⚠ Site currently under repair ⚠

Search Issues: Update 2026-08-06

Some of our more complex, multi-field searches (such as the search field on our homepage and Search All Fields) are currently under repair and may not work as expected.

Thank you to all our users who emailed to alert us to the problem! We hope to have it repaired soon.

Meanwhile, elements of the Advanced Search are working and the Alphabetical Listings are working, too.

tlahuahuanaliztli.

Headword: 
tlahuahuanaliztli.
Principal English Translation: 

the act of scratching or making lines on something; or, to scrape or scratch the earth (as hens do) (see Molina); or, a type of sacrifice that involved making furrows or scrapes in the body; it was paired with another type of sacrifice, involving the use of arrows; this was practiced by the Toltecas and the Chichimecas used when they conquered altepetl lords (see attestations) (sixteenth century, Quauhtinchan)
Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca, eds. Paul Kirchhoff, Lina Odena Güemes, y Luis Reyes García (México: CISINAH, INAH-SEP, 1976), 145, note 2.

Orthographic Variants: 
tlavavanaliztli
IPAspelling: 
tɬɑwɑwɑːnɑlistɬi
Alonso de Molina: 

tlauauanaliztli. el acto de raer, o de rayar alguna cosa, o de escaruar la tierra.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 144r. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Attestations from sources in English: 

a ceremony that involves making stripes
Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Primeros Memoriales, ed. Thelma D. Sullivan (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), 78.

See a scene labeled tlahuahuanaliztli in the Codex Zouche-Nuttall, folio 89.
https://hraf.yale.edu/featured-culture-aztecs-cosmology-and-ancient-ritu...

Another scene that is labeled tlahuahuanaliztli--and is described as gladiatory sacrifice-- comes from the Codex Magliabechiano, folio 30r.
https://www.alamy.com/english-aztec-ritual-sacrificial-combat-named-sacr...

The tlahuahuanaliztli is itself referred to as "gladiatory combat" in a study of a head of Xipe Totec that has been published on line by Dumbarton Oaks.
https://museum.doaks.org/objects-1/info/23093

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

Olman oncan quipolloque yn chaneque catca yn olmeca oncan quincacalque quiuauanque yehuantin yn tlalpolloque yn icxicouatl yn quetzalteueyac yn tezcauitzil yn tololouitzin = Olman. Allí destruyeron a los habitantes, a los olmeca. Allí los sacrificaron por flechamiento, los "rayaron", ellos Icxicouatl, Quetzalteueyac, Tezcauitzil y Tololuitzin, conquistaron la tierra. (Quauhtinchan, s. XVI)
Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca, eds. Paul Kirchhoff, Lina Odena Güemes, y Luis Reyes García (México: CISINAH, INAH-SEP, 1976), 145.