Article suitable for Top Juniors and above

Two fingers to you too!

23rd Jun 2021

An ancient Mixtec two-fingers gesture was in fact a positive sign of alliance

This image, found on page 70 of the Tonindeye (Zouche-Nuttall) Codex held in the British Museum, would be interpreted today by British readers as an insult and sign of contempt. In fact it’s the opposite... (Written by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)

The scene shows the great Mixtec lord 8-Deer ‘Jaguar Claw’ (right) holding up two fingers at the Toltec king of Tula-Cholula, Lord 4-Jaguar ‘Feathered Serpent’ (left), in a gesture - meaning ‘We will be together’ - aimed at forming an alliance, in the year 1097 CE, between the two peoples. We can recognise the Toltec ruler by his face painting and nose ornament as the historical figure 1-Reed Quetzalcóatl. The scene takes place at Staircase Place - Cholula. In the Codex, 8-Deer goes on to unify the entire Mixtec region, land of the Ñuu Savi or Nation of the Rain.

Info from ‘Commemorating the birth of the great Mixtec ruler Iya Nacuaa ‘Teyusi Ñaña’ – 21 June (summer solstice) 1064’ by Gabina Aurora Pérez Jiménez and Maarten E R G N Jansen, online webinar ‘Ancient writing, contemporary voices’, British Museum 21/6/21.
Image from the Codex Tonindeye/Zouche-Nuttall scanned from our own copy of the ADEVA facsimile edition, Graz, Austria, 1987.