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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Estimado Michel:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Yeah, the semasiographic expression of the toponym through the
avian representations, and the visual calquing of the Hapsburg dynasty
double-headed eagle, are fairly evident. My “if” was just an
expression of my habit of looking for alternative hypotheses for just about
everything (especially when consensus is involved), but we can be pretty sure
the painter was thinking “quecholli” (or the semantic equivalent in
another language) given the context of the image. The thrust of my comment was
to try to determine the possible identification of this representation with the
various species, quite diverse really (as Joe’s recent contribution
illustrates so well), that fall under the obscure (to me) native taxonomic
category of “quecholli”. Maybe this category involves the relative
value of these species’ feathers in conquest-period Mesoamerican culture.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>An alternative hypothesis, which I think is less likely, but
which shouldn’t be discarded unless there is a good reason to do so,
would be that one or both of the birds are glottographic signs involving
homophonous word plays, since quecholli can mean one of several species of
birds, “projectile”, and/or a twenty-day ritual period, and in this
tradition of pictorial writing we sometimes see eagles (cua:uhtli) used to
convey the idea of forests/trees/sticks (cuahuitl), which have cuasihomophonous
stems [kwa:w] and [kwaw], and vice versa. Taking these alternative meanings
into acount, we can come up with a list of several hypothetical translations
for the toponym Cuauhquechollan. In this case náhuatl would be the only
language possible, since these meanings are only expressed in a homophonous or
cuasi-homophonous manner in this language. Even when early colonial native
authors provide etymologies that support one translation or another of a
toponym, we often can’t rule out the possibility of folk etymologies. A
more secure method involves collecting the equivalents of the toponyms in
neighboring languages, since the meaning usually (but not always) passed from
one language to another as a semantic loan, or calque. It’s usually a
good idea to run all of the possibilities through one’s head and pour
them through our analytical filters before arriving at a conclusion. Sometimes
the answer lies beneath the surface.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>By the way, there’s a ridiculous error in the rough draft
of a footnote on the probable meaning of the twenty-day ritual period quecholli
that I included in my last post, in a final attempt to get some feedback for
improving it. I wrote “cucharada” (spoonful) instead of
“cuchareta” (spoonbill) twice! This is the sort of thing than can
provide decades of embarrassment if it makes it into print. What makes me a bit
uneasy is that our posts to this list are instantly archived and come up in
Google searches! Fortunately we can post corrections as easily as we can post
mistakes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Saludos y un abrazo,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>David<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><span lang=ES style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>De:</span></b><span
lang=ES style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> Michel
Oudijk [mailto:oudyk@hotmail.com] <br>
<b>Enviado el:</b> miércoles, 09 de diciembre de 2009 12:19 a.m.<br>
<b>Para:</b> David Wright; schwallr@potsdam.edu<br>
<b>CC:</b> nahuatl@lists.famsi.org<br>
<b>Asunto:</b> RE: [Nahuat-l] hoary spoonbill<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Dear David and Fritz,<br>
<br>
Maybe I should have said this in the previous message, but yes the bird on the
left is the quecholli. The image of the double headed eagle is used here to
express the identification of Cuauhquechollan with the Spanish Crown and,
at the same, represent their toponym Cuauh(tli)-quecholl(i)-an. Of all people
they should know what the quecholli looked like. <br>
Still, it's a beautiful example of the creation of a colonial indigenous world.
Also note the sword and the macana, and of course the crown. In other places of
the lienzo conquest is represented as a European sword (instead of an arrow)
perforating a toponymic glyph, and the Cuauhquecholteca are depicted with a
white skin contrary to their indigenous oponents. I highly recommend reading
Florine Asselbergs' study of this lienzo.<br>
<br>
Un fuerte abrazo,<br>
<br>
Michel<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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