Cruz Poztec (MH664v)

Cruz Poztec (MH664v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Cruz Poztec (“Broken cross”) is attested here as a man’s name. The glyph shows a frontal view of a pedestal with a cross (cruz, a Spanish word that entered Nahuatl) bent in half and leaning toward the viewer’s left. Apparently, it is broken (poztec).

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The name Cruz was taken by large numbers of Nahuas in the sixteenth century, and it is still very prevalent in Nahua communities today. Cross shapes–such as the + and the x–existed in Nahua culture prior to contact and continued on under colonization. The Christian cross penetrated Indigenous communities in their chapels, churches, boundary markers, and home altars that would proliferate.

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

Semantic Categories:

personal name

Syntax:

adjective

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Gender (male)

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Religion (Indigenous Christianity)

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

bent

frontal view

Other Cultural Influences:

Spanish/European

Keywords:

cruces, nombres de hombres

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

cruz, cross, a Christian cross (a loanword from Spanish, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cruz
poztec, something broken, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/poztectli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Cruz Rota

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 664v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=409&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: