Nahua Newsletter

Welcome to the 29th issue of the Nahua Newsletter, the international publication dedicated to the culture, language, and history of Nahuatl-speaking and related peoples. In this issue we have news items, book reviews, and a directory update. We hope that you will enjoy the newsletter and find it useful in your work. Please use the Nahua Newsletter to publicize your research interests and current work, or ask for cooperation from other experts. We count among our readers some of the world's authorities on Nahuas and neighboring groups and they constitute an invaluable resource for researchers and people with a curiosity about Middle America and its peoples. Nahua Newsletter is published in November and February. Please send information that you wish to appear in the next issue to the address at the end of this section.

And now for some good news. The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) and the Office of International Programs of Indiana University have each contributed $250 to the Nahua Newsletter. These generous gifts, combined with the equally generous contributions of loyal Nahua Newsletter readers, means that we have enough funds for the next two or three issues. We have never been in such good shape financially. The director of CLACS, Professor Jeff Gould, and the Dean of International Programs, Patrick O'Meara, deserve our thanks for supporting Nahua studies.

It was only a matter of time until we entered the electronic age. The Nahua Newsletter can now be accessed via the World Wide Web at http://www.ipfw.edu/SOCA/Nahua.htm. At this point, we have the last few issues available and we will eventually try to post all previous issues. The electronic version is identical to the hard copy text except that we have not included the illustrations that accompany each issue. There are copyright problems with digitizing illustrations, most of which come from recently published books. Many thanks go to Nahua Newsletter Webmaster Richard Sutter, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (SutterR@ipfw.edu).

The Nahua Newsletter is a combination of Athenian democracy and sheer anarchy so we are always open to suggestions and comments from readers. If you would like to make a donation to the Nahua Newsletter, please send a check or money order made out to "Nahua Newsletter" to the address below. We count on donations from readers to cover costs of printing and mailing the newsletter. We have no consistent institutional support and so anything that you contribute will be very welcome. The generosity of readers has supported the Nahua Newsletter for almost fifteen years - a record we can all be proud of. All money is deposited in a special account and is used only to cover costs of publication and mailing. There are no administrative costs. Please mail all correspondence to the following address:

Alan R. Sandstrom, Editor
Nahua Newsletter Department of Anthropology
Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne
2101 Coliseum Blvd. East
Fort Wayne, IN 46805 U.S.A.

If your announcement is more than a few lines long, please send the material on a 3-1/2" diskette saved in WordPerfect or as an ASCII text file.

News Items

1. The Latin American Indian Literatures Association/Asociación de Literaturas Indígenas Latinoamericanas (LAILA/ALILA), in cooperation with Fundación Cultural Iberoamericana and the Society of Woman Geographers, is sponsoring the 15th International Symposium on Latin American Indian Literatures, to be held June 15-17, 2000, at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Thirty-minute papers will deal with indigenous literatures in relation to a wide variety of fields, including anthropology, archaeology, art, astronomy, architecture, bibliography, codices, history, indigenista literature, applied or sociolinguistics, literary studies, medicine, religion, etc.

The call-for-papers deadline is March 31. Prepare a 100- to 200-word abstract in English or Spanish, but presentations should be delivered in English to be accessible to students and colleagues in other fields. Proposals must be accompanied by a symposium fee of $100.00, plus current LAILA/ALILA dues of $25.00 ($10.00 for students and retirees). Send the amount in a single check with the presentation title, abstract, your name, address, fax and phone numbers, and e-mail address to: Program Chair, Dr. Luis Arata, Department of Fine Arts, Languages, and Philosophy, Quinnipiac College, Hamden, Connecticut 06518 / e-mail to Luis.Arata@Quinnipiac.edu / phone 203-281-8658. Hotel information will be mailed to participants upon receipt of their fees.

Papers presented at LAILA/ALILA symposia may be considered for publication in an ongoing series of symposia volumes. Dr. Mary H. Preuss can provide more information at Pennsylvania State McKeesport, 4000 University Drive, McKeesport, PA 15132-7698 / e-mail to mhp1@psu.edu / phone 412-675-9466.

2. The Midwest Mesoamericanists will meet this year on March 25th at the University of Illinois. The hosts will be David Grove and Susan Gillespie. This meeting generally features about twenty presentations and it is held in an informal atmosphere that lends itself to real discussion and unhurried social interaction. Papers represent all four subfields of anthropology in addition to art history, ethnohistory, museology and other fields but the emphasis is usually on archaeology. The meeting is a great time to get to know some of the movers in the field of Mesoamerican studies. For information about the meeting please e-mail David Grove at d-grove@uiuc.edu.

3. Visitors to the Web site hosted by the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies (FAMSI) will find three new digital resources available:

(1) The Kerr Archive, a searchable database already containing more than 1,000 of Justin Kerr's world-renowned photographic roll-outs of ancient Maya vases.

(2) Bibliografia Mesoamericana, which currently contains about 11,000 references for study of ancient and contemporary Mesoamerican cultures. This online bibliography, a joint project of FAMSI and the Library of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, will soon contain over 50,000 bibliographic entries.

(3) The Linda Schele Drawing Archive will also be available within the next month. Like the Kerr photographs, Dr. Schele's drawings can be downloaded for study purposes.

Visit the FAMSI Web site at http://www.famsi.org. Select "Research Facility" to find links to the Kerr Maya Vase Archives, Bibliografia Mesoamericana, and the Linda Schele Drawing Archive. Questions or comments concerning the Foundation's research, granting, or conference facilities may be sent to Dr. Sandra Noble, Director, by e-mail at famsi@famsi.org or fax at 352 795-1970.

4. Loyal NN reader David Szewczyk writes: "Regarding the final sentence of paragraph one in NN No. 28, you seem to want to emphasize the diversity of your readership but apparently have academic blinders on. I used to be an ethnohistorian (studied with Jim Lockhart, was the one who sent him the manuscript copies that became Beyond the Codices, researched Tlaxcala during its first 100 years of contact with the Spaniards), but I gave that up 25 years ago to become a rare books librarian and then 15 years ago, a rare books dealer. This doesn't mean I have given up my interest in Nahua studies. In fact, as a dealer it was I who discovered and brought to everyone's attention the play that Louise Burkhart turning into a wonderful study (Holy Wednesday).

"And then there is my wife. We were master's students together at Indiana University in the late 1960s. She also started out as an ethnohistorian, but since 1975 has been a Social Security employee (currently a systems support analyst). But she still is interested in Nahua studies and reads the NN when it arrives. So in the future, don't sell the NN short: it has appeal beyond the narrower confines that are academia."

5. Professor Doctor Hanns J. Prem writes: The Seminar für Völkerkunde of the University of Bonn is engaged in a long-term program of editing ethnohistorical sources that are being published in a new series, Fuentes Mesoamericanas (Verlag A. Saurwein, Am Hennigbach 17, D 85570 Markt Schwaben, Germany). The first volume is Fray Andrés de Avendao y Loyola, Relación de las dos entradas que hice a la conversión de los gentiles, ytzáex, y cehuaches, edited by Termis Vayhinger-Scheer. The second volume contains a new transcription and translation into Spanish of "Anales de Tlatelolco: Los manuscritos 22 y 22 bis de la Bibliothèque de France," by Susanne Klaus. Scheduled publications for 2000 are: "Las Relaciones de Juan Cano," and synoptic presentation and analysis of "Relación de la Genealogía y Origen de los Mexicanos" and the "Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas." Both publications are based on new transcriptions.

6. On a related note, NN also received the following announcement of publication: Uprooted Christianity: The Preaching of the Christian Doctrine in Mexico Based on Franciscan Sermons of the 16th Century Written in Nahuatl by Susanne Klaus. BonnerAmerikanistische, Estudios Americanistas de Bonn/Bonn Americanist Studies BAS 33. Markt Schwaben: Verlag Anton Saurwein, 1999. Pp. 372. ISBN 3-931419-60-6; for book orders, see note 4 above.

