tototl (LTlaxUT1b)

tototl (LTlaxUT1b)
Simplex Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This simplex Nahuatl hieroglyph is a black-line drawing of two pairs of birds (tototl, singular, or totome, plural), each pair in a separate cage. They are shown in profile, facing left. The cages appear to be made of wooden sticks that are tied together with cords. These birds were provided as tribute (taxation in kind) by the Tlaxcalteca to their Spanish allies in the march toward Tenochtitlan. The feathers of these birds were especially prized.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

See some other examples of birds glyphs from sixteenth-century manuscripts below. Still today in Mexico men called pajajerosa> carry very tall stacks of birds in wooden cages to the Basilica of Guadalupe on Palm Sunday. People enjoy the colors of the feathers and the bird songs. But the tradition is beginning to fade, partly due to the opposition of animal rights activists.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Tlaxcala, Lienzo de, UT (LTlaxUT)

Date of Manuscript:

1540s

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Tlaxcala and other parts of early Mexico

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals: Birds

Feathers

Tributes, Taxation, Service

Wood, wooden things

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing left

profile view

tied, bound, or bundled

Keywords:

jaulas, ave, aves, pájaro, pájaros, tributo, tributos, aliados, españoles

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

toto(tl), bird, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tototl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

pájaro

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Benson Latin American Collection, LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections, The University of Texas at Austin https://collections.lib.utexas.edu/catalog/utblac:3c754fd0-b27f-4af7-9cf...

Image Source, Rights:

The Benson Library has kindly provided the digital images and permission to put them into our Mapas Project in 2015. Use and reproduction from this project: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/, but please also cite the Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs, ed. Stephanie Wood, (Eugene, Ore.: Wired Humanities Projects, ©2020-present). Version 1.0.

Orthography:

intrusive period

Historical Contextualizing Image: