tlacalaquilli momacac (CST25)
This painting of the simplex glyph for the expression tlacalaquilli momacac (“tribute delivery was given” or “tribute was delivered”) shows a forearm with a gathered brown sleeve and a pale pink hand with a long, pointing index finger. The contextualizing image shows how the finger is pointing toward the money that was being paid in tribute, a total of 398 pesos (which is quite a lot of money, gathered from the whole town, to deliver to the Spanish viceroy or king). Kevin Terraciano (Codex Sierra, 2021, 59–61) points out that this “pictorial convention based on a phonogram” relates to the paying of tributes, because “daha can signify either ‘tribute’ or ‘hand’ in Mixtec.”
Stephanie Wood
It may just be a coincidence, but this pointing hand might also be seen as a visual shortcut for the local Indigenous municipal governor who delivered the tribute funds or the Spanish official who collected them. Governors often appear in codices pointing and/or speaking (with speech scrolls coming from their mouths). But Spanish colonial officials are even more likely to appear with a pointing finger, at least in some manuscripts. The scrolls and pointing fingers are symbols of power and authority in Mesoamerica and New Spain. See some examples below. For more on the Codex Sierra, see Kevin Terraciano’s study (2021).
Stephanie Wood
1550–1564
Jeff Haskett-Wood
tributos, impuestos, entrega, colección, autoridad, dinero
tlacalaquil(li), tribute payment or delivery, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlacalaquilli
maca, to give, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/maca
se entregó el tributo
Stephanie Wood
Códice Sierra-Texupan, plate 25, page dated 1559. Origin: Santa Catalina Texupan, Mixteca Alta, State of Oaxaca. Kevin Terraciano has published an outstanding study of this manuscript (Codex Sierra, 2021), and in his book he refers to alphabetic and “pictorial” writing, not hieroglyphic writing. We are still counting some of the imagery from this source as hieroglyphic writing, but we are also including examples of “iconography” where the images verge on European style illustrations or scenes showing activities. We have this iconography category so that such images can be fruitfully compared with hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphic writing was evolving as a result of the influence of European illustrations, and even alphabetic writing impacted it.
https://bidilaf.buap.mx/objeto.xql?id=48281&busqueda=Texupan&action=search
The Biblioteca Digital Lafragua of the Biblioteca Histórica José María Lafragua in Puebla, Mexico, publishes this Códice Sierra-Texupan, 1550–1564 (62pp., 30.7 x 21.8 cm.), referring to it as being in the “Public Domain.” This image is published here under a Creative Commons license, asking that you cite the Biblioteca Digital Lafragua and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs.