In her doctoral thesis, Klaus analyzes how Sahagún and Juan Bautista attempted in Advent and Christmas sermons to make the Christian religion intelligible to the Nahuas of central Mexico. The work focuses on the content of the sermons and on language used to "Nahuatize" Christianity. She also deals with the changes in teaching the doctrine during the 16th century. The Nahuatl sermons are also compared with Franciscan sermons from Spain. In this way, the author studies the elements that were used for teaching doctrine to the Nahua population. The analysis of these types of texts also opens new perspectives for assessing the Franciscans' work in Mexico.

7. Horacio Cabezas Carcache writes "Me complace comunicarles que la Historia General de Guatemala, la obra guatemalteca más ambiciosa del siglo XX, con casi cinco mil páginas ricamente ilustradas, que reúne el aporte original de 156 autores especializados en diversas materias y épocas de la historia nacional, ahora está disponible en su versión de CD-ROM, al precio de US $150.00, más gastos de envío.

"Contenido: texto completo de todos los artículos de los seis volúmenes de la Historia General de Guatemala, ilustraciones y cuadros de todos los artículos, 40 videos históricos de corta duración, fragmentos de "Música Histórica de Guatemala," y línea de tiempo. Versatilidad: búsqueda global de información con poderosos hipervínculos para el acceso rápido a pantalla, fácil procedimiento para la impresión de bloques de texto, artículos completos o ilustraciones, y fácil procedimiento para copiar electrónicamente texto e imágenes en un procesador." For information, write to: Fundación para la Cultura y el Desarrollo, 9a Calle 2-75, Zona 1, Guatemala, C.A.

8. Brad R. Huber and Alan R. Sandstrom announce that their edited volume Mesoamerican Healers has been accepted for publication by the University of Texas Press. Index include:

Introduction by Brad Huber.
Chapter 1: "Curers and their Cures in Colonial New Spain and Guatemala: The Spanish Component" by Luz María Hernández Sáenz and George Foster.
Chapter 2: "Curanderismo in Mexico and Guatemala: Its Historical Evolution from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century" by Carlos Viesca.
Chapter 3: "Central and North Mexican Shamans" by James W. Dow.
Chapter 4: "A Comparative Analysis of Southern Mexican and Guatemalan Shamans" by Frank J. Lipp.
Chapter 5: "Mistresses of Lo Espiritual" by Kaja Finkler.
Chapter 6: "Recruitment, Training, and Practice of Indigenous Midwives from the Mexico United States Border to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec" by Brad R. Huber and Alan R. Sandstrom.
Chapter 7: "Midwives of Southern Mexico and Guatemala" by Sheila Cosminski.
Chapter 8: "Relations Between Government Health Workers and Traditional Midwives of Guatemala" by Elena Hurtado and Eugenia Sáenz de Tejada. Chapter 9: "Mesoamerican Bonesetters" by Benjamin D. Paul and Clancy McMahon.
Chapter 10: "Mexican Physicians, Nurses, and Social Workers" by Margaret E. Harrison.
Chapter 11: "Mesoamerican Healers and Medical Anthropology: Summary and Concluding Remarks" by Alan R. Sandstrom.

Book Reviews

Myths of Ancient Mexico. By Michel Graulich. Translated by Bernard R. Ortiz de Montellano and Thelma Ortiz de Montellano. Civilization of the American Indian Series, Vol. 222. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997. Pp. xii+370. $32.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-8061-2910-7 (cloth).

Michel Graulich's Myths of Ancient Mexico is a must-read for all Mesoamerican scholars interested in ancient as well as contemporary Nahua culture. This book is the first half of the author's dissertation, which he presented to the Université Libre de Bruxelles in 1980. The mythic analysis appeared in 1990 as a volume published in Spanish that Bernard R. Ortiz de Montellano and Thelma Ortiz de Montellano ably translated into English for the University of Oklahoma Press. Graulich applied the lessons of Georges Dumézil and Claude Levi-Strauss to identify the ideational structure in the many narrative fragments by which the ancient Nahua culturally constructed their universe. Dumézil argued that myths are collective representations of societal patterns and was a proponent of Claude Levi-Strauss' brand of structuralism. Graulich notes that Levi-Strauss "intentionally omitted Mesoamerican myths from his Mythologiques... 'because of the way they have been shaped by the specialists'" (p. 8). Graulich steps in where Levi-Strauss feared to tread and argues that the myth-making specialists generated their stories as they resolved a gigantic paradox by making a series of homologous binary oppositions to represent the passage from one historical era to the next. Each historical era begins when waves of nomadic newcomers take over the civilizations of sedentary farmers in the Valley of Mexico.

Graulich's structuralism builds on his earlier work on the calendar in which he stressed the importance of the metaphor of the day in Aztec thought. The day metaphor is based on the symbolic equation between time and space in a cyclical rhythm. According to Graulich's interpretation of the calendar, the Aztecs equated the cardinal directions with points in the diurnal cycle so that north = midnight = winter solstice, south = noon = summer solstice, east = dawn = spring equinox, and west = sunset = autumnal equinox. To be sure, Graulich's interpretation of the metaphor of the day differs from that of other Mesoamerican scholars who reverse the temporal associations with north and south. However, like other scholars, Graulich shares the view that the Aztecs contraposed the points in their quadrilateral view of the universe into two binary sets: east vs. west, and north vs. south.

The binary contrasts appear to justify Graulich's use of Levi-Strauss' structuralism to explain how Aztec myths work. The starting part is the paradox that opposed elements are united in perfect harmony during the primordial era in Tamoanchan. Graulich applies his structural interpretation to several key narratives including, but not limited to, the fall from grace in Tamoanchan, the four eras or suns, the creation of the Fourth Sun, Quetzalcoatl in Tollan, and the Fifth Sun. Tamoanchan was once a union of opposites when the primordial couple, Tonacacihuatl and Tonacatecuhtli, lived in perfect harmony with their children. The perfect state ended when the couple's children, particularly the earth goddess (known by many names - Xochiquetzal, Tlazolteotl, Itzpapolotl), break a prohibition by picking a forbidden flower. The offending children were banished, creating the breach between the sky above and the earth/underworld below. The sky and earth are key domains with opposite gender-related characteristics. The sky is masculine, luminous, celestial, fiery, aerial, and active. The earth is feminine, nocturnal, terrestrial, lunar, aquatic, and passive. With the creation of the two domains came plants - particularly corn - and humans who are a synthesis of elements from earth and sun.

The opposition between masculine and feminine forces plays out in many different ways. In the mythic account of the four suns, each era corresponds to the four elements in the universe - earth, water, wind, and fire - that exist in homologous pairs of binary opposites represented by the formula: earth : air :: water : fire. Graulich notes that the glyph for fire/water stood for the sacred war that kept the world's engine running. Fire is particularly crucial for maintaining the order of the new universe created after the end of the harmonious union of opposites in Tamoanchan. Fire maintains the distance between heaven and earth, and the four sky bearers all have some association with fire: Cuauhtemoc means Falling Eagle representing the setting sun; Tenexxochitl is Lime or Ash Flower with ash being former fire; Itzcuintli (dog) is associated with thunderbolts; Itzcoatl is obsidian serpent and also represents the thunderbolt.

The important mythic event of the creation of the Fourth Sun introduced a new dimension that connects the basic gender-based binary contrast to the historical events in the Valley of Mexico before the arrival of the Spaniards. According to different versions of this myth, the gods assembled at Teotihuacan during the darkness after the end of the third era. They built a huge pyre and originally selected the lordly Tecciztecatl as the most likely candidate to carry the ball of fire into the sky and become the Fourth Sun. Tecciztecatl, frightened by the horrendous heat, tried four times and failed, however. The lowly Nanahuatl, the pustulated one who dressed in humble garb and performed his self-sacrifices with a maguey spine, was up to the task and carried the fireball into the sky. For Graulich, Nanahuatl is a symbol of the energetic and disciplined but humble nomads who overran the civilizations of the more cultured but decadent sedentary farmers in the Valley of Mexico. Nanahuatl emerged from night and filth and rose to become the sun. Tecciztecatl fell into ashes and darkness and became the moon. Although the sun and the moon may appear in the same sky, the Aztecs contraposed their relationship and connected the former with men and the latter with women.

