Tecocohua (MH627v)

Tecocohua (MH627v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph stands for the personal name Tecocohua (also seen as Tecocoa, Tecocoatl, and Tecocohuatl) possibly means "Someone Ill" or "Someone in Pain." It is attested here as a man's name. The glyph here shows a man's head with a hand grasping (providing the "hua" phonetic syllable for possession) the victim's hair. The man is shown in profile looking toward the viewer's right. The hand is a left hand, presumably that of another person who is doing the pulling, causing pain (tecoco or cocoa).

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The name Tecocohuatl (or Tecocoatl) was held by a famous person of Cuauhtitlan at the time of the Spanish invasion, but it is not known whether the various men with this name in 1560 Huejotzingo had been named for the famous person.

Hair pulling is found in some quantity in the Matrícula de Huexotzinco. 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.

The grasping hand plays not only a phonetic but also a semantic role. Hair pulling not only caused physical discomfort, it was a disgrace. Note some other examples of names that have glyphs much like this one but are to be read Cocol or Cocoliloc (having to do with being hated or perhaps quarrelsome).

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

antonio
tecocova

Gloss Normalization:

Antonio Tecocohua

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)

Date of Manuscript:

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

personal name

Syntax:

hua (grasping hand)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Anatomy, human body parts

Emotions

Hair (human or animal)

Hair pulling

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Sensory Perception

War or Conflict

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing right

profile view

Keywords:

jalando pelo, cabello, causar dolor, Tecocohua and Tecocohuatl variants, pull, pulling, jalar

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

Tecocohua, one who is ill or in pain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tecocohuatl
cocoa, to be in pain or cause someone pain, https://nahuat.wired-humanities.org/content/cocoa
te- (nonspecific human object prefix), someone, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/te
tecocoani, something that stings and hurts, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tecocoani
cocolia, to detest or hate someone, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cocolia
tecoco, something causing pain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tecoco
hua, grasping, possessing, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/hua

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Él Que Sufre Dolores

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 515r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=337&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: