Stories in red and black : pictorial histories of the Aztecs and Mixtecs

313 Pages·2000·90.449 MB·English

by  Boone, Elizabeth Hill

P R E - C O L U M B I A N H I S T O R Y ; A R T H I S T O R Y S “Professor Boone has spent the better part of the
last two decades at the forefront of our discipline. I
t Stories in
am delighted to report that this book lives up to
o her high reputation and even surpasses it: Stories in
Red and Blackcomprehensively surveys the histor-
Also of interest The Paris Codex r
ical documents of Pre-Columbian and Colonial
Handbook for a Maya Priest i Mexico, presenting them in a way that enlightens
By Bruce Love e
the expert and guides the beginner. . . . This book
Ralph Waldo Emerson Award, Phi Beta Kappa
Introduction by George E. Stuart s Red and Black is a tour de force.”
Codex Telleriano-Remensis “This work is well written, richly illustrated, and su- —Stephen D. Houston,
i author of Hieroglyphs and History at Dos Pilas:
Ritual, Divination, and History in a Pictorial perbly researched. It should find a large audience,
n Dynastic Politics of the Classic Maya
Aztec Manuscript especially among those interested in the Maya and
By Eloise Quiñones Keber other pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican civilizations, spe-
“Iverymuchenjoyedreadingthisbookand enthu-
Foreword by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie cialists and nonspecialists alike.” R
siastically recommend it. It is well written, logically
Illustrations by Michel Besson —Hispanic American Historical Review E L I Z A B E T H H I L L B O O N E
organized, thoughtfully illustrated and—without
e
“In this magnificently illustrated work with a facsim- Love takes an ethnographic approach to the Paris question—asignificant contribution. All too often,
ile reproduction of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis, codex, which is reproduced in this volume, analyzing d scholarswritingonmanuscriptsdelveonlyinto one
Eloise Quiñones Keber has presented an invaluable its use by Maya priests as a handbook of divination, geographicalregionof Mexico(or one manuscript).

