Xochipic (MH908r)

Xochipic (MH908r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Xochipic (perhaps “Flower-Vulva”) is attested here as a woman’s name. The glyph shows what seems to be a combination of a flower or petals and the labia of a woman’s genitals, but this is a guess based on the gloss, as much as the imagery.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

References to sexuality are not extremely common in personal names, or at least they are rarely explicit. It could be that “xochitl” more often than we realize has a sexual or fertility dimension. The compound glyph for Chalchiuhnene (MH559v) does seems to refer more certainly to a woman’s genitals. Nenetl, which is very common in personal names, can refer to women’s genitals; however, more often in this collection nenetl or the syllable nen seems to speak to laziness in workers.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

francisca . xochipic

Gloss Normalization: 

Francisca Xochipic

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound fully logographic
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Flowers
Gender (female)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Sexuality, Fertility
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

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

sexualidad, fertilidad, labios sexuales, vulvas, flores, pétalos, nombres de mujeres

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

picca, the folding or the thick lips of the genitals of a woman, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/picca
xochi(tl), flower, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xochitl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Flor-Vulva

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 908r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=886&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).

Orthography: 
intrusive period
Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Chalchiuhnene (MH559v)

Cocoztic (MH518v)

Tepanonoc (MH869v)

Tepane (MH880r)

Tepantemoc (MH813r)