The Nahua Newsletter
A Publication of the Indiana University Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Alan R. Sandstrom, Editor
With support from the Department of Anthropology
Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne
February 1986, Number 1
The Nahua Newsletter
A Publication of the Indiana
University
Center for Latin American
and Caribbean Studies
Alan R.
Sandstrom, Editor
With support from the Department
of Anthropology
Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne
Brad R. Huber, Editor
At the 1985 American Anthropological Association meetings in Washington, a group or people met with Jane Hill (Arizona) and James Taggart (Franklin and Marshall) to plan a conference on Nahua ethnohistory, linguistics, and contemporary culture. Our goal was to identify themes or common interests around which papers could be organized. This led to a discussion about our interests in Nahua-speakers in general. Several of those present suggested that a comprehensive bibliography of sources dealing with Nahua culture and a mailing list of active scholars be compiled and distributed. It was decided that a newsletter might be the best vehicle for notifying colleagues of our goals.
A symposium on the ethnohistory, linguistics, and cultural anthropology of the Nahua, past and present, is now being organized for the 1986 AAA meetings in Philadelphia. It is entitled "What Happened to the Aztec Empire?" The underlying theme of the symposium is the cultural identity--past and present--of the Nahua, in all of its controversial aspects. Additional information about this symposium can be found on page two in this issue of The Nahua Newsletter.
It is hoped that this newsletter will serve as a forum for discussing our interests in Nahua- speakers. Future issues could contain information on research projects you are now undertaking. They might also be used to organize regional and local meetings, notify scholars of research opportunities, review books, etc. A (by no means complete) mailing list of Nahua specialists is contained in the first issue. This list will be continually updated; the form provided on the last page of each issue of the newsletter can be used to add people to the mailing list. The same form can also be used to notify us of research projects you have or plan on undertaking among Nahua-speakers and to include notes in future issues. Ideas concerning how this newsletter might better serve our common interests are also welcome.
James Taggart, Jane Hill, and Louise Burkhart are organizing a symposium entitled "What Happened to the Aztec Empire?" for the December 3-7, 1986, American Anthropological Association meetings in Philadelphia. If you are interested in presenting a paper, you should send an abstract, your advanced registration form, and fees to James Taggart by March 18th. Dr. Taggart's address is: Department of Anthropology, Franklin and Marshall College, P.O. Box 3003, Lancaster, PA 17604. The following topics for papers have been suggested by the organizers of the session.
a. Can one speak of Nahua cultural identity?
b. If prehispanic Nahua traits survive in modern Nahua culture,
where do we find them
e.g., in mythology, ritual, social organization, views of the
universe?
c. What survives of the prehispanic patterns of milpa agriculture,
food processing, and diet?
d. Do prehispanic cultural traits survive
more in some parts of the Nahua area than in others? One can
compare the Nahuatl of the Sierra Norte de Puebla with the Nahuatl
living in the Tlaxcalan-Pueblan area, etc.
a. What has happened to the prehispanic patterns of work in the
Nahua family?
b. How has Nahua household composition changed since the sixteenth
century?
c. How and why does Nahua household composition vary from one
region to the next?
d. What has happened to age and generation
as principles for delegating authority in the Nahua family?
e. How and why has Nahua kinship terminology
changed since the sixteenth century?
f. What happened to the calpulli? Do
clans or lineages exist in the Nahua area? If they do survive,
what form do they take, and how do they function?
g. How does ritual kinship in the Nahua area
incorporate elements from Aztec and Spanish Christian tradition?
h. Does ritual kinship take a form and function
peculiar to conditions in the Sierra Norte or the Tlaxcalan-Pueblan
area?
a. How do modern Nahua rituals represent a
fusion of Aztec and Spanish Christian elements? How does the
pattern of fusion vary and why does it vary? One can focus on
rituals of planting, compadrazgo, the cargo system,
curing, and Todos Santos.
b. How do the modern Nahua express their ideas
of time and space in their rituals?
c. How do modern Nahua conceptions of time
and space, as expressed in rituals, resemble or differ from those
of the Aztecs?
d. How do the modern Nahua express their ethnic
identity in private and public rituals?
e. What have happened to the prehispanic rituals dedicated to
agriculture? to disease?
a. What of the Aztec view of the universe survives in modern Nahua
mythology?
b. How has this view changed in accord with Nahua experiences
after the Conquest?
