Yopico (Mdz20r)

Yopico (Mdz20r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This simplex glyph for Yopico, refers to a place name (a pueblo). It is also associated with a Temple of Yopitli (sometimes seen as just the stem, Yopi) and the people devoted to the deity or divine force which had associations with Xipe Totec. The shape has three points and a tie around the middle. It is colored red and white. It seems to be a hat or cap made of fabric. The locative suffix (-co) is not shown visually.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

This glyph also stands for the "month" of Tlacaxipehualiztli, the "Flaying of Humans." Various example of this month glyph appear in a table created for "An Introduction to Nahuatl Hieroglyphic Writing, 2013 Maya Meetings & Workshops, University of Texas, Austin, January 15 ‐ 17, 2013," p. 5. https://www.academia.edu/8311625/An_Introduction_to_Nahuatl_Hieroglyphic....

Frances Berdan and Patricia Anawalt (The Codex Mendoza, 1992, vol. 1, p. 230) write "This cap was so characteristic of the god Xipe that it served as an ideograph for the group of people most closely associated with the 'Flayed God,' the Yopes. This glyph also appears on folio 47r of the Codex Mendoza and 13r of the Matrícula de Tributos, representing the month of Tlacaxipehualiztli, during which this deity was especially honored."

Today there is a Santa Bárbara Yopico that is part of Azcapotzalco. This town embraces the glyph from the Codex Mendoza, as shown in their page on Facebook. Perhaps the Yopes were a migrant group from Oaxaca that formed a settlement in or near Tenochtitlan. According to Wikipedia, there is a Zapotec deity "Yopi" that is represented on urns from the Classic Period and is apparently associated with Xipe Totec.

See also the glyph for Chipetlan, below, right, which is said to have an association with the deity Xipe Totec (also Xipetotec).

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

yopico. puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Yopico, pueblo

Gloss 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: 
place name
Syntax: 
locative (not visual)
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Gifts, Offerings, Sacrifice
Names (places)
Religion (Indigenous)
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Shapes and Perspectives: 
pointed (see also spiky)
tripartite
Other Cultural Influences: 
Oaxacan
Keywords: 

Iopico, iopitli, etnicidades, Xipetotec, Xipe Totec, sombreros, gorras, hats

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

Yopico, a place name, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/yopico
Yopi, deity/diving force, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/yopi
-co (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/co

Karttunen’s Interpretation: 

Frances Karttunen says the ethnic group was the "Yopih," and she does not have a translation for this stem.[Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

"In the Place of the Yopes" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 230)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

"Lugar de los Yopes"

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 20 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 50 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).

See Also: 

Xipetlan (Mdz39r)