Spindles of the Sacred: The Metaphysical, Morphosyntactic, and Metonymic Threads That Weave the Mexica Cosmos

Table of Contents

Spindles of the Sacred: The Metaphysical, Morphosyntactic, and Metonymic Threads That Weave the Mexica Cosmos

He goes his way singing, offering flowers.
And his words rain down
Like jade and quetzal plumes.
Is this what pleases the Giver of Life?
Is that the only truth on earth?

No iuh quichihuaon teuctlon timaloa ye çan quetzalmaquiztlamatilolticaya
conahuiiltia ycelteotl huia ach canon zço
ceyan ypalnemoa ach canon
azo tle nelli in tlaltíp

“Xochi Cuicatl” (“Flower Song”), Cantares Mexicanos fol. 9v, translated by Miguel León-Portilla

In the numinous verses of the Cantares Mexicanos, a poet meditates on the enigmatic essence of xochicuicatl and poignantly wonders: “Is that the only truth on earth?” (León-Portilla 75). For the Nahuatl-speaking Mexica of the Central Mexican Highlands, xochicuicatl – a morphological fusion of xochitl (“flower”) and cuicatl (“song”) – transcended the bounds of metaphor, blooming forth as a metaphysical axis and sacred pursuit. It encapsulated and performed the Mexica hunt for the imperceptible and unrelenting hunger to commune with the ineffable dimensions of existence. Within the Mexica cosmovision, words, speech, and song were not mere communicative tools but sacred conduits – epistemologically generative and cosmologically revelatory – capable not only of unraveling but of weaving the very threads of reality itself.¹ As Mesoamerican linguist James Lockart illustrates, “no culture ever took more joy in words” (Lockart 375). In this richly vibrant intellectual and spiritual tradition, Classical Nahuatl emerges not as a static system but as a dynamic, multilayered tapestry, seamlessly interweaving the linguistic, aesthetic, and sacred realms of the Mexica cosmos.²

At the heart of the Mexica cosmological and metaphysical framework pulses the vital, immanent force of teotl, an irreducibly complex concept that defies the dualisms, categorizations, and rigid boundaries characteristic of the Western tradition. Neither strictly a celestial deity nor a terrestrial object, teotl is a sacred yet immanent animating energy that embodies ceaseless transformation and the confounding interplay of dualistic forces. Nahuatl’s polysynthetic architectural fabric mirrors this pulsating metaphysical dynamism, integrating abstract, metaphorical, and spatiotemporal dimensions, while melding subjects, objects, and actions into singular, morphosyntactic units that resonate with the relational, ever-changing flux of teotl.³ Its distinctive linguistic features – such as animacy hierarchies, spatial-temporal deixis, and omnipredicative flexibility of nouns and verbs – encode the nepantla (middling tension) and olin (oscillatory motion) movements foundational to the Mexica cosmovision. This metaphysical elasticity and linguistic fluidity exemplify what James Maffie describes as the “process metaphysics” of the Mexica, wherein “inamic pairs” – interdependent yet antagonistic dualistic forces – animate the cosmos by dissolving and intermingling discordant binaries such as material/spiritual, transcendent/immanent, or divine/mundane. Through Nahuatl, the Mexica did not merely articulate but actively performed their metaphysical and cosmological principles, weaving language and reality into a sacred enactment of continuous and embodied becoming.

Maffie vividly characterizes the Mexica cosmos as “a grand weaving in progress,” with Nahuatl operating as the loom, intricately spindling the threads of teotl into a seamless, dynamic, animate tapestry of interrelation and transformation (Maffie 359). The intermeshing of Nahuatl with the Mexica metaphysical perspective resonates deeply with Benjamin Lee Whorf’s theory of linguistic relativity: “Every language is a vast pattern-system … by which the personality not only communicates but also analyzes nature … and builds the house of consciousness” (Whorf 252). Nahuatl exemplifies this entanglement of language and reality, particularly through its employment of difrasismo, an aesthetic and linguistic device that morphologically synthesizes dualisms – such as xochitl (flower) and cuicatl (song) – into the singular, metonymic compound xochicuicatl. These pairings transcend the boundaries of metaphor, deliberately embodying and enacting the oscillatory and intermingling dynamism of teotl, wherein convergence and divergence perpetually sustain the rhythmic heartbeat of existence. For the Mexica, the cosmos was neither static nor linear but “a world in motion,” animated by ceaseless undulations and oscillations unfolding within the sacred, morphing, multidimensional layers of the space-time continuum.

This ever-present dynamism found embodied expression through nahuallatolli (“hidden ritual language”) and xochicuicatl (“ritual flower songs”), uttered into existence via the morphologically versatile and polysynthetic cadences of Nahuatl. These linguistic forms did not merely reflect the Mexica worldview; they actively sustained and actualized their cosmological and epistemological frameworks. As an animating essence of teotl, Nahuatl transcends the role of a linguistic system or cultural artifact; it is a metaphysical force through which the heartbeat of the Mexica cosmos continues to palpitate. In a post-colonial world scarred by the erasure of innumerable reservoirs of Indigenous knowledge, allowing Nahuatl to fade into obscurity would unravel the sacred threads binding the Mexica worldview. Reclaiming and revitalizing it ignites the creative pulse of teotl, ensuring that the Mexica vision of the universe – an ever-flowering dance of life, energy, and transformation – remains luminous, resilient, and undying. To unfurl the knots intertwining Nahuatl with Mexica knowledge is to illuminate the braided relationship between language and reality, revealing how deeply interwoven they are within the fabric of existence. Moreover, it lays bare the inextricable, critical importance of Indigenous language reclamation projects toward healing the scars of colonial erasure, ensuring the endurance of a worldview steeped in motion, balance, and perpetual becoming.

