

(un pájaro con plumas ricas)

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 42 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 94 of 188.

Image Source, Rights:

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).