teopan nemi (MH816v)

teopan nemi (MH816v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the occupation teopan nemi ("Lives at the Temple") is attested here as pertaining to a man. The glyph shows a bound book, open at about the middle and lying flat. The marks on the pages are short, straight lines that suggest alphabetic writing. Some sections have color, seemingly suggesting an illuminated or illustrated manuscript or book. The semantic meaning is that the life of the Nahua man who "lives at the temple" (now a Christian church) could involve book learning (possibly including prayer) and perhaps writing.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

See the attestation for teopan nemi in our Online Nahuatl Dictionary for additional insights into the term. There is some ambiguity in the cited studies. Perhaps this image clarifies a studious role.

Comparing this glyph to others in this digital collection there are additional hints, such as Cuicanemi (one who lives singing, presumably in the church) and Temachti (teacher, probably at a school in the church in this time period). Further, clicking on the amoxtli (book image from the Mexicanus manuscript, folio 19, shown below) will bring up a contextualizing image of a member of the clergy holding the book.

Like the tecpan (governing palace), which typically lacks an absolutive, the teopantli was often just called teopan.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Source Manuscript:

Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)

Date of Manuscript:

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Occupations

Religion (Christian)

Religion (Indigenous Christianity)

Religion (Indigenous)

Writing, Literacy

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

rectangular

dotted, granular, textured

frontal view

Keywords:

ocupaciones, trabajador en la iglesia, templo, vive en la iglesia, religión indígena

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

teopan nemi, one who lives and/or works at the temple or church, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/teopan-nemi
teopan, church, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/teopan
nemi, to live, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nemi
teopane, the person who is entrusted with taking care of the church, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/teopane

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 817v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=707&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: