Could the Mexica toztli have been a sun parakeet? Connecting Mexica featherwork to South America
Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: Colorful feathers were an important part of the regalia and martial attributes of the Mexicas, who used them on headdresses, shields, capes, but also on the images of their gods. Despite the early interest of Europeans in the American featherwork, some bird species used by the amanteca remain undetermined to this day. The thorough study of two manuscripts written under the direction of Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, the Primeros Memoriales and the Florentine Codex, has revealed an inconsistency between the way the toztli, or “yellow parrot,” has been described and depicted in the colonial sources, and its current identification as the Amazona oratrix. This bird is more likely to have been a rarer specimen, native to lands located far from the Mexica heartland.
DOI: 10.4000/jsa.17282
Author: Louise Deglin
Institution: University of California, Los Angeles
Language: English
Subfield: Visual Arts and Performing Arts
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W3005730837