Abstract

JOHANSSON K., Patrick. Miccacuicatl: Pre-hispanic Nahua mouring songs. Tex and "con-texts". Estud. cult. náhuatl [online]. 2014, vol.48, pp.7-87. ISSN 0071-1675.

The importance of songs in funeral rites among the Aztecs was such that the term that refers the exequies, miccacuicatl (song of the dead), is precisely the word for the ceremonial protocol as a whole. In this article, we will intend to establish a generic "arborescence" of the different mourning songs, according to their contexts, and to the specific modalities of their enunciation. We will analyze a tlaocolcuicatl (song of grief), an icnocuicatl (song of orphanhood), and some songs belonging to the genre we defined as xochimiquizcuicatl (flowered death songs).

Keywords : songs of grief; funeral affliction; being; tonalli (soul); tears; catharsis; sacrifice.

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