As the pulsating core of Mexica cosmology, the linguistic intricacies of Nahuatl begin to unfold through the elucidation of teotl, a word whose richly layered metaphysical substance defies reductive translation. Historically, scholars like Alonso de Molina have obscured its intricate polyvalence by conflating teotl with monotheistic constructs like “God” or “Dios,” succumbing to what Richard Andrews incisively terms the “translational mirage” — the tempting yet misleading illusion that translation can fully encapsulate the complex nuances of a culturally and ontologically distinct concept (Molina 457).⁴ Classical Nahuatl’s oratorical style, distinguished by “highly repetitious, often circular, incremental, and subtly varying modes of expression,” amplifies these translational challenges, presenting an elusive and abstract philosophical depth that resists semantic simplification (Gingerich 365). Andrews, in his Introduction to Classical Nahuatl, sheds light on the disparity between translated Nahuatl expressions and their Mexica epistemological underpinnings:

The quality of meaning that the original utterance has for a native speaker of the source language is necessarily lost…for example, “I have become a widower” easily translates the Nahuatl onicihuamic. But how does an Indo-European mind grasp the meaning of that utterance which “literally” says “already I woman-died.” The meaning of the English utterance “I have become a widower” has nothing in common with the meaning of the Nahuatl utterance onicihuamic… Nuances, connotations, implications, and suppositions — unconsciously understood and felt dimensions of the source texts…are unavoidably replaced by other, different ones. Translational mirage hides all of this. (Andrews 18)

Far removed from the hierarchical, monotheistic, and dualistic ontology implied by “God” or “Deity,” Mexica metaphysics embraces what James Maffie defines as “ontological and constitution monism,” a cosmological framework that “denies any principled metaphysical distinction between transcendent and immanent, higher and lower, or supernatural and natural realities” (Maffie 12). At the heart of this cosmology vibrates a singular, eternally generative, and sacred force: “only teotl exists” (Maffie 12). From the human being to the bristly cactus, from the cataclysmic rainstorm to the formidable Aztec deity of war and sacrifice, Huitzilopochtl, every element of the universe constitutes and converges as a manifestation of teotl. This monistic, interrelational metaphysical paradigm dissolves any hierarchical distinctions, collapsing binaries such as the mundane and the divine, enabling each instantiation of teotl to seamlessly traverse, interweave, and animate the superimposed layers of existence.

Teotl is not a static anthropomorphic deity but an “always active, actualized and actualizing, ever-flowing energy-in-motion,” defined by ceaseless processes of transformation, oscillation, and cyclical renewal (Maffie 124). This dynamic essence reverberates through Nahuatl’s relational and morphosyntactic fluidity, which eschews rigid, etymologically distinct terms for the human and the divine in favor of contextually interconnected prefixes such as teo-, a bound morpheme that, as Bassett elucidates, “cannot stand alone” but signifies the infusion of “powers in something else” (Bassett 33). The generativity of this principle is vividly exemplified in the name of the Aztec capital, Teonochtitlan, where the prefix teo– conveys the sacred vitality that the Mexica believed permeated the city, animating its awe-inspiring splendor and the majestic force that sustained its grandeur.

Figure 1: The half-disc symbol depicted above is a recurring motif within the glyphic lexicon of the Codex Mendoza, serving as a phonetic marker for the element “-teo” (tl). This glyph embodies multifaceted connotations, including divine force(s), solar phenomena, and intricate Mexica calendrical systems. The specific instance illustrated here originates from folio 51 of the Codex Mendoza (housed in The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford).⁵

Figure 2: The compound glyph illustrated above signifies the place name Teonochtitlan, intricately anchoring each morphemic element in the sacred forces implied by the prefix teo-, serving as the conceptual root from which the remaining morphemes sprout, symbolically grounding the glyph in notions of sacred cosmic order. The glyph integrates the following morphological elements: teo(tl) (sacred energy), tonatiuh (the sun or a day), noch(tli) (nopal cactus fruit), nopal(li) (prickly pear cactus), -ti- (ligature), and -tlan (locative suffix), collectively evoking the sanctified centrality of the Aztec empire.⁶

In his seminal 1936 essay “An American Indian Model of the Universe,” Benjamin Lee Whorf eloquently elucidates that “every language contains terms that have come to attain cosmic scope of reference, … in which is couched the thought of a people, a culture, a civilization, even of an era” (Whorf 78). In his native English, he identifies such terms as “reality, substance, matter, cause, … space, time, past, present, future” and juxtaposes them with tunátya in Hope, a word encapsulating “the action of hoping, it hopes, it is hoped, for, it thinks or is thought of with hope” (Whorf 78). For the Mexica, whose cosmological framework situates “reality, cosmos, and all existing things” within an ontological paradigm of monistic unification and ceaseless transformation where “to exist – to be real – is to become, to move, to change,” Whorf’s notion of a linguistic encapsulation of a metaphysical focal point finds profound resonance in the ever-unfolding flux of teotl (Maffie 12). Within this cosmovision, existence is not a static state but an ongoing process, an unbroken interplay of movement, transformation, and metamorphosis – an eternal becoming that transcends the boundaries of temporality and fixity, embodying the relentless, sacred dynamism of the Mexica universe.

This ontological framework, which forgoes binary distinctions such as “being” versus “non-being” in favor of a continuous process of “becoming,” fundamentally reconfigures the syntactic necessity of a present-tense copula – a grammatical construct typically employed to link subjects with predicates and affirm the existence of states or qualities in static, explicit terms. Nahuatl’s polysynthetic architecture, characterized by intricate verbal inflection, compounding, and derivation, seamlessly integrates semantic and syntactic relationships within its morphological structures, obviating the need for independent copular element in the present tense. For example, the lexeme nicihuatl does not translate as “I am a woman,” as it might in English with the explicit copula “am,” but rather as “I-am-woman,” omitting any intermediary copula to indicate existence (Sobkowiak 13). This verbless nominal predicate encapsulates Nahuatl’s linguistic ethos, consisting of the prefix ni- (first-person-singular-subject), –cihua (the nominal root meaning “woman”), and [tl] (the absolutive suffix), all encoded within a single lexical unit (Sobkowiak 291). This morphological integration reflects the ontologically fluid existence central to Nahua metaphysics, where meaning emerges relationally and dynamically through context rather than through static assertions. In place of a fixed copular structure, Nahuatl predicates embed relational and contextual meaning, allowing semantic existence to unfold as profoundly contextual. The fixed, motionless ontology implied by copular verbs such as “to be” is supplanted by the oscillatory and ceaseless flux of teotl’s perpetual “becoming.” Analogously, neltiliztli – a Nahuatl term conveying “rootedness” – does not signify “truth” as an immutable epistemological endpoint but rather a continual striving to become “rooted on the earth, to avoid slipping as much as is possible” within a perpetually shifting cosmos (Purcell 158). This conceptualization extends to teotl, which does not embody “being” as a discrete state but instead manifests as an eternally transforming and regenerative force. At the epistemological and ethical core of the Mexica worldview, “truth” and “being” are not fixed absolutes but involve “continually establishing, maintaining, and re-establishing a balanced center within the constant motion” of teotl (Laack 344). The absence of a copula in Nahuatl syntax thus mirrors the Mexica understanding of existence as an interplay of contextual, relational flux, forcing meaning to arise from the dynamic interconnections that constitute the fabric of reality.

