Art & Art History ETDs

Publication Date

5-3-1977

Abstract

Codex Vindobonensis Mexicanus I is a prehispanic Mixtec screenfold manuscript painted on deerhide. Examination of its fifty-two pages reveals it to be the only example of a pre-Conquest Mixtec "land document" in which dominion over a specific, although as yet unidentified, area of the Mixteca Alta in southern Mexico is pictorially validated through the actions of deities. One class of these deities, the so-called "old gods," identified by their common characteristic of a single tooth in the corner of the mouth, is singled out for examination, to determine their identities, functions and roles in Mixtec cosmology and in ordering the physical Mixtec universe.

Chapter I discusses previous studies of the manucript and outlines the method and scope of the present investigation.

Chapter II examines the significance of costumes, gestures and naming practices, as these are illustrated through the first old male-female couples in the manuscript.

Chapter III investigates the role of the aged Male 8 Alligator and Female 4 Dog in the creation of stone place signs, their relationship to the maize deity, Female 9 Grass, and the non-historical nature of the dates associated with them.

Chapter IV is concerned with the function of Male 2 Dog, who is here identified as the archetypal priest-shaman of the Mixtec pantheon, in rituals preceding the dispensing of their proper insignia to the gods, the establishment of the pulque and sacred mushroom ceremonies, and the birth of the Sun.

Chapter V examines the function of the old priestshaman, Male 2 Dog, in putting the physical universe in order, and inquires into the structure and symbolism of the last twenty-two pages of the manuscript.

Chapter VI summarizes the role of the old gods and offers a brief commentary to the entire fifty-two page codex.

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Arts

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

UNM Department of Art and Art History

First Committee Member (Chair)

Mary Elizabeth Smith

Second Committee Member

Howard David Rodee

Third Committee Member

Jacob Jerome Brody

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