first-time publication of the entire codex along with prophecy, and history. The type of synthesis that Boone presents, cover-
a
Michael DeMocker an extensive scholarly commentary, sixteenth-century ISBN 0-292-74674-1, hardcover ing material from both the Valley of Mexico and
Spanish annotations, and an English translation of its n southern Mexico, is unique and long overdue. Her
texts. . . . This volume is highly recommended as an comparisons between the regions are knowledge-
these narratives. This twofold investigation broadens d
important acquisition for any research library on Images from the Underworld able and perceptive. . . . This work will undoubt-
our understanding of how preconquest Mexicans un-
colonial Mexican history.” edly become one of Those Basic Books.”
Naj Tunich and the Tradition of Maya Cave Painting
derstood and presented themselves and how they
—Colonial Latin American Historical Review By Andrea J. Stone B —Mary Elizabeth Smith,
used pictographic history for political and social ends.
ISBN0-292-76901-6, hardcover author of Picture Writing from Ancient
It also demonstrates how graphic writing systems “The present volume is not only an extraordinarily l Southern Mexico: Mixtec Place Signs and Maps
developed, like mathematical or musical notation, detailed and insightful analysis of the painted repre- a
to convey meaning directly and without a detour Memory, Myth, and Time in Mexico sentations and texts found in Naj Tunich but also a c
through speech, creating a broadly understood cor- complete survey ofallknown Maya paintedcaves. . . .
From the Aztecs to Independence k The Aztecs and Mixtecs of ancient Mexico recorded
pus of visual conventions that communicated effec- Stone has given us a major monograph on a major
By Enrique Florescano their histories in long oral narratives and in images
tively across ethnic and linguistic boundaries. Maya site. For completeness of presentation, for clar-
Translated by Albert G. Bork with the assistance painted on hide, paper, and cloth, which served to
This book will be important reading not only for ity of writing, and for depth and scope of analysis, it
of Kathryn R. Bork keep the fundamental features of the stories pure.
scholars of ancient Mexico, but also for avocational is a model of what a final report should be, but E
The tradition of painting history continued even after
students of Pre-Columbian history who want to learn “An intriguing exploration of the ways in which in- seldom is.” l
i the Spanish Conquest, for the indigenous rulers and
to read the Aztec and Mixtec codices and learn their digenous and creole populations sought to use and to —Michael D. Coe, z PICTORIAL HISTORIES OF THE AZTECS AND MIXTECS important native families still needed documents to
stories and legends. Likewise, it offers food for make sense of their pasts and their presents and to a
Journal of Anthropological Research support their respective positions, and the Spaniards
thought to scholars in a variety of disciplines who imagine their futures in the context of colonialism.” b
ISBN 0-292-75552-X, hardcover e accepted the pictorial histories as valid records of the
think comparatively about histories and/or graphic —Latin American Research Review t
h past. Out of the wealth of documentation that once
systems of communication.
In Memory, Myth, and Time in Mexico, Florescano’s existed, five Pre-Columbian and some 150early colo-
An art historian, Elizabeth Hill Boone has special- H
Memoria mexicana becomes available for the first nial painted histories survive today.
ized in the painted books of preconquest and early WRITE FOR OUR MESOAMERICAN STUDIES
time in English. i This extensively and beautifully illustrated book of-
colonial Mexico since she was a graduate student at CATALOG. l
l fers the first comprehensive analysis of the Mexican
the University of Texas at Austin, where she received Translations from Latin America Series UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PRESS B
painted history as an intellectual, documentary, and
her Ph.D. Formerly Director of Pre-Columbian ISBN 0-292-72486-1, paperback PO BOX 7819 / AUSTIN TX 78713-7819 o
pictorial genre. Elizabeth Hill Boone explores how
Studies at Dumbarton Oaks, she now holds the o
n the Mexican historians conceptualized and painted
Martha and Donald Robertson Chair in Latin Amer-
e their past and introduces readers to the major picto-
ican Art at Tulane University. In 1990, the govern-
rial records: the Aztec annals and cartographic histo-
ment of Mexico awarded her the Order of the Aztec
ries and the Mixtec screenfolds and lienzos.
Eagle for her contributions to Aztec studies.
Boone focuses her analysis on the kinds of stories
Jacket illustrations:drawing from Codex Selden 2by John told in the histories and on how the manuscripts
University of Texas Press, Austin Montgomery; photograph of Codex Azcatitlan 36–37, work pictorially to encode, organize, and preserve
Printed in U.S.A. courtesy of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris.
(Continued on back flap)
TEXAS
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Stories in Red and Black
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Stories in Red
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and Black
Pictorial Histories of the
Aztecs and Mixtecs
Elizabeth Hill Boone
University of Texas Press, Austin
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Copyright © 2000 by the University of Texas Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First edition, 2000
Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work
should be sent to Permissions, University of Texas Press, Box 7819,
Austin, TX 78713-7819.
s‘
The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of
ansi/nisoZ39.48-1992 (R1997) (Permanence of Paper).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Boone, Elizabeth Hill.
Storiesinredandblack:pictorialhistoriesoftheAztecsandMixtecs
/ Elizabeth Hill Boone. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn0-292-70876-9 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Manuscripts, Nahuatl. 2. Aztec painting. 3. Nahuatl lan-
guage—Writing. 4. Manuscripts, Mixtec. 5. Mixtec art. 6. Mixtec
language—Writing. I. Title.
F1219.54.A98 B66 2000
9729.01—ddc21 99-6214
Publication of this book has been aided by a grant from the Millard
Meiss Publication Fund of the College Art Association.
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In tlili in tlapalli, the black, the red,
these are
the writings, the paintings, the books, knowledge.
Nahuatl metaphor, adapted from Sahagún, bk. 10, ch. 29
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Contents
Preface xiii
Chapter 1 Configuring the Past 1
Chapter 2 History and Historians 13
Chapter 3 Writing in Images 28
Chapter 4 Structures of History 64
Chapter 5 Mixtec Genealogical Histories 87
Chapter 6 Lienzos and Tiras from
Oaxaca and Southern Puebla 125
Chapter 7 Stories of Migration, Conquest,
and Consolidation in the Central Valleys 162
Chapter 8 Aztec AltepetlAnnals 197
Chapter 9 Histories with a Purpose 238
Notes 251
Bibliography 267
Index 285
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Illustrations
Figures
1. Formulaforcalculatingthevarianceofasample,31 24. Mixtec place signs,52
2. Instructions for operating a hot air dryer,31 25. Aztec place signs,53
3. Pictorial representations and ideograms related to 26. Expressions of birth, marriage, and parentage,56
conquest and war,33 27. Expressions of death,57
4. Pictorial representations of material things,34 28. Accession of rulers,58
5. Ideograms for “day” and a painter painting a div- 29. Speech and meetings,59
inatory almanac,35 30. Natural and climatic phenomena,60
6. Name sign of Ahuitzotl,36 31. Reading order of six Mixtec screenfolds,62
7. Mixtec and Aztec place signs of Yucu Dzaa or 32. Musical notation: stanza 2, Dumbarton Oaks
Tututepec,36 Concerto,66
8. Place sign of Chiyo Ca’nu,37 33. Labanotation: excerpt of “Gentleman in Black”
9. Place sign of Culhuacan,37 from The Green Table,67
10.Phonetic indicators used in Aztec place signs,37 34. Annals history, Codex Mexicanus 71–72,68
11. Name signs for Spaniards,38 35. “Time Tee” of the College of William and
12. Day signs in Mixtec and Aztec manuscripts,40 Mary,70
13. Year signs in Mixtec and Aztec manuscripts,41 36. Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, by Bill
14.Signs for quantities,43 Watterson, 71
15. Males in the Mixtec and Aztec codices,44 37. Codex Selden 6,73
16. Females in the Mixtec and Aztec codices,44 38. Codex Selden 7,74
17. Aged persons in the Mixtec and Aztec codices,45 39. Codex Selden 8,76
18. Dead persons in the Mixtec and Aztec codices,45 40.The Feuillet system of dance notation, recording
19. Indications of rank, occupation, and status,46 “The Pastorall”,77
20.Indications of ethnicity,47 41. Chart of the route of Napoleon’s army to and
21. Mixtec name signs,48 from Moscow,78
22.Aztec name signs of the Mexica rulers,49 42. Codex Xolotl map 1,80
23. Foundation elements for Mixtec and Aztec place 43. Time-geographic model of the activities of a
signs,50 family over a single day,82