Article suitable for older students

Deal? Done!

Mixtec Lords agree

Stick-up? Hold-up? Frame-up? No, we’re on the same side...!
Far from a dispute of any kind, these two Mixtec Lords are in fact showing they’ve struck a deal. (Written/compiled by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)

Lord 10-Wind, on the left, is actually making a request gesture and Lord 4-Jaguar is signalling his acceptance. They feature in one of the precious few pre-Columbian Mixtec codices to have survived the Spanish Conquest. Called the Codex Colombino-Becker, it has ended up divided into 7 fragments (with 4 additional segments still being lost), split between two countries (Mexico and Austria) and bearing different names. Its contents is entirely historical events: basically it tells the story of the famous Mixtec leader Lord 8-Deer.

As part of her meticulous [super-detailed] study of the contents of the Codex, Nancy Troike looked at the nature and shapes of all hands shown in the manuscript. This showed that hands were pictured in only 3 forms: pointing, flat, or busy holding an object. By checking all the examples in the codex very carefully, she noticed that two gestures often appeared to occur reciprocally [in pairs] when figures were shown meeting face to face.

She concluded that ‘figures giving gestures in the horizontal zone are making a request, while those showing gestures in the upward range are accepting that request and agreeing to carry out the desires of the other person.’ The example here ‘shows one of Lord 8-Deer’s supporters, Lord 10-Wind, making a request gesture and Lord 4-Jaguar responding with the acceptance gesture.’

What did they agree to? We’ll probably never know! As Nancy Troike writes: ‘These specifics, which would of course be different for each historical situation, were already stored in the minds of the trained readers who had learned the story of Lord 8-Deer in this codex.’ The gestures worked simply as what experts call ‘mnemonic guides’ to the meaning in the scenes - in other words, memory aids.

• Main picture scanned - and information adapted - from Postures and Gestures in the Mixtec Codices by Nancy P. Troike, in The Art and Iconography of Late Post-Classic Central Mexico, A Conference at Dumbarton Oaks (1977), Eds. Elizabeth Benson and Elizabeth Hill Boone, Trustees for Harvard University, 1982
• Colour image scanned from our copy of the 1966 Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología, Mexico, facsimile edition (folio X)

Comments (6)

Citlalli

22nd Feb 2024

Isn’t it intriguing how the act of pointing fingers can carry such intensity? Makes me wonder why, particularly in places like Guatemala, it’s customary to avoid pointing with a single finger, opting instead to use the whole hand. Could it be because of the aggression in these photos? It would be interesting to further understand this cultural practice and uncover its deeper significance. I remember my grandma saying it was rude to point. She warned me that pointing at plants could stop them from bearing fruit and even harm animals.

Mexicolore

Many thanks for these perceptive comments...

Tecpatl Izkalotecatl

12th Jul 2012

It’s the common image representing “Tepoztli”. See the place name glyph for “Tepoztlan”.

Rafael

17th Feb 2010

That red thing could be just a wooden artifact and those yellow things carved on it could be stones. Aren’t macuahuitl wooden swords carved with stones? I think they could be dealing a weapon or just somethin’ as a tool.

Quetzalcoatl

27th Aug 2009

It’s not a pistol or a pipe but a ceremonial axe from a crafts man, usually jade but picture color suggests gold.

Mexicolore

OK! Many thanks for this - you may well be right...

Tecpaocelotl

21st Aug 2009

Maybe it’s a trading agreement on how much they should trade on ropes & pipes/tobacco.

Tecpaocelotl

19th Aug 2009

The “pistol” looks like a meso-american pipe to me.

Mexicolore