The Codex Bodley offers a relatively complete review of family relationships among the dynasties of the main
cacicazgos (community kingdoms) in the
Mixteca Alta region. This information is indispensable for anyone studying
Mixtec kinship, policies around marital alliances, and
peer polity interaction. Academic interest in the codex has focused on the Tilantongo and Tiaxiaco dynasties depicted on both sides of the manuscript, who once lived in the modern day Mexican State of
Oaxaca. In 1949, the archaeologist
Alfonso Caso determined that the purpose of the genealogy was to calculate the line of descent for Tilantogo, and its relations to
Teozacoalco (a still-occupied settlement) following a creation story after an event known as the "War of Heaven," as well as the saga of an individual known as Eight Deer, who is likely used to show the supposedly great future awaiting Tilantongo. Despite this, however, it's difficult to link the codex with any particular polity due to it listing the genealogies of numerous families that, at times, were in direct conflict with one-another. The figure of Eight Deer is likely a metaphor for the greatness the polity of Tilantongo could reach, as evident from his many misadventures. After setting out on a daring quest, he challenges and beats the Sun God and Venus God to a ball game, "conquering" both and earning their favor, as well as a stone that carried what's referred to as the, "precious power of the West," referring to the River of Ashes (The
Nexapa River) which was both the marker for the end of Mixtec influence as well as the realm of the fertility goddess, Old Lady One Grass. This likely had immense symbolic importance which, unfortunately, has largely been lost. After this, Eight Deer shoots a
coyote on the Mountain of the Temple of Heaven to, what has been interpreted as meaning, gain the power needed to visit someone known as Lady Nine Grass in the Temple of Death, an ancient tomb to which one usually must surrender a soul to enter. Entering with what is presumed to be his lover, Lady Six Monkey, Eight Deer and she gain entrance by being granted an old bone, which allows them to enter unharmed. Once inside, they request to be married. However, they were refused by Lady Nine Grass, with Lady Six Monkey being ordered to marry Lord Eleven Wind of the Red and White Bundle family (the kings of Tilantongo) and Eight Deer being ordered to go to the Pacific Coast, west of the Mixteca Alta, and establish a kingdom until it is controlled by a great kingdom from Central Mexico. After he does so, he's invited by
Cē Ācatl Topiltzin, King of the
Toltec Empire, to receive a
turquoise nose plug, a mark of kingship, and make an alliance. Meanwhile, back at Tilantongo, the young adult Lord 2 Rain 'Twenty Jaguars,' as the text writes, went on a spiritual quest but failed to return, dying (at least physically) and leaving the kingdom without a leader. This allowed Eight Deer to come in, murder his half-brother, and claim the throne for himself. Now king, Eight Deer blames the murder on two sons of his half sister, and, exactly 365 days after the death of his half brother, attacks the Red and White Bundle family, taking all of them prisoner except one man named Four Wind, the son of Six Monkey, who hides away in a cave for safety. Executing the captives but a woman named Thirteen Serpent, who he takes as a bride in order to inherit her estate, Thirteen Serpent cannot conceive of a child until, years later and after the second wife of four Eight Deer wed got pregnant, Thirteen Serpent is taken to a temple, has a vision of a large snake, and gives birth nine months later. Eight Deer would continue to rule until, on a hunting expedition, he was ambushed by Four Wind, who killed him and took power. He was buried with kingly honors and, although the Toltecs invaded to get revenge, eventually decided to make a practical peace with the new king of the region, Four Wind, who would wed one of Eight Deer's daughters and establish himself as the king of the region. The reverse side of the codex follows the house of Red and White Bundle, the rivals of Eight Deer, and depicts things from their point of view. In the aftermath of the War of Heaven, before relating the last Red and White Bundle lord, Lord Eleven Wind married Lady Six Monkey, enraging Eight Deer who goes on to seize power of Tilantongo, killing off the Red and White Bundle family except for Four Wind. The genealogy then follows Four Wind and his descendants at a place known as the Palace of Flints. This lineage is said to end with the burning of the bodies of Lady One Grass and her son, Lord One Eagle, after which a surviving descendant known as Lord Seven Reed marries into the line of Teozacoalco. Importantly, he does not seem to be included in the lineage as expected, implying primogeniture perhaps wasn't the primary method of succession. After this, it shifts to focusing on the lords of Tlaxiaco, how Lord Seven Reed lost his kingdom to someone known as Lord Eight Jaguar, and his descendants' later rule over several different localities in the region. The rest of the codex proceeds to follow the familial lines of the houses before ending with Lord Eight Grass on Page 21 (due to Kingsborough's confusing numbering). This Lord Eight Grass has been identified by Wigberto Jiménez Moreno, a Mexican
ethnohistorian, as possibly the individual referred to by the Aztecs as Lord Malinalli (The Nahuatl word for grass) who was defeated by them in a war in 1503–1504, after which the Aztec extracted tribute from the region. Interestingly, the codex references two major sites as the supposed point of creation of the royal houses, first at
Achiutla on the obverse (with a figure emerging from a sacred tree likely at Achiutla, beginning the dynasty), and then at
Apoala on the reverse, giving two seemingly contradictory locations for the origin of the noble houses. According to Friar Francisco de Burgoa, however, there were at least three different locations believed to be the origins of the Mixtec nobility, and possibly more implied by the
Codex Zouche-Nuttall. ==Gallery==