The themes of "newcomer-conqueror-sun and native-agriculturist-moon (or setting sun)" and the lost paradise converge in the story of Quetzalcoatl in Tollan. In Leyenda de los Soles, the hero's father, Mixcoatl, is one of five younger siblings who, with thorn-tipped spears, defeat their richer older siblings. In the Anales de Cuauhtitlan, the situation is reversed: Mixcoatl is killed by his brothers, and Quetzalcoatl avenges his father's death by slaying and cutting out the hearts of his uncles. In both cases, the older siblings/uncles represent the natives and the younger siblings/nephews stand for the newcomers. With age comes a loss of discipline and strength: the young Quetzalcoatl is vigorous and disciplined, but the old Quetzalcoatl is on the decline. He is like the feminine moon and is on the side of darkness, the earth, and the rainy season. It is no coincidence that he lives in a house like that of the rain gods (tlaloque). When drunk on pulque, Quetzalcoatl calls for his sister, falls from grace, and leaves the mythical golden-age city of Tollan, marking the end of a harmonious and peaceful era. Quetzalcoatl as Venus is the planet that precedes the sun and foreshadows the advent of a new age. The cast of characters is different than in other myths, but the structural pattern is the same.

Graulich is convinced that the Mexica added the story of the Fifth Sun as they established their place in Nahua history. He notes that the older sources, including The Codex Vaticanus, one of the surviving 13 pre-Hispanic manuscripts, mention only four suns. Those that mention five (they include the Leyenda de los Soles and the Historia de los mexicanos por sus pinturas) were written during the Colonial period. Second, the notion of four suns is more widespread geographically, appearing among the Mayas and the Mixtec. Although the Mexica added an era, they nevertheless produced a myth of the fifth sun according to the same structural pattern. The Mexica account begins with the migration from Aztlan-Colhuacan, which is another case of the end of perfect harmony. As in the myth of the fall from Tamoanchan, a tree breaking marks the end of harmony. Huitzilopochtli orders the Mexica to separate from the other tribes and head out on their own. At Coatepec, Huitzilopochtli is the younger brother who defeats his older siblings, particularly Coyolxauhqui and the Huitznahua. As in the older myths, the Mexica are vigorous newcomers who conquer the established farming civilizations in the Valley of Mexico.

Graulich makes a bold effort to demonstrate that the structure he identifies for the ancient Nahua myths also appears in the narratives told by contemporary Mesoamericans: the Popolocans, the Chontal, Mazatec, the Cakchiquel, and, of course, the Quiché. The effort to link the structure of ancient and contemporary Mesoamerican myths is justified, in my opinion, because so many themes in the ancient narratives appear in the modern ones. Regrettably the translators failed to include in their updated bibliography works published after 1980 that describe the continuities as well as differences between ancient and modern Aztec mythology.

Nevertheless, I think that Graulich's provocative and fascinating book will stand the test of time as an important source for future generations of scholars interested in how ancient as well as contemporary Mesoamericans represent their culture in mythic form. His interpretation raises several questions that could become programs for future research. Foremost is whether there is one or several structures. It is one thing to argue that those who occupy the same social position in Aztec society tell myths according to the same structural pattern. It is another to contend that everyone, including contemporary myth makers, use the same structure when they occupy different positions in a social structure that experienced a great deal of change.

For Graulich, the key binary contrast is based on gender, and a number of scholars have argued that gender relations changed soon after the Conquest as women became jural minors in the eyes of the Colonial courts. We also know that the gender images in Aztecs myths vary according to the position of women in the social structure. Consequently it is reasonable to conclude that there may be many different structures with varying degrees of binary contrasts based on gender in ancient and contemporary Aztec mythology. The Sierra Nahuat, who speak the Zacapoaxtla dialect of general Aztec, depict more opposition in gender symbolism in their myths when they experience more landlessness and direct ethnic domination by Spanish speaking Mexicans. Sierra Nahuat narrators who live in communities under less stress reduce gender polarization in their variants of the same myths. Other scholars may find further variation in structural patterns and may question if Levi-Strauss structuralism is really the best way to approach Aztec mythology.

As many have argued, Aztec religion is based on monism, the notion that reality is an organic whole, rather than dualism which is a characteristic of European Christianity. An approach to Aztec mythology that begins with the assumption that the universe is an organic whole accords with the often noted equation among the life cycle of humans, the cycle of plants, and cosmic creation. In such an approach, the genders are not marked by their opposition but by their complementarity, which coincidentally is one of the ways that some contemporary Nahuas actually talk about the relations between women and men. The choice of approach has serious implication for understanding any mythic system. While men occupy center stage as symbols of order in structuralism, women are central to Aztec monism because of their role in human reproduction.

James M. Taggart
Franklin and Marshall College

Historia cronológica de la noble ciudad de Tlaxcala. By Juan Buenaventura Zapata y Mendoza. Paleographic transcription, translation, presentation and notes by Luis Reyes García and Andrea Martínez Baracs. México, D. F.: Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Secretaría de Extensión Universitaria y Difusión Cultural; Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, 1995. Pp. 746. ISBN 968-865-033-1.

Luis Reyes, whose first language is Náhuatl, has been prolific in bringing to light in Spanish translation a number of Náhuatl language documents from the colonial period. In the present endeavor he is accompanied by Andrea Martínez Baracs, who recently completed a dissertation in history at the Colegio de México on the Indian government of Tlaxcala in the eighteenth century. Historia cronológica de la Noble Ciudad de Tlaxcala is a transcription and translation into Spanish of a Náhuatl document in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris. Juan Buenaventura Zapata y Mendoza, a pilli and official of the Tlaxcala cabildo, was its principal author, with the important participation of another Tlaxcalan, the priest and bachiller Manuel de los Santos y Salazar, who probably added the dates of the Nahua calendar at the margin. The manuscript consists of anales divided into years, which constitutes the bulk of the text, and is preceded by a running text of another literary tradition, "Orígen de la nación tlaxcalteca." The two parts of the document cover the long continuum from 1310 through 1692. Reyes and Baracs provide an extremely well-written introduction and the original Náhuatl is reproduced with the Spanish translation appearing side-by-side on the opposite page, useful for beginning Spanish-speaking students of Náhuatl.

Reading Historia cronológica brought to mind the discussions at the Viking Fund Heritage of Conquest Seminar held in the late 1940s. There, Paul Kirchhoff, with his particular use of culture based on element lists, considered that 90 percent of pre-Hispanic culture had been destroyed with the Conquest. He was referring mainly to the elements of high culture such as monumental architecture, religion, astronomy, many of which are included in his definition of Mesoamerica. In the Historia cronológica, however, we find the use of pre-Columbian dates, along with European ones through the end of the chronicle: 1689 is 3 calli, for example. We also find abundant information on natural phenomenon, including happenings uncommon in the region today, such as heavy snowfalls, solar and lunar eclipses, earthquakes, eruptions and copious ash rains of the Popocaté (far more extreme than any volcanic activity of the 1990s, including the 1999 earthquake in the area). The authors note frequently that some of these portentous events such as eclipses were followed by plagues, an idea still widely held in rural Tlaxcala, where it is believed that after an eclipse, "llueve la enfermedad sobre la tierra."

One wonders, considering the presence of the pre-Hispanic calendar dates, whether this keen interest and rigorous documentation of such natural events had parallels in contemporary Europe, or whether it was a continuation of major elements of pre-Columbian cosmology in central Mexico for a much longer period than many social and cultural anthropologists had formerly assumed. In at least one other area in the Puebla-Tlaxcala valley, Cuautinchan, the pre Hispanic calendar continued into the 1640s (see Medina Lima 1995), thus suggesting a long continuity of its use following the Conquest in parts of central Mexico. Given the importance of the calendar in structuring pre-Hispanic ritual activity, and its association with individual destiny and other divinatory practices, one must wonder whether such functions did not continue well into the colonial period in Central Mexico.

Other items of interest in the chronicle are trips to Spain by Tlaxcalan nobles seeking to confirm and maintain the privileges they obtained as allies of the Spaniards in the Conquest. Mention is also frequently made of attempts by Tlaxcalans to obtain exemption from tribute. Some light is shed on local political processes as mestizos are termed mictlan mestiço (rendered as maldito mestizo, which in English would be literally "mestizo from hell") in the Náhuatl text, and the authors, as members of the "pure" Indian nobility, favor their exclusion from public office. We also learn of Tlaxcalan settlers massacred by the Chichimecs in the northern marches of Aridamerica. Descriptions of religious processions in the early seventeenth-century indicate abundant use of flowers and fireworks, as is the case in rural Tlaxcala today.

Historia cronológica contributes to the growing body of knowledge of local processes during the colonial period, which should be taken into account by students of contemporary Indian peoples of Mexico. This contrasts with the 1920s when Redfield was preparing to do field research in Tepoztlán. Unable to read contemporary ethnographies of the area - as none existed - he thus turned to the reading of 16th-century chroniclers who provided partial pictures of Mexican society in the pre-Hispanic period and at the time of the contact (see Godoy 1978). Much of these chronicles had been conserved and published by nineteenth-century erudite Mexican precursors of what we know today as ethnohistory. But for a long time thereafter, the specific, local processes of contact and acculturation in the colonial period were largely unknown, although this need was long ago pointed out by Julian Steward (1943). Steward's stress on our lack of knowledge of the colonial period was certainly what spurred Eric Wolf's doctoral thesis on the colonial Bajío (see Wolf 1955) and George Foster's (1960) ethnographic reconnaissance of Spain in the 1950s to learn more of the origins of the Spanish component on contemporary Mexican culture.

Although the concept of acculturation no longer guides research as it did until a few decades ago, the larger question of specific processes of cultural change still looms large and as Ruth Bunzel (1959:v-vii) observed, because of written documents and the long-term nature of the process, Mesoamerica is an ideal laboratory for such research. Mesoamericanists who seek deeper explanations of contemporary Indian cultures must, as Wasserstrom (1983) pointed out, face new ethnohistorical materials and take them into account in their studies. In this regard, the work of Mexican ethnohistorians is of major importance, especially the group formed at the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS, formerly CISINAH), under the aegis of Ángel Palerm, inspired by Paul Kirchhoff and under the guidance of Pedro Carrasco, is still bearing abundant fruit. Over twenty years ago, Palerm (1998[1980]:69) expressed his doubts regarding these endeavors, noting their empiricist bent, although at the same time he recognized their importance in bringing to light hitherto unknown documents.

Historia cronológica de la Noble Ciudad de Tlaxcala is one of the most recent results of the long and prolific career of Luis Reyes, one of Mexico's premier ethnohistorians who forms part of the CIESAS group. Among his recent projects are two other publications in co-edition involving CIESAS and the University of Tlaxcala. The first of these, La Escritura Pictográfica de Tlaxcala, is a catalogue of 64 Tlaxcalan codices, reproduced in black and white with a translation of the Nahuatl texts into Spanish and a compilation of articles on these codices. More recently (1998), he published the original and complete text of Muñoz Camargo's original text of Historia Antigua de Tlaxcala, long out of print. In the latter, Reyes used the original manuscript from the Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris and the edition includes an excellent introduction. Reyes has also trained a number of native-Nahuatl speakers in translating and transcribing Nahuatl documents, many of whom have been published by CIESAS. He is currently engaged in translating a number of colonial documents dealing with Tlaxcala located in Tlaxcalan parishes and the Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris.

This text, along with others of a similar nature published by CIESAS/CISINAH is a valuable tool for obtaining an intimate view of colonial Mexico. The fact that the authors here are Nahuas writing in their language in itself gives another slant to our interpretation of the process of culture contact in Mexico's colonial period. In that regard, the book is important for students both of Mexico's past and contemporary peoples as it is testimony of a much lengthier process of acculturation than generally imagined. Students of Mexico should keep their eyes open for other productions by Luis Reyes and the CIESAS researchers as they continue to make available important documents revealing the mentalités of Mexico's indigenous peoples under colonial rule.

References Cited

Bunzel, Ruth. 1959. Chichicastenango: A Guatemalan Village. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

Foster, George M. 1960. Culture and Conquest: America's Spanish Heritage. Chicago: Quadrangle Books.

Godoy, Ricardo. 1978. "The Background and Context of Redfield's Tepoztlán." Journal of the Steward Anthropological Society 10(1):47-70.

Medina Lima, Constantino. 1995. Libro de los guardianes y gobernadores de Cuauhtinchan (1519-1640). México D.F.: CIESAS.

Palerm, Ángel. 1998[1980]. Antropología y marxismo. México, D.F.: CIESAS.

Steward, Julian H. 1943. "Acculturation Studies in Latin America: Some Needs and Problems." American Anthropologist 45:198-204.

Wasserstrom, Robert. 1983. Class and Society in Colonial Chiapas. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Wolf, Eric. 1955. The Mexican Bajío in the Eighteenth Century. New Orleans: Tulane University, Middle American Research Institute.

David Robichaux
Universidad Iberoamericana

Le grand temple de México: Du mythe à la réalité - l'histoire des aztèques entre 1325 et 1521. By Daniel Lévine. Collection Archéologie Américaine. París: Editions Artcom, 1997. Pp. 137. ISBN 2912741009.

El descubrimiento y la excavación del Templo Mayor de México-Tenochtitlan desde 1978 ha provocado una verdadera avalancha de libros, estudios e informes sobre este singular y extraordinario monumento. El último que ha llegado a mis manos y, sin duda, uno de los más originales e importantes es el del brillante investigador francés Daniel Lévine. El libro de Lévine, lejos de ser una nueva descripción del Templo Mayor o de sus excavaciones, es una aproximación original y penetrante a la interpretación de la historia azteca a través de los símbolos contenidos en las fuentes etnohistóricas y su contrastación con los hallazgos proporcionados por las excavaciones del Templo. Es así, que este libro, que es de cortas dimensiones, se ha concebido como un texto dividido en tres partes o capítulos: (1) Registro de las ideologías; (2) Reescritura de la historia y la ideología, y (3) Verificación de la historia: Los vestigios del Templo Mayor. En el primero de esos capítulos Lévine da cuenta de la pluralidad de culturas y de unidades políticas independientes en el Centro de México, antes de la unificación imperial azteca, lo que se refleja en la diversidad de tradiciones historiográficas y cronologías contrapuestas pero, sobre todo, a través de varios ejemplos, demuestra que la historia mexica es una historia ideológica y simbólica, más que una historia de acontecimientos al estilo de la historiografía occidental.

En el segundo capítulo se aborda el tema de la reescritura de la historia mexica con el fín de inventar una tradición ilustre que borre los muy humildes orígenes de la tribu azteca; todo lo cual viene a representarse iconográficamente mediante símbolos que trasmiten una nueva ideología del pueblo mexica en su fase imperial, la que se halla por igual en los mitos recogidos en las crónicas y representados en las esculturas y relieves azteca. Por último, en el capítulo tres se trata de verificar esa historia interpretada míticamente en la iconografía azteca mediantes los vestigios descubiertos a través de las excavaciones del Templo Mayor. Es así, que Lévine pasa revista a la historia del pueblo azteca siguiendo etapa tras etapa, las siete por las que el Templo Mayor llegó a ser lo que era al llegar los españoles. Como el proprio Daniel Lévine dice: "Cada edificio, cada escultura de recinto sagrado es la transcripción en piedra del discurso ideológico forjado por los mexica, tras su victoria en 1428 sobre Azcapotzalco."

