dark/light skin color differences in pre- and post-conquest Mexico

[Kier Salmon]

Now, that's not what I remember.  In Bernal Diaz it does talk of the  
"hedor" of the temples, but I seem to recall the color black was a  
thick oil mixed with charcoal... and I am working without texts today,  
so this answer is off the cuff.  It *should* be in the Florentine.
IIRC (If I Recall Correctly) "Heart of Green Stone" mentioned the  
blood in the hair.  Admittedly Salvador de Madriaga did a lot of  
research, but that was over 40 year ago.


On Apr 25, 2008, at 10:52 AM, <micc2 at cox.net> <micc2 at cox.net> wrote:

> I read somewhere in my past life, that the priest were black because  
> they would not clean off the sacred blood of the victims, and as the  
> blood dried and caked, it turned black, and it also matted their  
> hair into fantastic shapes, like snakes.
>
>
> ---- ptcamn <ptcamn at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Priests are often depicted in the codices with darkened skin,
>> presumably due to some kind of paint. Compare the attached example
>> from the Codex Magliabechiano.
>>
>> Probably not relevant to the Florentine Codex image, but since you
>> asked, darkness in some contexts was used to mark outsiders. One
>> Mixtec name for the Nahuas was "tay saminuu", meaning "people with
>> burnt faces", and they were so depicted in Mixtec codices. On the
>> other hand, it is the Mixtecs who are depicted with dark skin as well
>> as dark clothing in the Mapa de Cuauhtinchan No. 2. Finally, in
>> present-day Isthmus Nahuatl, the word tilti' (corresponding to the
>> more familiar tliltic "black") means "stranger/foreigner".
>>
>> (Sources: Kevin Terraciano's Mixtecs of Colonial Oaxaca; Cave, City
>> and Eagle's Nest: An Interpretative Journey Through the Mapa de
>> Cuauhtinchan No. 2; Diccionario Nahuatl de los municipios de  
>> Mecayapan
>> y Tatahuicapan de Juarez, Veracruz.)
>
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