Like the ceaseless rhythm of tidal currents sculpting an ever-evolving shoreline, the Mexica cosmos unfurls as a dynamic choreography of perpetual motion and transformation, propelled by the cyclical generation and regeneration embedded in the “motion-change” patterns of teotl. This dynamic ontology is articulated through an interconnected triad of conceptual movements: olin (oscillation), malinalli (spindling), and nepantla (middling). Far from abstract cosmological abstractions, these forces constitute the kinetic framework of the teotl-infused universe, continually constructing and reconstructing itself through the unification and harmonization of dialectical opposites, or inamic pairs, in a state of reciprocal causation, interdependence, and ontological symbiosis. Olin, a term denoting oscillatory, swaying, and curvilinear motion, finds expression in phenomena as diverse as the pulsation of a heartbeat, the tremors of an earthquake, and the cyclical journey of the Fifth Sun.⁷ Central to the Mexica worldview, it encapsulates the nahui ollin (“Four-Movement”) rhythm, the fourfold temporal and spatial cycles of life, death, and renewal that characterize the Fifth Age. López Austin’s etymological excavation of olin, tracing it to its primitive radical –ol, meaning “line, curved surface, or volume,” unearths its deep semantic ties to vitality, animacy, and the generative principles of motion (López-Austin 25). From this linguistic root -ol emerges a constellation of five significant subbranches: “yol (‘animistic essence’) and teyolia (‘one of the animistic entities’), yolca (‘life’), yōyō (‘animal or insect’), yolqui (‘animal’), and yol-lo (‘vitality’ or ‘heart’)” (Maffie 188). These –ol derivatives not only anchor olin to the concept of animacy but also embody the oscillatory motion that weaves its vitality into the present spatiotemporal fabric of the Fifth Age, becoming a linguistic and metaphysical nexus that encodes the kinetic and animistic lifeblood of Mexica cosmology.

The cyclical whirling of nahui olin, imbued with semantic depth, signifies both “four” and “motion,” encapsulating its oscillatory traversal through the spatial praxis of the four cardinal directions (Laack 350). This dual signification, merging the temporal rhythms of the Fifth Age with directional flow, exemplifies the Mexica conception of teotl as “time-place” — a relational continuum that dissolves distinctions between temporal and spatial dimensions, unifying them into a singular, fluid ontology. The quintessential Nahua symbol of the quincunx – a four-petaled flower encircling a central point – materializes this synthesis with evocative geometric elegance. Beyond mapping the coordination of the cardinal directions, the quincunx encodes the cyclical temporality of the Fifth Sun, intricately entwining the oscillatory dynamism of olin with the mythic memory of the four preceding Suns or tōnatiuh.⁸ This emblematic geometry thus codifies a cosmological equilibrium within the teotl-infused time-place continuum central to Mexica metaphysics. In her seminal analysis of Mexica semiotics and linguistics, Aztec Religion and Art of Writing, Isabel Laack draws a striking parallel between Nahuatl’s agglutinative syntax and the modular structure of the quincunx, observing that “the structure of Nahuatl sentences and elegant speech is agglutinative in a cellular-modular way rather than linear and thus comparable to the central Nahua symbol of the quincunx, or four-leaved petal” (Laack 350). This cellular-modular configuration mirrors the enmeshed spatiotemporal matrix of the Mexica worldview, where, as Maffie notes, “all places are timed, and all times are placed” (Maffie 463). The prefix il-, which López Austin translates as “curve,” “turn,” and “return,” epitomizes this synthesis in Nahuatl’s lexical morphology (López Austin 193). When affixed to ilhuitl (“day”), il– anchors temporal cycles within a semantic constellation suffused with curving, rolling, and twisting motions, evoking the cyclical fluidity of time-place. The –il prefixed lexicon, encompassing terms such as “ilacatzoa (“to roll up”), ilhuicatl (“sky”), ilpia (“to tie”), and ilacatziuhqui (“twisted thing”),” illustrates how the Mexica “conceived time-place in terms of [the] spinning and weaving motion involved in creating cloth” (Maffie 463). Similarly, the suffix –yan, signifying “the place where something occurs or is habitually done,” reinforces this temporal-spatial unity. For example, the compound teilpiloyan (te– [impersonal object] + ilpia [to-tie-up] or [to-put-in-jail] + lo [passive] + yan [place-of-habitual-action]) signifies “prison” rendered as “the-place-when-where-people-are-tied-up” (Karttunen 335). Through such agglutinative interlacing of space and time, teotl emerges as both weaver and woven, animating the cosmos through the reciprocal, oscillatory weaving of time-place.

The subsequent motion in the kinetic triad, Malinalli, characterized by spiraling and twisting movements, encapsulates the “motion-change involved in energy transmission between olin-defined life-death cycles of different things” (Maffie 14). This concept vividly evokes the tactile and sensory processes of spinning raw cotton into thread, the aromatic combustion of copal incense in ritual offerings, and the recitation of the numinous cuicatl (“songs”) that channel divine forces. The final motion, nepantla, representing the middling and intermixing motion between oppositional forces, emerges as “the key to understanding Mexica metaphysics” (Maffie 14). Within the harmonization of nepantla’s antagonistic tension, “teotl’s – and hence reality’s – continual self-generation, self-regeneration, and self-transformation” is actualized (Maffie 14). Maffie emphasizes that nepantla is “the most fundamental of the three,” serving as the critical kinetic framework through which teotl orchestrates its dynamic interplay of dualities, perpetually generating and sustaining the cosmos in its ceaseless flux. This cosmic dynamism is exquisitely captured through the metaphor of weaving, which situates teotl as a cosmic artisan: “a grand cosmic weaver who by means of olin, malinalli, and nepantla motion-change generates and regenerates reality, the Five Ages of the cosmos, and all existing things (Maffie 14). As Maffie poetically asserts, teotl manifests as “the weaver, the weaving, and the woven,” embodying the creative act itself while simultaneously constituting its product (Maffie 15). The intricate weaving metaphor resonates deeply within the polysynthetic morphosyntactic fabric of Nahuatl, whose agglutinative structures mirror the meticulous interlacing of relational and semantic elements into unified, cohesive wholes. Just as teotl sustains the cycles of the Fifth Sun through the interwoven triad of olin, malinalli, and nepantla, Nahuatl’s linguistic architecture enacts the dynamic and interconnected essence of Mexica metaphysical thought.