Nos hallamos, pues, ante un pequeño gran libro interpretativo de la historia azteca, al que, en conjunto, hay que valorar como una de las aportaciones más importantes de los últimos años al conocimiento y comprensión de la Civilización de ese pueblo.

José Alcina Franch
Madrid, España

The Frontier Mission and Social Transformation in Western Honduras: The Order of Our Lady of Mercy, 1525-1773. By Nancy Johnson Black. Studies in Christian Mission, Vol. 14. New York: E.J. Brill, 1995. Pp. xii+194. $75.00 (cloth). ISBN 9004102191 (cloth).

This is a well-intentioned effort to focus our attention on the fluid and dynamic nature of the frontier. It is the concept of the frontier as the arena for intergroup social change that propels this work. The frontier is framed within the parameters of a give-and-take universe whereby the minority groups are seen not as static receivers of change from the intruding dominant group, but as active participants in the process of intergroup exchange. This is a valued endeavor and understandably deserves attention by anyone interested in processes of social change. The areal focus is western Honduras among the indigenous Lenca and the Mercedarian missionaries within a time frame of nearly 250 years.

The book is the result of research that grew out of the Santa Barbara Archaeological Project which was a five-year study that looked at group interactions and cultural development from the Late Preclassic through the colonial period (p. 1). Black utilizes data from the Santa Barbara project, as well as that generated by the succeeding Lenca Historical and Archaeological Project. Additionally, throughout her subsequent archival research, Black readily acknowledges the obvious disparity in the bias and content of relevant documents and is guided by ethnohistoric methodology, i.e., critical evaluation of sources and an explicit research strategy. As is so common in this area of research where the extant documents are clearly biased and few if any documents presenting the indigenous viewpoint are available, the task of piecing together a processual view of social change is a difficult and arduous task. Black's focus on the Mercedarian missions allows her access to a great deal of primary data from the missionaries' viewpoint who were both literate and report-oriented. This is such the case that the book often reads like a "true and accurate history of the Mercedarian missions" in Central America, particularly the Tenoca region of western Honduras.

The Mercedarians Order, founded in 1218 as a means of ransoming or rescuing captive Christians from Moslem territory in Africa, was established in the New World in 1526 and focused on bringing salvation to the indigenous populations (pp. 51-52). Earlier, members of the Order accompanied Columbus on his second voyage and with Cortés on his conquest of Mexico, as well as with other conquistadores. They spread quickly throughout Latin America from the Rio Grande River to the southern tip of South America. The Mercedarian Order followed strict rules and regulations regarding enrollment and, even though they often faced personnel shortages, indigents were excluded from entering the Order because they were viewed as of inferior birth. The Mercedarians held firmly to this tenet and few exceptions were made throughout the colonial period, even with an often diminished and over-extended staff.

The book raises many interesting questions, both with the content of the data and with its presentation. For example, after a careful reading of the text I am still confused over what is a convento (see p. 56), and I believe that a glossary would have helped clarify such ambiguous terminologies. Monetary values are noted in their Spanish equivalents, e.g., tostones (p. 79), but a breakdown of the Spanish peso is not provided. Additionally, non-Spanish language readers are at a considerable disadvantage since some quotations from Spanish documents are not accompanied with English translations (see pp. 113, 140, 142, and 152). There is also much confusion over assignments of Mercedarian personnel within the frontier. On one hand, Black notes that frontier assignments were meted out as punishment for dereliction of duty (p. 92), while on the other hand, the priests were encouraged to learn the local indigenous languages (p. 95) even though the Order often assigned priests fluent in other local indigenous languages (p. 70). It is interesting to speculate what incentives the malIndex would have needed to satisfy the local language requirement since they were presumably already fluent in another indigenous language.

Black reports another contradiction when she highlights the difficult financial situation encountered by the Order within the frontier. The dispersed indigenous population and their limited access to cash forced the Order to rely heavily on their properties to produce income. Some of these properties were noted as haciendas with slaves and domestics where the initial profits were used to purchase more slaves (p. 109). If this financial component gradually overshadowed the spiritual component, especially considering the number of priests serving there under punishment, the loss of integrity in the eyes of the local population would seem to lessen their interest in Christianity. And considering Black's repeated emphasis on the poverty of the Order, it is most difficult to understand how the Order could authorize a school for six students and two teachers (p. 93) at a time of dwindling resources and personnel. No wonder that the Order did not flourish in the region and remained on the periphery.

Black's conversion data for Nicaragua in the early 1500s (more than 80,000 baptized) in contrast to similar efforts in Guatemala in the early 1600s (less than 20,000 baptized) again reinforces the sociocultural chaos that followed the Conquest as populations shifted to dispersed settlements and population loss or flight occurred throughout Central America. The Lenca remained in isolated and remote settlements, but did have continuous long-term contact with the Mercedarians. It is the extent of this contact that remains questionable. I agree with Black's summation that the "remoteness, unfavorable climate and comparative lack of resources contributed to the perpetuation of its frontier status" (p. 160).

I believe that this work warrants reading by anyone interested in the southeastern periphery of Mesoamerica, by those concerned with missionization studies, and/or those with a focus on theoretical issues, namely frontier theory. It may be somewhat dated since the most contemporary reference is 1989, but it still presents an in-depth view of the Mercedarian Order and its operations in western Honduras through time, and that is the major contribution of the work.

Richard Bradley
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Man Corn: Cannibalism and Violence in the Prehistoric American Southwest. By Christy G. Turner II and Jacqueline A. Turner. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1999. Pp 547. $60.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-87480-566-X (cloth).

The recent debate over cannibalism and violence in prehistory was given a jump-start by William Arens in 1980 with his book The Man Eating Myth: Anthropology and Anthropophagy. In that book Arens challenged anthropologists to reexamine depictions of cannibalism in the ethnographic and ethnohistoric records. Noting that nearly all descriptions of cannibalism were either second-hand accounts or descriptions by Europeans with a potential desire to denigrate the humanness of those they were discussing, Arens dismissed cannibalism as fiction. Primed by the "brotherhood of man," feel-good culture of the 1960s and 1970s, many anthropologists had already dismissed or downplayed evidence of violence and warfare in their own research, and the stereotype that indigenous cultures were "at one with the earth" and in "harmony with nature" began to take hold - a view that has popular culture and many professionals still firmly in its grasp today.

The mainstream pendulum began to swing back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when a series of archaeological sites provided new and unequivocal evidence for very serious pre Columbian violence, such as the Crow Creek Massacre (Willey 1990) and Norris Farms #36 (Milner et al.1991). Enough examples of projectile point injuries, cut marks, scalping wounds, and club wounds on prehistoric skeletons have been reliably reported that all but the most ideologically impaired should be persuaded that violence and warfare in the past was at least as prevalent through most of prehistory as it was in recorded history (Keeley 1996).

Cannibalism is a special case, however, with deep emotional impact for many people. It is incumbent upon the investigator to document carefully and fully the evidence for claiming that prehistoric people undertook such an activity. Past analyses have not always been that careful; shattered human bones are often characterized as evidence of cannibalism not only with modern humans, but for Neanderthal and Homo erectus remains, often with no more evidence than a few shreds of burned or broken bone without a complete investigation into alternative explanations (Bahn 1992).

Man Corn provides exactly the kind of study necessary to document the occurrence of cannibalism in the archaeological record. The Turners have produced a carefully detailed examination of Anasazi sites in the American Southwest that have the potential to be characterized as evidence for cannibalism. This is not a perfect book, but it should be the starting point for any discussion of cannibalism. First, the construction of the book needs to be commented upon. It is well-made and well-illustrated. However, the table of Index is incomplete. If one wishes to find a specific site, one must go to a table (on pages 56-57) to find the case number of the site and page through or go to the Index (not the general Index). It would be much more convenient to have each site listed in the table of Index.

