RV: the eagle, the cactus, the stone, sacred warfare - yes, but the snake...?

[David Wright]

[My last post slipped out of my hands with a few errata. They are corrected
here.]

 

**********************************************************

 

Dear Ian:

 

The page looks good. I think the word tlachinolli can be translated more
precisely than “a burned thing”. The latter phrase is found a lot in
Mesoamericanist literature. It looks like it was taken from Alonso de
Molina’s (1571) gloss “Tlachinolli. cosa quemada assi, o chamuscada.” The
word “assi” is important because Molina is referring to the previous entry,
“Tlachinoliztli. el acto de quemar los campos;” before that is “Tlachinoa.
ni. quemar los campos o montes. Pr. onitlachino.” Molina also registers the
verb without fusing the object prefix tla- to the root: “chinoa. nitla.
quemar los campos. preteri. onitlachino.”

 

Tlachinolli, then, is a noun derived from the verb chinoa, “to burn the
cultivated field or bush,” meaning “burnt field,” or “burnt bush” (“bush” is
used here to mean uncultivated land with mixed vegetation, which seems to be
what Molina means here by “montes”; an alternative translation would be
“hills” or “mountains”). It works like this:

 

-          verb: chinoa:, “to burn the field/bush/hill;”

-          passive form: tlachinolo: (tla + (chinoa: - a:) + lo:), “some
field/bush/hill is burned;”

-          deverbal noun derived from the passive form: tlachinolli (tla +
(chinoa: - a:) + (lo: - o:) + li, “some burnt field/bush/hill.”

 

(I restored the long vowels in the latter analysis, using colons, for the
sake of precision.)

 

The pictorial signs associated with the Nahuatl doublet atl tlachinolli,
found on pre-Hispanic sculptures like the Teocalli de la Guerra Sagrada and
the Huehuetl de Malinalco, as well as several pictorial manuscripts from the
early colonial period, communicate the idea of a conflagration in cultivated
fields. Present in most of these sign clusters, in combination with igneous
signs (usually a butterfly-like flame and bands of red-orange fire, is the
combination of curved elements like the letter ‘c’ with rows of dots, on a
grey background, found in other signs that express the idea of cultivated
fields). An example of the latter is the Xochimilco toponymic sign on the
Piedra de Tízoc and the Piedra del ex Arzobispado, and its counterpart in
the Codex Mendoza, in all of which a rectangle with these elements appears
under flower signs ((xochitl - tl) + (milli - li) + co, “in the cultivated
fields of flowers”). So I think we can discard “bush” and “hill” and assume
the Nahuas were thinking “cultivated field (or fields).”

 

Sahagún explains the metaphorical meaning of the doublet (difrasismo) atl
tlachinolli in book 6, chapter 43 of the Florentine Codex. The Nahuatl texts
reads: “Teuatl, tlachinolli. Inin tla / tolli, itechpa mitoaia: in uei iao /
oiotl muchioaia, anoço uei coco / liztli: mitoaia. Otopan muchiuh, / anoço
otopan onquiz: iniuhqui / teuatl, tlachinolli: quitoznequi: / cocoliztli,
anoço uel iehoatl in / iaoiotl.” This can be translated literally as: “The
divine water, the burnt fields. With this saying it was said: the great war
was done, or the great sickness. It was said: over us was done, or over us
flowed, something like the divine water, the burnt fields. It means: the
sickness or this war.” Sahagún’s Spanish translation, less literal than
mine, is close in meaning: “Quiere dezir esta letra. El mar / o la
chamusquina vino sobre noso / tros o paso sobre nosotros. Por meta / phora
se dize: de la pestilencia o / guerra que quando se acaba dizen /
otonpanquiz inteuatl in tlachinolli. / Paso sobre nosotros la mar y el
fuego.”

 

I hope this helps clarify the meaning of atl tlachinolli.

 

Saludos desde Guanajuato,

 

David

 

-----Mensaje original-----
De: nahuatl-bounces at lists.famsi.org [mailto:nahuatl-bounces at lists.famsi.org]
En nombre de Ian Mursell
Enviado el: martes, 18 de enero de 2011 13:50
Para: Nahuat-l ((messages)); Aztlan
Asunto: Re: [Nahuat-l] the eagle, the cactus, the stone, sacred warfare -
yes, but the snake...?

 

Dear Listeros,

 

We have been intrigued by a question our teaching team recently received

concerning the presence or absence of the snake in the original foundation

account and emblem of Tenochtitlan, and we've tried to highlight the

evidence for and against, for a general audience, on our educational

website.  You can see the end result here -

 

http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/index.php?one=azt&two=wus&tab=aus&id=47

 

It strikes us that there's very little information on this subject 'out

there' for students to grapple with.  If we're wrong, please correct us.  In

any case, we would be grateful if any of you could take a few minutes to

read our modest attempt to 'state the case' on this fascinating question and

to add your contributions to the debate (forgive me if this has come up

before as a thread)...

 

Best wishes,

 

Ian

 

Ian Mursell

 

MirandaNet Fellow, Institute of Education, London University

 

Director, 'Mexicolore'

28 Warriner Gardens

London SW11 4EB, U.K.

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7622 9577

Fax: +44 (0) 20 7498 0173

www.aztecs.org

Ian.Mursell at btinternet.com

info at mexicolore.co.uk

 

1980-2011: 31 years of bringing Mexico and the Mexica/Aztecs to life in over

2,000 schools and museums throughout England. Team visits, online teaching

resources and services, live interactive videoconferencing sessions, and

much more - all from Mexicolore, the 'highly successful teaching team'

(British Museum Education Service)

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