icnopilli / icnopilti

[richard haly]

All,
My sense of the "merit" associated with orphanhood (icno-) is that for Nahua
speakers, orphans belong to a different cultural category than they do in
our culture(s). That is, "to look on someone as an orphan" means "with
compassion" as an orphan is someone "deserving or meriting compassion." The
icnocuicatl in the Cantares seem to support this as does the notion (sorry
no reference immediately at hand) that one's uncle took over on the death of
a male parent. Maybe there is a little problem with "merit" as our
culture(s) conceive it as something earned which is not necessarily the case
in Mesoamerica as it depends to some degree on one's tonalli. I suppose a
contextual comparison and analysis of macehua vs icnopil might clarify
things too.

In a hurry,
Richard Haly

on 19.05.01 8:25 PM, patrick thomas hajovsky at pthajovs at midway.uchicago.edu
wrote:
 > Mark,
 >
 > That's really interesting; you've got some of my wheels turning... I'm
 > wondering if there are other ways to describe merit, and if "merit" can be
 > considered as an aspect of fate rather than something acquired through
 > honor. And getting back to David's question, if both forms with icno were
 > in operation at the same time and in the same places.
 >
 > I'll check out the Carochi. Thanks for the response.
 >
 > Patrick
 >
 > _______________________________
 > ixquich in pepetlaca xteocuitla
 >
 > On Sat, 19 May 2001, Mark David Morris wrote:
 >
 >> Patrick,
 >>
 >> Thanks for your comments; however, verbs derived or modified with icno
 >> clearly relate to merit. You might want to check the relevant sections of
 >> Carochi. best,
 >> Mark Morris
 >>
 >>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 >>
 >> La muerte tiene permiso a todo
 >>
 >> MDM, PhD Candidate
 >> Dept. of History, Indiana Univ.
 >>
 >>
 >