Chapter 1 is a short introduction to studies of cannibalism in the Southwest and lays out the Turners' goal in the book. The first goal is to "define and illustrate the characteristics of damaged human bones that we believe reflect acts of cannibalism in the American Southwest." The second is to explain why cannibalism occurred in the American Southwest. They also point out some of the censorship, direct and indirect, to which their study of cannibalism has been subjected over the years. The Turners do not spend much time justifying or apologizing for their investigation of prehistoric cannibalism. They dismiss as inconsequential critics such as Arens. Confronted with growing empirical evidence for cannibalism among prehistoric and early historic indigenous people, Arens now suggests that we should simply not talk about these things because there are more important matters demanding our attention. The Turners likewise reasonably dismiss archaeological critics such as Paul Bahn (1992), who denies empirical evidence for cannibalism largely a priori grounds.

Chapter 2 concerns the osteological correlates of cannibalism. The Turners examine taphonomic studies of natural bone assemblage formation, ethnographic studies of animal processing, cooking techniques, and human mortuary treatment, as well as archaeological studies of burial sites in the Southwest, to derive a set of criteria for distinguishing the results of cannibalism from other causes of post-mortem damage to human bone. They derive a set of six criteria which they then use in the following chapters to assess claims of cannibalism at individual sites.

Chapter 3, which makes up 75 percent of the book, is a detailed examination of 76 sites in the American Southwest where claims of cannibalism or violent death have been made. The sheer amount of detail is mind-boggling, as each site's history, state of data, and interpretation of results is discussed. Using the criteria discussed in Chapter 2, the Turners agree that cannibalism is the best explanation for the state of remains at 38 sites, accounting for 286 individuals. They agree that violent death, but not necessarily cannibalism, was apparent from the bones at 19 sites. They deny the evidence for cannibalism or violence at eight sites, and the remainder are equivocal and require further study.

For the sites where they conclude that cannibalism occurred, Turner and Turner demonstrate a close correspondence between butchered animal bone assemblages and the human skeletal remains found at these sites. Like Tim White (1992) did at Mancos, the Turners show that at these sites the types of bones present, the context of deposition, the manner of post mortem destruction, and attributes such as cut marks and pot polishing are essentially identical between deer and antelope bones and human bones. Since we infer from these kinds of details that animals such as deer and antelope were used for food, the Turners, like White, infer that the human remains also represent food. They examine alternative explanations (e.g., natural causes, post-mortem burial handling), and find these explanations lacking.

Of special interest is the case of Awatovi and Polacca Wash. According to Hopi oral traditions, Awatovi was the scene of a massacre in 1700, perpetrated by Hopi warriors from surrounding towns at the request of Awatovi's kikmongwi ("chief"), Tapolo. Tapolo felt that witches had taken over the village and were aligning with the Spanish, so he invited his neighboring warriors to cleanse the town, resulting in the death of most of the men and old women in the village. An incident at nearby Polacca Wash resulted in the massacre of many of these captives as they were being taken back to the raiders' village. The Turners are able to show that the osteological evidence from these sites fits in very well with Hopi oral tradition. In fact, the Turners are confident that the bioarchaeological, chronometric, taphonomic, locational, contextual, historic, and oral traditions provide convergent lines of evidence for their interpretations of these unique sites, and argue that these sites set the standard for evidence for violence, although not cannibalism.

Having done an exemplary job of attaining their first goal, the Turners turn to their second, explaining why cannibalism occurred in the American Southwest. To do this, they look to Mexico. Chapter 4 is an examination of the evidence for cannibalism in Mexico. The Turners make it clear that they believe the wide-ranging and very specific ethnohistorical documentary evidence for Aztec violence and cannibalism. While admitting that the exact scale and magnitude of such cannibalism may be open to debate, they take the reasonable position that cannibalism is well attested to among the Aztecs. As they put it, "Although some scholars maintain reservations... the consensus view grants the chronicles a core of accuracy despite European ethnocentrism and exaggeration."

A lengthy discussion of ethnohistoric evidence for Aztec cannibalism is not given, but they do provide some compelling evidence. The specificity of detail in Fray Sahagún's General History, combined with other Spanish accounts alone might not be enough, but pre-Hispanic documentary evidence such as the Borgia Codex, and Nahuatl word etymology (tlacatlaolli - "man corn") provide independent lines to bolster the notion. Moreover, the fact that Spaniards had to reissue laws forbidding cannibalism (e.g., "comer carne humana, aunque sea de los prisonieros, y muertos en la guerra") in 1523, 1538, and 1551 strongly suggests that the practice was more than a simple public relations gambit to dehumanize the native population in the eyes of other Europeans. It was clearly a persistent problem that Spanish authorities were working hard to eradicate.

The Turners also point out that the Aztecs were not alone. The Tlaxcalans and people of Michoacán also practiced similar ritualized cannibalism. More importantly for the Turners, there is evidence from Durango closer to the Southwest. Early historic accounts indicate continual warfare and endemic cannibalism among the Tarahumara, Acaxee, and Ximxime who inhabited Nuevo Leon. Fray Vicente de Santa María also described similar practices among groups living in Nuevo Santander (modern northeastern Mexico and southwestern Texas). Most of these accounts make it clear that cannibalism is strongly associated with warfare and prisoner capture. These lines of evidence provide the Turners with a simple hypothesis. If cannibalism was occurring in Mexico, then bioarchaeological remains should yield evidence resulting from butchering activities (i.e., their six criteria). They test this hypothesis with a combination of archaeological data reported from other researchers and their own observations of skeletal collections.

San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan, the Olmec complex in Veracruz, provides good evidence for cannibalism. Excavating in contexts that date back to 1100-900 B.C., Coe and Diehl (1980) report that the site yielded quantities of butchered human bone fragments in refuse deposits with ordinary pottery shreds and similarly butchered animal bones. Teotihuacan provides ample and early evidence for cannibalism. Richard E. Adams, excavating in the A.D. 400-600 context, noted that "Maquixco, for example, produced large quantities of split and splintered human bone fragments in general garbage and trash heaps" (Adams 1991:221, cited in Turner 1998:422). These human bones were also associated with figurines of "Xipe Totec, Tlaloc, Quetzalcoatl, and Xiuhtecuhtli, all of which were to be worshiped a thousand years later by the Aztec" (p. 421). Other researchers cited by Turner and Turner provide similar discussions of cracked and broken bones, some with butchering marks, deposited haphazardly in trash pits. Interestingly, articulated burials are found at Teotihuacan that do not show any evidence for defleshing.

At Tlatelolco in Mexico City, several lines of evidence indicate that the Spanish accounts of sacrifice and skull racks were not entirely fiction. Carmen María Pijoan and others report on 170 skulls whose "precise and orderly arrangement in the ground indicated they had been on a skull rack" (Pijoan et al.1989, cited in Turner and Turner 1998:424). Holes had been punched through the sides of the skulls, supporting the Spanish accounts of the placement of skulls on these racks (tzompantli). Another set of remains from Tlatelolco, Burial 14, is a mass interment of 153 individuals associated with the raising of Templo Redondo between A.D. 1400 and 1420. These victims were buried partially articulated, but with extensive cut marks on the left femurs and tibia. The majority of the sternal bones were cut in half, a pattern expected from Sahagún's description of sacrificial victims: after having their hearts cut out, the left thigh of the victim was sent to the ruler.

Moving north, the Turners examine disease and trauma evidence culled by Pickering and Foster (1994), for Coahuila, Chihuahua, Sonora, Durango, Zacatecas, Jalisco, Sinaloa, and Nayarit. Noting that very little archaeological work has been done in these regions, the Turners find a few cases where cannibalism (or at least ritual sacrifice) seems warranted as an explanation for the human remains. At Alta Vista (A.D. 450-1000) in Zacatecas, thirty skulls with holes drilled in the top were likely part of a ritual display. At La Quemada (A.D. 100-900) a mass interment of 400 cut, burned, and disarticulated young men, lacking hands and feet, were located on the floor of the Hall of Columns. Six skull racks were also found at the site (p. 428). In Chihuahua, a cave deposit of 15 skeletons showed burning, and at least one skull had the foramen magnum enlarged by cutting.

