The Functions of the Tnalpohualli in the Nahua Codices of 16th Century: Contributions of Gordon Brotherston’s Proposal

 

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Eduardo Natalino dos Santos
PhD candidate, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil

The calendar system, besides of been used as a way to organize and to classify the reality, it was also used by the nahuas as organizational principle in the pictographic compositions about fate and its predictions, festivals and offerings, cosmogony and recent history.
Based on this hypothesis, we will show one of the tonalpohualli functions in three nahua codices. After, we will argue that the tonalpohualli organizational function had been sustained, combined with alphabetical structures and conceptions or fully abandoned in the pictographic manuscripts of 16th century.

Full Paper (in Adobe Acrobat)