Figure 5: This image portrays a woman weaver engaged in the nepantla-defined motion of spinning cotton thread, utilizing a wooden spindle, a ceramic whorl, and a small ceramic bowl. Sourced from folio 68r of the Codex Mendoza ( housed in The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford), the scene is rendered with vivid detail, illustrating the interplay of Mexica artisanal practice and cosmological thought. The composition embodies the concept of nepantla – a liminal state of in-betweenness and transformation, as exemplified by converting raw cotton into thread.¹¹

Nahuatl’s agglutinative morphology enables the creation of intricate, modular syntactic constructions that echo the Mexica cosmological emblem of the quincunx – a symbol that encapsulates dynamism, interconnection, and cosmic balance. In stark contrast to the rigid syntactic paradigms of many Indo-European languages, Nahuatl employs an intricate and profoundly flexible cellular-modular organization. Isabel Laack elucidates this structural modality, observing that it is “not only present in the language … but also in other parts of Nahua culture, such as the sociopolitical system, the material culture, and art and architecture,” forming “coherent wholes by arranging independent, self-contained parts either symmetrically, numerically, or in rotational order” (Laack 227). A salient feature of Nahuatl’s polysynthetic complexity is what John Bierhorst, the renowned translator of the Cantares Mexicanos, terms “hypertrophism” — a linguistic phenomenon wherein “many different ideas are formed into complex compounds [that] combine subjects or objects with actions, colors, and materials” (Laack 226). These compounds intertwine subjects, objects, actions, materials, and sensory elements, encoding layers of meaning that seamlessly integrate material, multisensory, and symbolic realities. Lexemes such as chachalchiuhquetzalitztonameyo, translated by Gary Tomlinson as “the green-season-flower-songs turquoise-jade-shine,” and nicchalchiuhtonameyopetlahua, meaning “I turquoise-sunray-polish-it,” exemplify this hypertrophic synthesis, encapsulating not merely action but also sensory, material, and symbolic dimensions (Laack 226; Tomlinson 75). Laack eloquently captures how these extraordinary linguistic patterns reflect a worldview in which sensory, material, and conceptual layers of reality are intricately interconnected:

It is my impression that these extraordinary thinking patterns might be an expression of an underlying worldview in which different layers of reality are seen as closely connected to one another. According to the idea of the nahualli, distinctive qualities realized themselves in the layers of reality that the human senses could experience, such as colors and visual appearance, the characteristics of certain materials, behavior patterns, the seasons of the year, or complex entities such as flowers and songs. (Laack 227)

Furthermore, Laack postulates that Nahuatl’s agglutinative “conceptual parataxis” extends “not only at the individual sentence level but also in distinctive patterns of the larger structural organization in oratorical Nahuatl” (Laack 226). Drawing on Tomlinson, she highlights how ritualistic Nahuatl poetic verses eschew linear narrative progression, instead orbiting around central motifs, feelings, or characters:

The individual strophes often seem, indeed, to orbit around the theme or set of themes of the song they make up rather than pursuing a progressive elaboration, narrative or lyrical, of the topics at hand. (Laack 226; Tomlinson 61)

This linguistic orbiting mirrors the Mexica metaphysical framework, in which motion, interrelation, and cyclical balance underpin not only Nahuatl’s poetic architecture but also the cosmos itself.

The nominal and locative predicates of Nahuatl exemplify an extraordinary sensitivity to the animacy and spatiotemporal contextualization of the subject, reflecting a linguistic architecture that diverges significantly from the structural conventions of Indo-European languages. Dispensing with nominal case systems and pronominal gender distinctions emblematic of many Indo-European systems, Nahuatl foregrounds animacy as both a linguistic and cosmological organizing principle, bypassing rigid grammatical structures in favor of a fluid, relational approach. This animacy distinction manifests most notably vividly in pluralization: animate nouns undergo morphological inflections to denote plurality, while inanimate nouns are construed as inherently uncountable. For instance, tlahtolli (“word”) remains invariant regardless of quantity, reflecting its inanimate classification, whereas weweh (“old man”) pluralizes as wewehmeh (“old men”) through the reproductive process of reduplication, wherein a segment of the root word is reiterated to convey multiplicity (Wolgemuth 47). Reduplication in Nahuatl performs a plurality of semantic functions, encompassing distributive meaning (indicating iteration or multiplicity), intensification (amplifying emphasis or magnitude), or diminutiveness (implying smallness or endearment) (Wolgemuth 47). This morphological feature not only encodes distinctions of animacy but also embodies an underlying worldview predicated on interconnectedness and cyclical continuity. The reduplicative transformation of wewehmeh mirrors the Mexica conception of a cosmos characterized by recurring rhythms, interwoven patterns, and an unceasing flux of life and motion. In contrast to the rigid binary conceptualizations of animacy that dominate Western ontological frameworks, wherein entities are dichotomized as either animate or inanimate, Nahuatl articulates a supple continuum of animacy, extending vitality and agency to phenomena such as stars, mountains, and rivers – entities traditionally deemed inert within Western ontological traditions. Animacy in Nahuatl is intimately tethered to the capacity for movement, a principle resonant with the Mexica’s process-metaphysics of teotl. As Bassett elucidates, “objects and entities as animate or inanimate based primarily on their ability to move” (Bassett 11). For example, xihuitl (grass, plant life) is classified “as animate because it exhibits movement in the form of growth,” exemplifying the Mexica perception of the cosmos as “a world in motion” (Basset 14). This taxonomy of animacy, while hierarchical, resists static categorization. Bassett observes that “the organization of inanimate materials and animate beings along the spectrum is neither fixed nor static” but “remains relative,” contingent upon “the social agency a speaker perceives in or attributes to an object or entity and relevant to the dynamics of language in the lifeworld” (Bassett 14). This ontological elasticity finds its fullest expression in Mexica ceremonial practices where ostensibly inanimate objects, such as totiotzin (carved wooden idols), are transfigured into animate entities through sacred rites imbued with tonalli (solar-derived life force) and ixiptla (embodied essence). These ritual enactments enact and perform Nahuatl’s malleable cosmological and linguistic underpinnings, revealing its powerful capacity to mediate and actualize the Mexica understanding of a cosmos animated by ceaseless transformation (Bassett 17).

