Marriage Almanacs In The Mexican Divinatory Codices

Abstract

When Friar Motolinia recalled the five kinds of Aztec painted books, he said the fifth pertained to “the rites, ceremonies, and omens […] relating to marriage.” Although no pictorial codices that are wholly dedicated to marriage fates and ceremonies have survived, several extant codices do contain individual almanacs that show marriage ceremonies and give marriage prognostications. They tell the potential couple whether their union will be happy and successful, challenging, difficult, or disastrous, and in what ways; often they also foretell whether and how children will come into the union. Cognate versions that appear in the “Borgia Group” codices from the Mixteca and Puebla/Tlaxcala reflect ideas about marriage fates that are documented for the Aztecs as well as Mixtecs. This unity of understanding shows that much divinatory ideology was widely shared in Late Postclassic Central Mexico.