c. What aspects of the view of the universe
are expressed in mythology as opposed to ritual or social organization?
d. What has happened to the prehispanic serpent
gods in modern Nahua oral tradition?
e. How have Nahua dance groups fused Aztec
and Spanish Christian themes in their dress and ritual dramas?
f. How do the Nahua express their cultural
identity in their textiles? One can compare weaving in the Sierra
Norte and the Tlaxcalan-Puebla areas.
g. How do modern Nahua beliefs in disease
differ from or resemble those of the Aztecs? What can account
for differences among communities?
h. What survives in modern belief of the prehispanic
Nahua beliefs in death and life- after-death?
i. How do modern Nahua beliefs in witchcraft
and sorcery resemble or differ from those of the Aztecs?
a. How do the Nahua fit into the political
economy of modern Mexico? How is their political role related
to the expression of their cultural identity?
b. What form do revitalization movements take
in the Nahua area? How do they represent a creative response
to modernization and how do they develop?
c. What is the form of peasant insurgency in
the Nahua area?
d. How have recent changes affected the relationship
between women and men in modern Nahua society?
e. What is the experience of the modern Nahua
who have migrated to cities?
Note: Nahuatl-Mexicano refers to the "central" varieties of Nahua; Nahua is used to refer to any variety, including those spoken in Michoacan or the Sierra Norte de Puebla, as well as Isthmus. Central, etc.
1. Karttunen and Lockhart (1976) claimed that all the modern varieties of Nahuatl (Mexicano) have borrowed from Spanish according to the same patterns. To what degree is this really true? Do some varieties seem to be exceptional?
2. To what degree is the use of Mexicano or other Nahua varieties an ethnicity-defining phenomenon? Do people think of themselves as "Mexicano" (in an ethnic rather than national sense) because they speak Nahuatl, or according to some other criteria?
3. How is the distribution of modern varieties of Mexicano related to ethnohistorical evidence about the dimensions of the Aztec hegemony? How much did Mexicano spread in the post-conquest period?
4. To what degree do modern varieties of Nahua languages shed light on the interpretation of "classical" sources? Karttunen, for example, has used modern varieties to give evidence for vowel length in Classical, while others have challenged this strategy.
5. To what degree have genres such as huehuetlahtolli survived? Are there ways of speaking that are "Nahuatl" as opposed to "Mexican"?
6. Can we say anything about language contact phenomena in the pre-conquest period vs. language contact in the post-conquest? Campbell and Kaufman believe Nahua groups borrowed from other Mesoamerican languages quite a bit, while Suarez felt that they borrowed very little, such that borrowing from Spanish represented an important innovation.
7. To what degree are Nahua speakers multilingual in languages other than Nahua and Spanish? How is this similar to or different from patterns of multilingualism in other groups such as the Zapotec, Tolonac, Otomi, etc.?
8. Are there residues of status differences in language use in modem Nahua-speaking communities? Are there interesting modifications/preservations of the meanings of particular lexical items?
9. What is the role of Nahuatl in modem Mexican nationalism? What of the public use of Nahuatl, as on statuary; Nahuatl as a hobby; its use in personal names; etc.?
10. What is the "state of the language"? What communities speak a lot/little Nahua? Where is Nahua still used as a lingua franca, e.g., the Sierra de Puebla, and where is it not, e.g., in Tlaxcala? Is Nahua getting much attention in INI bilingual programs? What is the literature like? How much literacy is there in Nahua? How is Nahua used by the media?
11. To what degree has Nahuatl affected Mexican Spanish? Some claim Nahuatl has had a lot of influence; others suggest it has had very little.
1. A "taphonomic" approach to documentary sources, i.e., an analysis of the processes involved in the production, transport, and preservation of documents. Why we have what we have, and why they say what they say. Anyone working with a particular type of document might have interesting insights on this sort of problem.
2. The survival, transformation, and/or disappearance of an indigenous custom or institution, viewed either in the long range or at any point in post-conquest history. You can discuss religious beliefs or ritual practices, types of religious practitioners, class structure, economic organizations or specializations, types of land tenure, medical practices, etc.
3. The mechanisms of culture change, e.g., whether changes were imposed by colonial (or modern) political powers or represent spontaneous indigenous adaptations; change reflecting "official" colonial policy or Church doctrine as opposed to borrowings from Spanish (or African) "folk" culture; how to get at this sort of information in the documents.