Nahuatl eschews the prepositional and case-marker frameworks emblematic of Indo-European languages, instead embedding spatial, temporal, and abstract orientations within “relational nouns,” multifaceted, bound morphemes that seamlessly integrate syntactic and semantic dimensions. Morphemes such as -pan (denoting “on,” “it,” “during,” “at,” or “for”) and -co (“place of”) lack independent functionality, operating solely as affixes whose contextual meaning emerges through their attachment to possessive prefixes or preceding nouns, echoing the Mexica metaphysical worldview, wherein meaning arises from interdependence and relationality. For example, locative suffixes such as kal-pan (kal– ‘house’ + –pan ‘surface’) translate as “on/in the house,” while i-pan (i– ‘its’ + –pan ‘surface’) denotes “on/in it,” (Launey 49). Nahuatl’s relational and locative grammar further extends to its richly vibrant toponymic traditions, where place names transcend static nominal classification, operating instead as dynamic adverbial constructions that encapsulate spatial, relational, and symbolic significance within a singular, evocative lexeme.¹² For instance, Coacalc (“Place-of-the-House-of-the-Serpent”) employs the prefix -co to synthesize locative and metaphorical dimensions, situating the physical geography of “Place-of-the-House-of” within the animate, cosmological framework of the Mexica worldview, where the “Serpent” imbues the location with vitality. Additionally, Nahuatl morphemes frequently encode not only locational reference but also the trajectory and relational dynamics of movement. The locative prefixes on- and huāl-, for example, articulate nuanced directional and relational subtleties: on- signifies “a real or metaphorical movement towards other people or a process that is continuing or ongoing,” while huāl- denotes “a real or metaphorical movement that is focused on the subject,” thus encapsulating an interplay of contextually situated relationships between the speaker, subject, and external world (Launey 52). This morphological and semantic fluidity is exemplified in verbs like onhuetzi, which transcends a simple translation of “he falls” to convey “he-falls-away-from-into (the fire, the water, a gorge),” embedding within the verb not only the action but its spatial and relational context (Launey 47).

Figure 6: The compound glyph illustrated above represents the place name Coacalc, depicted on folio 24 of the Codex Mendoza (original manuscript housed in the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford). This intricate glyph combines a stylized depiction of a house structure (calli) with the image of a serpent (coatl) emerging from its interior. While the locative suffix co- is not explicitly visualized, it is semantically encoded within the glyph through the concept of the serpent being “in” or “at” the house. This visual synthesis encapsulates the Mexica approach to place-naming, imbuing symbolic and linguistic elements with spatial and cosmological significance.¹³

These intricacies of motion and the nuanced application of nonsystemic tense in Classical Nahuatl unveil a linguistic architecture where spatial and directional relations supplant fixed temporal anchoring. As Launey observes, in certain constructions, “the subject has to move before carrying out the action of the verb” (Launey 47). For example, in the verb conchīhua (“he’s-eating-it-up,” or “he’s-continuing-to-eat-it-up,” the emphasis shifts from the act of consumption to “the disappearance [of the food] from the situation,” foregrounding a deictic framework that privileges relational reference over the speaker’s subjective vantage point (Launey 47). Unlike the rigid deictic centers of many Indo-European languages, which are invariably anchored to the speaker, Nahuatl permits spatial loci distinct from the speaker to function as deictic anchors, illustrating a profound flexibility that reconfigures the relational and spatial dynamics between subject, verb, and action. Directional prefixes such as on- (“away from the speaker”) and huāl- (“toward the speaker”) epitomize this relational fluidity, seamlessly with almost any verb to encode nuanced spatial orientation and directional trajectories. For instance, conitta (“he’s-going-to-see-it”) is more accurately rendered as “he’s-seeing-it-toward-there,” while quihuālitta (“he’s-coming-to-see-it”) translates as “he’s-seeing-it-toward-here” (Launey 52). This particular directional encoding eliminates the need for prepositions commonly used in Indo-European languages to express locative complements, such as “be in,” “pass through,” or “depart from.” Instead, Classical Nahuatl embeds these spatial and relational dynamics directly within verbal morphology. As Sasaki notes, the spatial function of locatives “is disambiguated by virtue of other clues such as the lexical meaning of the verb, the translocative/cislocative directional prefix [or] the spatial relationship between the speaker and location” (Sasaki 294). This morphological encoding of spatiotemporal motion is exemplified in forms such as:

takowati (“he goes or will go to make purchases”)

takowaki (“he comes or will come to make purchases”)

takowakoya (“he came and made purchases and returned”)

In takowakoya, motion, completion, and even return simultaneously coalesce into a singular verbal complex, seamlessly integrating multiple spatiotemporal elements. Similarly, the distinction between ompá (“he is there”) and ompáyuh (“he is going there”) emerges from verbal morphology rather than the addition of discrete prepositions, underscoring the integrative and relational essence of Nahuatl grammar. This relational paradigm mirrors teotl’s continuous interlacing, braiding, and weaving motion-pattern energy. In Nahuatl’s pronominal, verbal, nominal, affixive, and agglutinative features, meaning arises “not through differentiation, but through permutations and transformation,” revealing a dynamic interplay where “only by way of interrelationships did each part yield its meaning, which was always relative, always locational,” encapsulating the Mexica worldview that eschews static fixity for a cosmos governed by flux (Clendinnen 168).

