Pre-Hispanic Pictoral Communication: The Codex System of the Mixtec of Oaxaca, Mexico

Abstract

This paper summarizes the nature of the pre-Hispanic pictoral communication system used by the Mixtec people of Mexico, who were creating manuscripts in which they recorded their histories, genealogies and religious beliefs long before the Spanish reached the New World. The principal pictoral conventions are explained, and each is illustrated with an example from one of the surviving manuscripts.