Aztec birth symbols

In the picture from the Codex Mendoza (above) we can see five objects associated with Aztec male trades and professions: a shield with four arrows (the classic symbol for war) and tools used by a carpenter, featherworker, scribe and goldsmith. Lower down the picture we see three items linked to female household jobs: a broom, cotton spindle, and reed basket for storing materials. After bathing the child, the midwife. amid prayers and chants, offered the babe up four times to the heavens, and then presented him or her with the appropriate symbolic gifts, full of special meaning.
Sahagún speaks of the symbolic gift of a little shield, bow, and four arrows... one for each of the cardinal directions. ‘And they made him a tortilla of amaranth dough, which became a shield on which arrows were extended, with a bow.’ The missionary chronicler Fray Motolinía states that at the bathing/naming ceremony, the tiny shield was placed in the baby’s left hand and in his right, an arrow.
Sweeping was of huge ritual importance in Aztec society, and filled spindles represented fertility.

A ‘toy’ Aztec shield with a bow and four miniature arrows, alongside a small spindle and whorl and miniature reed broom