Dissecting the grammatical, morphosyntactic, and lexical intricacies of Nahuatl reveals its profound capacity to encode and enact the metaphysical core of Mexica cosmology, while unraveling its metaphorical and metonymic layers illuminates the sacred potency embedded within its linguistic architecture. The teotl-infused fabric of the Mexica cosmos does not adhere to a hierarchical ladder ascending toward divinity but blossoms as an imbricated, kaleidoscopic continuum, where superposed layers of reality interlace and converge in perpetual motion. This dynamic malleability is expressed vividly through Nahuatl’s flexible and expansive animacy spectrum, wherein all entities are imbued with the potential to metamorphose, transfigure, and traverse a chromatic prism of existence. Central to this conceptual framework is nahualli, a term often inadequately translated as “spiritual alter ego” or “shape-shifter.” Far from being anthropocentric, nahualli signifies the coessential interrelation of all cosmic entities, human and non-human alike, and embodies the notion that “all things in the cosmos share their tonalli with other entities in the cosmos” (Monaghan 141-143). This perspective reaches its linguistic zenith in transforming Nahuatl into nahuallatolli – the “language of the hidden, secret, and occult.” Derived from nahualli (the hidden, the veiled) and tlatolli (speech, word). Voiced primarily in ritual and shamanic contexts, nahuallatolli arises as a sacred linguistic and performative medium, navigating the liminal, traversable space between the immanent and the transcendent to unearth the otherwise imperceptible spindling threads of teotl. By imbuing the language with richly metonymic and metaphoric resonance, Nahuatl, as practiced in the form of nahuallatolli, transforms into both a conduit and architect of the sacred. Oscillating through olin, spinning through malinalli, and weaving through nepantla, the ritual manifestations of Nahuatl intermingle and fuse inamic pairs – visible and invisible, the tangible and the divine – becoming a medium for perceiving, apprehending, and performing the energy of teotl. The invocation of chalchihuitl (“jade”) and quetzalli (“feather”) in ritual discourse transcends mere reference to precious materials; it metonymically embodies and materializes the sacred qualities of vitality, beauty, and divine force. Similarly, the phrase in tlilli in tlapalli (“the black, the red”) operates as a synecdoche for wisdom and the cultivation of knowledge, encoding occult cosmological and occult depth within its metonymic formulation.

The teo- prefix and the reduplication processes inherent in Nahuatl further exemplify its ability to entwine the mundane and the sacred within a monistic, immanent ontological framework. As López Austin observes, “sacredness [to the Nahua] was more ‘a question of intensity’ than [a matter of] qualitative difference” (López Austin 139). Thus, as the shimmering streams of atl (“water”) deepen, it transforms into teoatl (“sacred water”), and as the tepetl (“mountain”) rouses and trembles, it becomes teotepetl (“sacred mountain”), infused with the omnipotent vitality of the teo- prefix. In her seminal work Time and Sacrifice in the Aztec Cosmos, Kay Read explicates the transformative potency of this prefix:

To indicate the importance of an object’s potency, the prefix teo- was implanted in a Nahuatl word. Something with potency was called teoyotl (something with the quality of power), teotl meant god (something potent), the sea or blood was called teoatl (potent water), and a very bad little boy was called teopiltontli (powerfully small or insignificant child). (Read 118)

The fluidity, omnipresent force of teotl reverberates through Mexica ritual, spiritual, and aesthetic practice, where “sorcerer-magicians” speaking in the nahuallatolli tongue can “talk to the forces of the cosmos in their personified form” (Laack 156). Similarly, the interlacing of “flower” and “song” in Nahua ritual discourse encapsulates “the Nahuas’ aesthetic of the sacred, the symbolic transformation of the human world into a garden full of flowers and singing birds,” reflecting the generative and creative Nahui blossoming of nahui olin (Burkhart 90). Within this cosmological paradigm, flowers bloom not as mere poetic or metaphoric symbols but as metonymic, lived embodiments of Mexica wisdom and sacred truth. As a “rootedness,” neltiliztli (“truth”) manifests the flowering shape of teotl, and as ritual song, art, and language coalesce within the ceaseless flux of teotl’s ever-changing and ever-present becoming, Nahuatl stands not as a static articulation of reality but as a dynamic creation and weaving of its filaments. The nepantla-infused linguistic and poetic interweaving of “flower” and “song,” like teotl’s intermingling interplay of dualities, manifest the Nahuatl power to actively perform the cosmovision through which it is articulated and materialized.

The sonorous cadences of xochicuicatl reverberate with the profound resonance of the Mexica cosmovision, encapsulating the nepantla-defined synthesis of two seemingly distinct yet intricately complementary concepts: xochi (“flower”) and cuicatl (“song”). This union of dual elements into a singular, cohesive expression reflects one of Nahuatl’s most profound poetic, linguistic, and symbolic devices: the difrasismo. First coined by Ángel María Garibay and variably translated as “parallelism,” “diaphrases,” or “two-phrase device,” the difrasismo transcends its constituent dualities, embodying an ontological multiplicity where the sum of the whole exceeds the value of its parts, reflecting the teotl cosmovision of interdependent opposite – forces that are mutually generative and reciprocally transformative. Within this framework, “Flowers” and “songs” surpass their ephemeral materiality and aesthetic value to function as sacred conduits for the vivification of the cosmos. They enact a performative interplay emblematic of the Mexica worldview, where art, language, and ritual operate as mechanisms for cosmogenesis. Similarly, the difrasismo in atl in tepetl (“the water, the mountain”) forges a union between atl (water) and tepetl (mountain) to articulate the concept of an altepetl (“city,” or “settlement”). This semantic convergence encodes Mexica understandings of settlements as microcosms of cosmic balance, harmonizing the life-sustaining vitality of water with the steadfast, primordial permanence of mountains. The altepetl, conceived through the difrasismo, becomes a site where the sacred and the mundane merge into a unified cosmic resonance. Mirroring the ceaseless heartbeat of teotl, the rhythmic interplay that pulses through xochicuicatl and altepetl animates every word, phrase, and metaphor, transforming them into a living, embodied articulations of a cosmos perpetually in motion.

Figure 9: This glyph, sourced from folio 34 of the Codex Osuna, symbolizes an altepetl, the foundational symbol of the Mexica city-state or territorial unit. At its center, the mountain (tepetl), adorned with sprouting plants and flowers, signifies the fertile, life-giving land integral to the concept of altepetl. Flowing water (atl) at the mountain’s base further emphasizes the indispensability of water resources as a sustaining force for life and agriculture. Together, these elements visually encode the symbiotic relationship implied by the difrasismo of altepetl.¹⁶

According to Miguel León-Portilla, “all difrasismos were reflections of the fundamental Nahua idea of dual divinity” and “represented primal creative activity,” the difrasismo of “flower and song” offering a means to apprehend “the origin of all things and the mysterious nature of an invisible and intangible creator” (Léon Portilla 99). Ángel María Garibay similarly contends that the juxtaposition of two images in a difrasismo “serve[s] as a poetical depiction of a third concept,” suggesting that “flower and song” symbolize the essence of “poetry” (Garibay 112; Léon Portilla 99). However, Isabel Laack challenges these metaphorical interpretations, posing that these intersecting dualistic images function metonymically rather than metaphorically, wherein “the image was seen as belonging to the same experiential domain as the signified and an essential part of it” (Laack 350). Unlike metaphor, which operates vertically by superimposing one concept onto another, metonymy moves horizontally, rooted in relational contiguity, wherein one element evokes another within a shared experiential domain, thereby reflecting embodied reality. To elucidate the metonymic essence of difrasismos, Laack explores Nahua language theory:

Nahua language theory … did not merely assume that linguistic signs mirror reality, since this assumption rests on the idea that language represents a symbol system essentially separate from reality. Rather, Nahuatl, or some genres of Nahuatl, was most probably considered a natural language that assumed a direct relationship between the linguistic signs and reality. Thus, not only the individual images stood in a metonymic relationship to one another and potentially to a third concept (in the difrasismo) but also the language itself, most importantly its sound was considered a natural index of the same essential quality. (Laack 240)

This metonymic framework, in which all elements are anchored within the shared domain of embodied experience, reverberates with the immanent interrelationality of teotl. In this paradigm, ritual expressions such as xochicuicatl and nahuallatolli were believed “capable of directly influencing the movement of forces” because “manipulating the forces at the level of sound resulted in a change in the forces in general” (Laack 240). Framed within this paradigm, the difrasismo tlilli in tlapalli (“the black, the red”) does not merely symbolize “wisdom;” it directly refers to the materiality of ink and the act of writing, portraying inscription not as a metaphorical gesture but as process actively constitutive of wisdom itself. According to Laack’s interpretation, “flowers” and “song” do not converge as an abstract emblem of poetry but become tangible instruments for engaging with and actively shaping the perpetual motion-change at the heart of teotl. Xochicuicatl thus entails active participation in “flower,” symbolizing the oscillatory four-leaved, while simultaneously implicating the creation of “song” as an intentional act crafting and molding the malleable, ever)shifting layers of reality. This linguistic and cosmological intertwinement does not merely symbolize access to the sacred; it constitutes the lived, embodied experience of the cosmo’ rhythmic pulsations. Through its metonymic resonance and performative power, Nahuatl elevates the art of language into a fertile, generative force — a sacred medium through which the ceaseless becoming of teotl is simultaneously both expressed and enacted.

The xochicuicatl, or “flower songs,” of the Cantares Mexicanos, wherein “time after time […] the singer sings forth blossomings, showers, and festoons of incarnate flowers,” transcend mere poetic meditations on ephemerality; they embody dynamic, animate performances of a cosmos perpetually in motion (Tomlinson 64). Resonating with ritual cadence and metaphysical vitality, these verses construct intricately woven, whispering chambers of embodied experience, manifesting “sound’s constitutive powers to influence and create reality, the powers to bring flowers into life” (Laack 241). The grammatical, metaphorical, and metonymic threads coursing through the veiled architectures of Nahuatl do not merely encode Mexica cosmological and epistemological principles; the language itself becomes the neltiliztli – the path towards rootedness – that sustains existence within the oscillating rhythms of teotl. As Benjamin Lee Whorf observed, “the world is presented in a kaleidoscopic flux of impressions which has to be organized …by the linguistic systems in our minds” (212-14). Yet, for the Mexica, the “kaleidoscopic flux” of teotl is neither subdued nor systematized by the structures of Nahuatl; rather, language and reality form inextricably intertwined, mutually constitutive inamic pairs, eternally entangled in a generative dance of motion and transformation. Nahuatl does not simply shape the Mexica perception of reality – it performs reality itself, threading the fabric of existence through its morphosyntactic, phonetic, and poetic loom. As the Mexica poet “goes his way singing, offering flowers,” and “his words rain down,” the sacred linguistic threads of Nahuatl not only manifest but actively tissue and entwine the cosmic fabric of teotl, continuously weaving the universe into an eternal tapestry of becoming, wherein Nahuatl, like teotl, becomes the weaver, the weaving, and the woven. For the Mexica, the ceaseless interweaving of language and reality is a flower that blossoms forth teotl from the enduring, ever-flourishing roots of neltiliztli – a reality that is, indeed, “the only truth on earth” (“Xochicuicatl,” fol. 9v, Cantares Mexicanos).

Works Cited

Bassett, Molly H. The Fate of Earthly Things: Aztec Gods and God-Bodies. University of Texas Press, 2015.

Bright, W. “With One Lip, With Two Lips – Parallelism in Nahuatl.” Language, vol. 66, no. 3, 1990, pp. 437–52. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/414607.

Burkhart, Louise M. The Slippery Earth: Nahua-Christian Moral Dialogue in Sixteenth-Century Mexico. University of Arizona Press, 1989.

Clendinnen, Inga. “Ways to the Sacred: Reconstructing ‘Religion’ in Sixteenth Century Mexico.” History and Anthropology, vol. 5, 1990, pp. 105–141.

Dexter-Sobkowiak, Elwira. “Language Contact in the Huasteca: The Impact of Spanish on Nahuatl.” University of Warsaw, 2022.

Gingerich, Willard. “Ten Types of Ambiguity in Nahuatl Poetry, or William Empson among the Aztecs.” Recovering the Word: Essays on Native American Literature, edited by Brian Swann, University of California Press, 1992, pp. 356–368.

Hansen, Magnus Pharao. “Polysynthesis in Hueyapan Nahuatl: The Status of Noun Phrases, Basic Word Order, and Other Concerns.” Anthropological Linguistics, vol. 52, no. 3/4, 2010, pp. 274–99. Project MUSE, https://doi.org/10.1353/anl.2010.0017.

Hill, Jane H. “The Flower World of Old Uto-Aztecan.” Journal of Anthropological Research, vol. 48, no. 2, 1992, pp. 117–44. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3630407.

Karttunen, Frances. An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl. University of Oklahoma Press, 1983.

León-Portilla, Miguel, et al. Aztec Thought and Culture: A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind. Translated by Jack Emory Davis, University of Oklahoma Press, 1963.

Lockhart, James. The Nahuas after the Conquest: A Social and Cultural History of the Indians of Central Mexico, Sixteenth through the Eighteenth Century. Stanford University Press, 1993.

López Austin, Alfredo. The Human Body and Ideology: Concepts of the Ancient Nahuas. Translated by Thelma Ortiz de Montellano and Bernard R. Ortiz de Montellano, vol. 1–2, University of Utah Press, 1988.

Maffie, James. Aztec Philosophy: Understanding a World in Motion. University Press of Colorado, 2014.

Molina, Alonso de. Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana. Antonia de Spinosa, 1571.

