The Complete Codex Zouche-Nuttall
Mixtec Lineage Histories and Political Biographies
Published on 15. May 2013
Book
Hardback
456 pages
978-0-292-74438-7 (ISBN)
Description
The pre-Hispanic Mixtec people of Mexico recorded political and religious history, including the biographies and genealogies of their rulers, in pictograms on hand-painted, screen-fold manuscripts known as codices. Functioning rather like movie production storyboards, the codices served as outlines of oral traditions to stimulate the memories of bards who knew the complete narratives, which were sung, danced, and performed at elite functions. Centuries later we have limited access to those original performances, and all that remains for our codex interpretation is what is painted on the pages-perhaps five to ten percent of their memory-encoded information.
Continuing the pioneering interpretation he began in Lord Eight Wind of Suchixtlan and the Heroes of Ancient Oaxaca, Robert Lloyd Williams offers an authoritative guide to the entire contents of the codex in The Complete Codex Zouche-Nuttall. Although the reverse document (pages 42-84) has been described in previous literature, the obverse document (pages 1-41) has not been, and it has remained elusive as to narrative. The Complete Codex Zouche-Nuttall elucidates the three sections of the codex, defines them as to function and content, and provides interpretive and descriptive essays about the Native American history the codex recorded prior to the arrival of Europeans in Mexico and the New World generally. With a full-color reproduction of the entire Codex Zouche-Nuttall and Williams's expert guidance in unlocking its narrative strategies and structures, The Complete Codex Zouche-Nuttall opens an essential window into the Mixtec social and political cosmos.
Continuing the pioneering interpretation he began in Lord Eight Wind of Suchixtlan and the Heroes of Ancient Oaxaca, Robert Lloyd Williams offers an authoritative guide to the entire contents of the codex in The Complete Codex Zouche-Nuttall. Although the reverse document (pages 42-84) has been described in previous literature, the obverse document (pages 1-41) has not been, and it has remained elusive as to narrative. The Complete Codex Zouche-Nuttall elucidates the three sections of the codex, defines them as to function and content, and provides interpretive and descriptive essays about the Native American history the codex recorded prior to the arrival of Europeans in Mexico and the New World generally. With a full-color reproduction of the entire Codex Zouche-Nuttall and Williams's expert guidance in unlocking its narrative strategies and structures, The Complete Codex Zouche-Nuttall opens an essential window into the Mixtec social and political cosmos.
Reviews / Votes
"Williams' primary aim is to provide the first close reading and explication of the full Codex Zouche-Nuttall in the English language, a task he unquestionably succeeds. The broader appeal of this volume, however, derives from Williams' engagement with questions of meaning and communication: how certain can modern readers be of what this codex says, when it relies almost exclusively on narrative pictography and symbolic tableaux rather than linguistically specific signs? [...] Every serious student of Mesoamerican anthropology or epigraphy should own a copy of this work. More generally, scholars interested in semiotics, literacy, memory and performance will find in The Complete Codex Zouche-Nuttall a fascinating example of how a past society recorded its history in a linguistically 'open' script." - Social AnthropologyMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Austin, TX
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
With dust jacket
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 41 mm
Weight
934 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-292-74438-7 (9780292744387)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Robert Lloyd Williams has studied the Mixtec codices since the 1980s and taught courses on them in the Mixtec Codex Workshop, which he cofounded with John M. D. Pohl, for twelve years. He is presently Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at Texas State University-San Marcos.
Content
Foreword, by Rex Koontz
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. The First Historian of the New World
Chapter 2. Historiography and Native History
Chapter 3. Reading Techniques
Chapter 4. Document 1 (Obverse), Part 1, Pages 1-13: Lord Eight Wind
Chapter 5. Document 1 (Obverse), Part IIA, Pages 14-19: The Ladies Three Flint
Chapter 6. Document 1 (Obverse), Part IIA continued, Pages 20-21: The War from Heaven and Lady One Death
Chapter 7. Document 1 (Obverse), Part IIB, Pages 22-35: Genealogies
Chapter 8. Document 1 (Obverse), Part IIIA-B, Pages 36-41: The Four Lords from Apoala
Chapter 9. Document 1 (Obverse): Discussion and Interpretation
Chapter 10. Document 2 (Reverse), Pages 42-84: Introduction to the Political Biography of Eight Deer Jaguar Claw of Tilantongo
Chapter 11. Document 2 (Reverse), Sections 1-6, Pages 42-50: Parentage Statement, Childhood Military Career, Chalcatongo Event, Transition from Chalcatongo to Tututepec, Eight Deer as Lord of Tututepec.
Chapter 12. Document 2 (Reverse), Sections 7-12, Pages 51-74: Eight Deer's Toltec Alliance through the Conquests with the Toltecs
Chapter 13. Document 2 (Reverse), Sections 13-14, Pages 75-84: The Battle in the Sky through the Siege of Hua Chino
Chapter 14. The Four Voices of Mixtec History
Appendix 1. The Mixtec Calendar
Appendix 2. Occurrence of 260-Day Sacred Calendars in the 365-Day Mixtec Solar Calendar
Appendix 3. The Cycle of 260 Days (Tonalpohualli)
Appendix 4. The Calendrics of Codex Zouche-Nuttall Pages 42-84
Appendix 5. The Mixtec Calendar Cycle Correspondences from Byland and Pohl (1994)
Appendix 6. The Complete Mixtec/Aztec Calendar
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. The First Historian of the New World
Chapter 2. Historiography and Native History
Chapter 3. Reading Techniques
Chapter 4. Document 1 (Obverse), Part 1, Pages 1-13: Lord Eight Wind
Chapter 5. Document 1 (Obverse), Part IIA, Pages 14-19: The Ladies Three Flint
Chapter 6. Document 1 (Obverse), Part IIA continued, Pages 20-21: The War from Heaven and Lady One Death
Chapter 7. Document 1 (Obverse), Part IIB, Pages 22-35: Genealogies
Chapter 8. Document 1 (Obverse), Part IIIA-B, Pages 36-41: The Four Lords from Apoala
Chapter 9. Document 1 (Obverse): Discussion and Interpretation
Chapter 10. Document 2 (Reverse), Pages 42-84: Introduction to the Political Biography of Eight Deer Jaguar Claw of Tilantongo
Chapter 11. Document 2 (Reverse), Sections 1-6, Pages 42-50: Parentage Statement, Childhood Military Career, Chalcatongo Event, Transition from Chalcatongo to Tututepec, Eight Deer as Lord of Tututepec.
Chapter 12. Document 2 (Reverse), Sections 7-12, Pages 51-74: Eight Deer's Toltec Alliance through the Conquests with the Toltecs
Chapter 13. Document 2 (Reverse), Sections 13-14, Pages 75-84: The Battle in the Sky through the Siege of Hua Chino
Chapter 14. The Four Voices of Mixtec History
Appendix 1. The Mixtec Calendar
Appendix 2. Occurrence of 260-Day Sacred Calendars in the 365-Day Mixtec Solar Calendar
Appendix 3. The Cycle of 260 Days (Tonalpohualli)
Appendix 4. The Calendrics of Codex Zouche-Nuttall Pages 42-84
Appendix 5. The Mixtec Calendar Cycle Correspondences from Byland and Pohl (1994)
Appendix 6. The Complete Mixtec/Aztec Calendar
Notes
Bibliography
Index