Taken as a whole, the archaeological evidence reviewed by the Turners for cannibalism from San Lorenzo, Tula, Teotihuacan, Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Coxcatlan, and other Mexican ceremonial centers is virtually irrefutable. The documentary evidence for northern Mexico is less compelling, but does indicate the general patterns of warfare and ritualistic violence existed in the north. In order to bolster the evidence for the cannibalism and ritual violence, they then begin a lengthy discussion of Mexican osteological collections that they personally examined in order to provide a comparative data base with the Southwestern materials. They first examine the bodies of two children - one five year old, the other six months old - found at Coxcatlan Cave in Puebla (Fowler and MacNeish 1972). The five-year-old child's skull had been cut off, roasted with the brain still in the skull, then broken open. It was then placed on the infant's body, while the infant's head was buried with the older child's body. Turner and Turner think that this ancient incident of ritual cannibalism and interment suggests that the roots of Mexican sacrifice and cannibalism are very deep.

They then move up in time, examining skeletal collections from Tlatelcomila (ca 700-500 B.C.) in Tetelpan. At this site, 18 humans showed unambiguous evidence of cannibalism: extensive cutting, hammering, burning, and pot polish. A second site, Electra, near San Luis Potosí, also meets their criteria for dismemberment and cooking of individuals. They also looked at materials excavated from Alta Vista in Zacatecas (discussed above). They note that the site displays good evidence for ritual sacrifices, but the patterns of breakage and cutting differs from that expected for Anasazi-style cannibalism. Evidence for roasting and boiling is absent at Alta Vista, and the dismemberment of the bodies is more like some of the ritual interments farther south in Mesoamerica (p. 451). The same goes for Tlatalco. There, the skeletal evidence strongly supports perimortem treatment of bodies consistent with Spanish reports: heart removed, thigh and appendage removal, and placement of skulls on a tzompantli. The Turners note, however, that although most of the minimal criteria (saving pot polish) for cannibalism are present, the context of the finds plus the differences in the type of breakage (as opposed to quantity) rules out Anasazi-style cannibalism.

They provide a statistical comparison of Mexican and Southwest human data and animal butchering data. Interestingly, the Mexican materials look similar to both the Southwest data and the animal butchering data in some respects, but in others are quite different. Mexican materials for example, show more cutting evidence and less burning. The Turners ascribe the extra cut marks to use of obsidian blades in Mesoamerica, and point out that in the codices, human remains are shown being boiled in stew pots, rather than roasted.

For the Turners, Mexican cannibalism was ritualistic, designed for social control rather than for calories. It was part of a large cultural entity that spread throughout Mesoamerica and influenced the Anasazi. The pattern of extreme violence and partial dismemberment in large, public venues over the course of at least 2,500 years suggests to them that "one senses a very powerful, dehumanizing sociopolitical and ideological complex had evolved in central Mexico even before the time of the monumental constructions at Teotihuacan.... Time and again this complex was overthrown or collapsed, only to arise again and grow even more powerful. Its icons, ideology, and sacrificial themes spread throughout the central plateau and into the jungle world of the Mayas and in the desert of Chichimeca... it takes nearly blind faith in the effectiveness of geographical distance and the nonreceptivity of provincialism to believe that this complex and its adherents failed to reach the American Southwest" (p. 457).

Having made a strong case that the skeletal signatures of the Anasazi sites most resemble butchered animal deposits and, to a lesser degree, Mesoamerican ritual cannibalism, the Turners attempt finally to explain Anasazi cannibalism. "But why did cannibalism occur there? Did these episodes represent a local development or an introduced, exotic behavior? Who were the cannibals? Why did they feed on men, women, and children?" (p. 459). The Turners present five non-mutually exclusive reasons: (1) starvation, (2) sociobiology and evolutionary psychology, (3) social control, (4) ritual human sacrifice, and (5) social pathology.

The Turners dismiss the first two reasons and turn to a combination of the last three to form their proximate explanation for Anasazi violence. In essence, they believe that a small group of Mexicans, probably "warrior-cultists dedicated to gods of the Tezcatlipoca-Xipe Totec complex" (p. 463) headed north after the breaking up of the Toltec state and set up shop in Chaco Canyon, terrorizing the local population into submission with the same sort of extreme violence that worked so well in Mesoamerica. "They entered the San Juan Basin around A.D. 900 and found a suspicious but pliant population whom they terrorized into reproducing the theocratic lifestyle... heavy payments of tribute, constructing the Chaco system of great houses and roads, and providing victims for ceremonial sacrifice... After the abandonment of Chaco, human sacrifice and cannibalism all but disappeared, suggesting some kind of prehistoric discontinuity" (p. 463).

The Turners understand that several major issues need to be settled before one can believe this scenario, to wit: the amount of Mesoamerican influence on the development of the Chaco Canyon, and the directness of the influence. They use both ethnohistoric and archaeological evidence to support their claim for direct Mesoamerican control of Chaco, including changes in building forms, the appearance of Mexican material culture such as copper bells and macaw feathers, tooth transfigurement, and Hopi oral tradition, including depictions of the deity of Maasaw, whom they equate with Xipe Totec.

The ultimate problem with their explanation is the ambiguity of the evidence. Yes, there is definitely Mexican influence to be seen in Chaco Canyon and elsewhere in the Southwest. But direct take-over by a small band of warriors? The Turners suggest that the Spaniards managed it, so why not Mesoamericans? Yet Ross Hassig (1992) demonstrates quite convincingly that a scenario such as the one offered by the Turners is extremely unlikely for simple logistical reasons. I do not find the Turners' evidence for direct overlordship by Toltec refugees compelling, although the idea that the Chaco ruling elite used extreme violence and cannibalism as a means of social control seems very plausible. It seems to me that the development of certain ideological frameworks within which violence and cannibalism were seen as forms of social control may have diffused from Mexico, but were given a local twist. The techniques of cannibalism are different between central Mexico and the Southwest, suggesting that while Southwestern elites shared in the cannibalistic mythology of Mexico, they adapted the implementation of these ideas to local conditions.

A similar argument using game theory as a model has been put forward by Kantner (1999). Here, he documents that a game theory approach to the archaeological record indicates that under certain circumstances, elite-sponsored violence would be feasible, if not expected. He argues that environmental and social conditions in Chaco Canyon during the 14th century meet the requirements under which we might expect ruling elites to use selective violence (and even cannibalism) to control local populations. His work supports the Turners' assertion that cannibalism was a terroristic, rather than survival, behavior. However, his work neither supports nor refutes the idea of an elite group of Toltecans muscling in on Chaco.

The Turners may be wrong in their interpretations of why cannibalism occurred in the American Southwest, and they may be wrong about the fact that cannibalism even occurred, but at least they had the intellectual courage to present their data and their interpretations in such a way that we can all intelligently scrutinize and critique their work. That is the beauty of this book.

References Cited

Arens, W. 1980. The Man Eating Myth: Anthropology and Anthropophagy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Bahn, P. 1992. "Ancestral Cannibalism Gives Us Food for Thought." New Scientist 134:40-41.

Coe, M. D., and R. A. Diehl. 1980. In the Land of the Olmec, Vol. I: The Archaeology of San Lorenzo. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Fowler, M. L., and R. S. MacNeish. 1972. "Excavations in the Coxcatlan Locality in the Alluvial Slopes." In The Prehistory of the Tehuacan Valley, Vol. 5: Excavations and Reconnaissance, edited by R. S. MacNeish, pp. 219-340. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Hassig, R. 1992. Warfare in Ancient Mesoamerica. New York: Columbia University.

Kantner, J. 1999. "Survival Cannibalism or Sociopolitical Intimidation." Human Nature 10:1-50.

Keeley, L. H. 1996. War Before Civilization. New York: Oxford University Press.

Milner, G. R., E. Anderson, and V. G. Smith. 1991. "Warfare in Late Prehistoric West Central Illinois." American Antiquity 56:581-603.