Monaghan, John. “The Person, Destiny, and the Construction of Difference in Mesoamerica.” Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics, vol. 33, 1998, pp. 137–146.

Neumann, Franke J. “The Experience of Time in Nahuatl Religion.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, vol. 44, no. 2, 1976, pp. 255–63.

Purcell, Sebastian, et al. “Confucius and the Aztecs on the Mean.” Comparative Studies in Asian and Latin American Philosophies, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018, pp. 155–72. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350007918.ch-007.

Read, Kay A. Time and Sacrifice in the Aztec Cosmos. Indiana University Press, 1998.

Hassig, Ross. Trade, Tribute, and Transportation: The Sixteenth-Century Political Economy of the Valley of Mexico. University of Oklahoma Press, 1985.

Sahagún, Fray Bernardino de. The Florentine Codex. Mid-16th century. 3-volume facsimile edition, Club Internacional del Libro, 1994.

Sasaki, Mitsuya. “Classical Nahuatl Locatives in Typological Perspectives.” Tokyo University Linguistic Papers (TULIP), vol. 31, 2011, pp. 287–316.

Tomlinson, Gary. The Singing of the New World: Indigenous Voice in the Era of European Contact. Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Whorf, Benjamin Lee, et al. Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. 2nd ed., The MIT Press, 2012.

Wolgemuth, Carl. Nahuatl Grammar of the Townships of Mecayapan and Tatahuicapan de Juárez, Veracruz. Translated by Christopher S. Mackay, 2nd ed., El Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, 2007.

Wood, Stephanie, editor. Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs. Version 1.0, Wired Humanities Projects, University of Oregon, 2020 – present, https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org.

— Online Nahuatl Dictionary. Wired Humanities Projects, College of Education, University of Oregon, 2000 – present, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org.

Notes

Although this study engages with a pantheon of preeminent scholars in Nahua studies and consults several renowned Nahuatl lexicons – most notably John A Bierhorst’s Nahuatl-English Dictionary and Concordance to the Cantares Mexicanos : With an Analytic Transcription and Grammatical Notes – the principal lexical resource is Stephanie Wood’s Online Nahuatl Dictionary. This meticulously curated digital repository synthesizes an extensive array of scholarly sources and expert contributions, offering a polyvocal and diachronic perspective. Unless otherwise indicated, the semantic interpretations employed in this analysis have been drawn from the nuanced variants presented in the Online Nahuatl Dictionary, with particular emphasis on those that most profoundly align with the cosmological and ontological frameworks intrinsic to the Mexica worldview. ↩︎
Commonly referred to as the “Aztec,” the Nahuatl-speaking peoples who migrated into the Valley of Mexico in the late 1200s and established themselves around Tenochtitlan are also identified as the Nahua or the Mexica, with these terms often used interchangeably. To maintain a nuanced stylistic distinction between “Nahuatl” (referring to the language) and “Nahua” (referring to the broader ethnolinguistic group), while reserving “Aztec” primarily for the inhabitants of Tenochtitlan at the time of the Spanish conquest, this paper predominantly employs the term “Mexica” However, it will occasionally employ the other designations when specific contexts warrant their usage. ↩︎
While this paper adopts the term teotl for the sake of conceptual clarity, it is crucial to acknowledge that the Mexica did “did not discuss teotl by itself,” nor did they conceive of teotl as an isolated abstraction, as it is employed here (Read 117). As Laack observes, “the Aztecs did not locate teteo outside or apart from the physical world,” nor did they differentiate teotl from the notion of “power” (Laack 54). ↩︎
In his Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana, Molina defines teotl as “Dios” and consistently employs terms such as “espiritualidad” and expressions like “sabiduría divina y espiritual” to elucidate words containing the teo- prefix, offering comprehensive definitions that span across pages 456–461. ↩︎
Image sourced from The Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs, edited by Stephanie Wood (Eugene, OR: Wired Humanities Projects, University of Oregon, 2020–present), Version 1.0, accessed at https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/content/teotl-mdz51r. ↩︎
Image sourced from The Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs, edited by Stephanie Wood (Eugene, OR: Wired Humanities Projects, University of Oregon, 2020–present), Version 1.0. Accessed at https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/content/teonochtitlan-mdz42r. ↩︎
In Mexica creation mythology, the terms “Fifth Sun” and “Fifth Age” refers to the belief in a cosmic history comprising five distinct epochs, each envisioned as successive suns. These epochs symbolize cyclical patterns of creation and destruction, with the present era identified as the fifth. The current age, Nahui Ollin (Four-Movement), is characterized by perpetual motion and inherent instability. Each preceding cycle, or “sun,” culminated in a cataclysmic upheaval that necessitated the cosmos’ regeneration. ↩︎
Refer to Figure 4 for a glyphic illustration of the Mexica quincunx. ↩︎
Sourced from The Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs, edited by Stephanie Wood (Eugene, OR: Wired Humanities Projects, University of Oregon, 2020–present), Version 1.0. Available at https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/content/olin-mh853r. ↩︎
Sourced from The Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs, edited by Stephanie Wood. Version 1.0. Eugene, OR: Wired Humanities Projects, University of Oregon, 2020–present. Accessed at https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/content/tonalli-mh544v. ↩︎
Adapted from Ross Hassig’s Trade, Tribute, and Transportation: The Sixteenth-Century Political Economy of the Valley of Mexico (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press), with source material drawn from folio 68 of the Codex Mendoza. ↩︎
For further reference, see Figure 2 of Tenochtitlan. ↩︎
Adapted from Ross Hassig’s Trade, Tribute, and Transportation: The Sixteenth-Century Political Economy of the Valley of Mexico (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press), with source material derived from folio 24 of the Codex Mendoza. ↩︎
Fray Bernardino de Sahagún. The Florentine Codex. Mid-16th century. 2-volume facsimile edition. Madrid: Club Internacional del Libro, 1994. ↩︎
Fray Bernardino de Sahagún. The Florentine Codex. Mid-16th century. 3-volume facsimile edition. Madrid: Club Internacional del Libro, 1994. ↩︎
Derived from folio 34 of Fray Bernardino de Sahagún’s The Florentine Codex, mid-16th century. 3-volume facsimile edition. Madrid: Club Internacional del Libro, 1994. ↩︎

PDF Version

Spindles of the Sacred: The Metaphysical, Morphosyntactic, and Metonymic Threads that Weave the Mexica Cosmos Download

Ava Linda Feliz-Sutter