pepena (MH488v)

pepena (MH488v)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the element pepena (to choose, to pick) has been extracted from the compound Xochipepena. The same image is included in this collection here, again, as a way of documenting the logogram of the verb, where the hand is reaching toward flowers to indicate the action of choosing.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Pehpena (here showing the glottal stop) was used in many cases to refer to a kind of labor, a harvesting. Frances Karttunen notes how the term is combined with many "harvestable" or "collectable" items, such as firewood, maize, and tomatoes (see our Online Nahuatl Dictionary). If flowers were a required item for harvesting, that says something interesting about the culture.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla, Mexico

Syntax: 
verb
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Flowers
Plants, Flora
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
frontal view
vertical, upright
Keywords: 

verbos, escoger

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

pepena, to choose, to select, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pepena

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

escoger

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 488v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=56&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).

See Also: 

Xochipepena (MH488v)

Xochipepena (MH489r)