4. Nahua ethnicity through the ages. How indigenous populations define themselves and how they are defined by others as communities, ethnic groups, language groups, political units, etc. This might be one way of approaching the question of whether the " Aztec Empire" or "Nahua culture" constitute real entities.
Readers are asked to confirm their mailing address by filling out the brief form at the end of this issue. We also encourage you to make copies of this newsletter and send them to colleagues not included in this initial mailing list.
J. Richard Andrews
Department of English
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN 37235
John Bierhorst
Box 566
West Shokan,
NY 12494
Dr. William Bright
Department of Linguistics
University of California
Los Angeles, CA 90024
Louise M. Burkhart
Department of Anthropology
Yale University
New Haven, CT 06520
Jeff Burnham
Departamento de Humanidades
Universidad de Sonora
Hermosillo, Sonora. MEXICO
Lyle R. Campbell
Department of Anthropology
State University of New York.
Albany, NY 12222
Una Canger
Ulriksdalvej 3
Valby 2500
DENMARK
Dr. Pedro Carrasco
Department of Anthropology
State University of New York
Stony Brook, NY 11794
Dr .Garry E. Chick
Leisure Behavior Research Laboratory
Child Research Center, 51 E. Gerty Dr.
Champaign, IL 61820
Karen Dakin
Instituto de Investigaciones Filologicas
10 Piso, Torre 11 de Humanidades, UNAM
Mexico, D.F., MEXICO 04510
Dr. Charles E. Dibble
Department of Anthropology
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
Dr. James W. Dow
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Oakland University
Rochester, MI 48063
Dr. George M. Foster
Department of Anthropology
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720
Dr. William R Fowler, Jr.
Dept. of Anthropology and Archaeology
University of North Dakota
Grand Forks. ND 58202
Dr. Judith Friedlander
Division of Social Sciences
State University of New York
College Purchase, NY 10577
Dr. Susan D. Gillespie
Department of Sociology-Anthropology
Illinois State University
Normal, IL 61761
Dr. Jane
Hill
Department of Anthropology
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
Dr. Kenneth C. Hill
Department of Anthropology
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
Dr. Brad R. Huber
Department of Anthropology
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Dr. John H. Ingham
Department of Anthropology
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Dr. Barry L. Isaac
Department of Anthropology
University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, OH 45221
Dr. Frances Karttunen
U.S. Educational Foundation in Finland
Etalaisplanadi 22 A 15
00130 Helsinki 13, FINLAND
Dr. T. S. Kaufman
Department of Anthropology
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Dr. Jorge Klor de Alva
Puerto Rican, Lat Amer. and Carib. Studies
State University of New York
Albany. NY 12222
Timothy Knab
Auberge des 4 Saisons
Rt. 42
Shandakon, NY 12486
Yolanda Lastra de Suarez
Linguistica
UNAM Mexico, D.F.
MEXICO 04510
Miguel Leon Portilla
Centro de Investigaciones Historicas
UNAM Mexico, D.F.
MEXICO 04510
Professor James Lockhart
Department of Anthropology
University of California
Los Angeles, CA 90024
Dr. William Madsen
Department of Anthropology
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Dr. Timothy D. Murphy
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Indiana, PA 15705
Dr. Henry B. Nicholson
Department of Anthropology
University of California
Los Angeles, CA 90024
Dr. Hugo G. Nutini
Department of Anthropology
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh. PA 15260
Dr .Bernard Ortiz de Montellano
Department of Anthropology
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI 48202
David Robichaux
Chez Maya, 47
Rue de Montorgueil
Paris 2, FRANCE
Jane Rosenthal
5532 Blackstone Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637
Dr. Fran Rothstein
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Towson State University
Baltimore, MD 21204
Dr. Alan R. Sandstrom
Department of Sociology-Anthropology
Indiana University-Purdue University
Fort Wayne, IN 46805
John Frederick Schwaller
Department of History
Florida Atlantic University
Boca Raton, FL 33432
David Shaul
Department of Anthropology
Indiana University at Fort Wayne
Fort Wayne, IN 46805
Dr. Doren Slade
215 W. 90th Street
New York, NY 10024
Dr. James M. Taggart
Department of Anthropology
Franklin and Marshall College
P.O. Box 3003
Lancaster, PA 17604
Last updated: 11/22/07