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on 7/6/04 5:45 PM, Caroline Dodds at ced44@CAM.AC.UK wrote:<BR>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>Apologies to all those who have requested that I cite the passage.<BR>
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The reason that I didn't give more context at the time is the the term is a title, not part of a text. It comes from the Florentine Codex, Book 10, The People and is the title to the section presented in the facing text as that concerning 'The Pervert'. I am doing some research on Aztec gender and sexuality, which is why I was trying to trace the roots of the word (to try and examine its implications). I am wondering now whether it is simply a case that Sahagún was told by his informants that this was the meaning of the term - you would, however, expect some kind of logical root. <BR>
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I do not have the Nahuatl passage here, but will have to look it up when I next am in the library. If anyone is able to supply it so that we can continue the discussion then that would be much appreciated. The original is from the <I>Florentine Codex</I>, Book 10, The People, p. 37 (from the 1961 Dibble and Anderson edition). For purposes of identification, the English translation of the text which follows the heading Suchioa/Pervert is: "The pervert [is] of feminine speech, of feminine mode of address. [If a woman, she is] of masculine speech, of masculine mode of address; [she has] a vulva, a crushed vulva, a friction-loving vulva. [He is] a corrupter, a deranger; one who deprives one of his reason. She rubs her vulva on one; she perverts, confuses, corrupts one."<BR>
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This begins to make sense. A:huiyanimeh, 'courtesans, women of pleasure' (literally 'ones who habitually enjoy themselves') were conventionally depicted with their hair loosened, standing on water (symbolizing the first syllable of the word a:huiyani), and holding flowers. So we are not likely looking at the verb meaning to blossom, but rather to the possessor construction:<BR>
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xo:chi-yo:-huah 'one who possesses a bunch of flowers'<BR>
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