Pickering, R. B., and M. S. Foster. 1994. "A Survey of Prehistoric Disease and Trauma in Northwest and West Mexico." Proceedings of the Denver Museum of Natural History 3:1-15.

White, T. D. 1992. Prehistoric Cannibalism at Mancos 5MTUMR-2346. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Willey, P. 1990. Prehistoric Warfare on the Great Plains. New York: Garland Publishing.

Robert J. Jeske
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Beber de tierra generosa. México, D.F.: Fundación de Investigaciones Sociales (FISAC), 1998. Historia de las bebidas alcohólicas en México, Vol. 1. Pp. 251; Ciencia de las bebidas alcohólicas en México, Vol. 2. Pp. 287. ISBN 968-6115-11-0 (both volumes, cloth); ISBN 968-6115-12-9 (Vol. 1, cloth); ISBN 968-6115-13-7 (Vol. 2, cloth).

In the right author's hands, histories of commodities have proven to be immensely rewarding because of the many ways they can connect the histories of regional, national, and/or global political economies with social and cultural patterns and developments. Anthropologist Sidney Mintz's book Sweetness and Power, with its brilliant analysis of how the changing appetites in western Europe that accompanied a changing political economy led to intensified exploitation of slavery in the Caribbean provides the perfect example. The multi-author, two-volume set Beber de tierra generosa offers an unusual, commodity-driven view of Mexican history, one that might, at first glance, seem narrow. But by focusing on cultural, historical, psychosocial, biochemical, and visual analyses of the production and uses of alcohol, and in the skilled hands of the volumes' contributors, this publication offers a remarkably comprehensive overview.

If this review pays greater attention to Volume 1 (Historia de las bebidas alcohólicas en México), it is only because that volume will be of greater interest to the readers of the Nahua Newsletter. It is also important to note that these beautifully illustrated books were published by an alcohol industry-funded group, the Fundación de Investigaciones Sociales, A. C. (or FISAC), yet the scholarship represented delves fully and impartially into the many facets of alcohol use and abuse and does not minimize the risks associated with overuse.

Encyclopedic in scope, the first volume describes the history of a wide variety of alcoholic beverages. Beginning with a well-written, comprehensive essay on pulque by historian Arturo Soberón Mora, one that explains the Nahua background to pulque production and then traces changing patterns of production, marketing, and consumption from the colonial period up to the present day, articles on wine, tequila, mezcal, rum, and beer follow.

Each beverage really has a separate history because the forms of production, regions where produced, and relationships to internal and external markets can differ widely. Teresa Lozano Armendares contributes several articles illustrating the diverse histories of alcoholic libations. Her piece, "Alquimía del alcohol en la Nueva España," introduces a theme to be found elsewhere in Volume 1, that of the astounding regional and cultural variations in types and amounts of alcohol use both historically as well as in contemporary Mexico. Laura Rueda's essay on beer, "El triunfo de un gusto: La cerveza," demonstrates clearly the impact of global population and economic trends on the Mexican beer industry. How ironic it is, as she shows, that European and North American entrepreneurs helped stimulate the increased production of and taste for beer in nineteenth-century Mexico. Yet late twentieth-century Mexican beers (which vary in type and quality) enjoy wide popularity and are considered so characteristic of Mexico that their advertising conveys a set of images useful for its tourist industry. International sales of beers like Corona, Dos Equis, Carta Blanca, and Bohemia in fact help the Mexican beer industry to rank among the top ten in world beer production (Bird 1999:9G).

The multi-author article "Bebidas de la tradición" then follows and deepens the volume's analysis of regional and cultural diversity. This sweeping essay includes non-alcoholic drinks as well, discusses the nutritional value of many different drinks, and includes an array of dramatic images of contemporary northern and southern Mexican indigenous peoples as photographed by Lorenzo Armendáriz and Nacho López. María Elena Medina Mora's essay, "Beber en el campo y la ciudad," examines alcohol consumption patterns primarily in present-day Mexico, not only pointing to urban/rural differences but showing very marked gender differences as well.

Paco Ignacio Taibo also treats gender differences, in his case in the visual imaging of alcohol use in Mexican cinema, as part of a wonderful essay, "Sorbos de poesía y color," that closes the first volume. Confirming how important alcohol has been as a theme in Mexican art, both elite and popular (a notion conveyed as well by the many paintings, drawings, and photographs reproduced throughout each volume), Taibo shows that alcohol in films has been depicted, not in realistic terms, but in extreme and dichotomous ones, as bad or good, as consumed differently by rich vs. poor, and as a vehicle by which an emerging middle class could gaze upon an illusory image of "el sueño de todos" (p. 245). That dream he says, consists of the desirable yet unattainable woman, who expresses the dominant male and heterosexual gaze that controlled the gendered imaginary of Mexican cinema until relatively recently. Yet this ineffable filmed woman, as she became depicted in more intimate and openly erotic ways, somehow served as a bridge between the private, upstairs, more traditional Mexico and the public, downstairs, increasingly middle-class, modernizing Mexico. But the transition to the post-modernizing global economy of the 1980s and 1990s remains an elusive dream, one that, as these decades have often cruelly shown, carries vast economic, social, and cultural costs.

Less poetic and far more somber in tone, the second volume moves away from the historical, cultural, and visual analyses of the first volume, and takes up the biochemical and psychological effects of alcohol on the human body. It includes a discussion of the impact of alcohol abuse on the pregnant woman and her unborn child, describing Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in great detail in an essay by Rose Isela Ortiz de Luna, along with articles examining approaches to prevention of alcohol abuse, forms of treatment, relevant laws, and most interestingly a history of Alcoholics Anonymous in Mexico by Haydée Rosovsky. She demonstrates how the group (and its philosophy) fared in its journey south as AA became fragmented and yet still provided the basis for several fruitful approaches to treatment.

As previously noted, the first volume is likely to be of more interest to the readers of this publication. Most appropriate for Mesoamerican specialists and advanced graduate students, its articles will appeal to scholars in a variety of fields and disciplines including archaeology, ethnohistory, history, and cultural anthropology, as well as those in areas dealing with the arts and popular culture. Comprehensive and highly readable, Beber de tierra generosa shows the diversity of Mexico's history, cultures, and economies by demonstrating the many influences shaping alcohol's history, imagery, and marketing, distribution, and consumption patterns as well as efforts aimed at preventing or curing alcohol dependency. Celebrating the diversity of Mexican beverages that complement its cuisines so well, the volumes also spell out the physical and social costs of this intoxicating source of song and laughter, anger and disorder (Sahagún 1957[1575-80?]:15-17,119).

References Cited

Bird, Scott. 1999. "Bird on Beer: Mexican Beers World-Renowned," Houston Chronicle, Dining Guide, September 17.

Sahagún, Bernardino de. 1957[1575-80?]. Florentine Codex, General History of the Things of New Spain, Book 4. Santa Fe, N.M.: University of Utah, School of American Research.

Susan Kellogg
University of Houston

De Illustere Heren van San Pablo: Lokaal bestuur in negentiende-eeuws Mexico/Tlaxcala, 1823 1880. By Yvetter Nelen. CNWS Publications Series. Leiden: University of Leiden, Research School CNWS, 1999. Pp. xvi+346.

This published doctoral dissertation, whose title in English is "The Illustrious Gentlemen of San Pablo," deals with the result of three years of investigation of archival material pertaining to the municipality of San Pablo Apetatitlán, in the Mexican state Tlaxcala. By focusing on a former republica de indios (a colonial native administrative division) during a largely misunderstood part of the nineteenth century, this historical study makes an important contribution to Mexican studies. Scholars specializing in Latin America will gain insight into such topics as the process of state formation, the connections between local, regional and national events and the operation of legal and administrative systems in a rural and small town context. This study will be of special interest to Nahua specialists because the majority of the inhabitants of San Pablo during the period under examination spoke Nahuatl and maintained control over land and other resources despite major legal reforms and political transformations at the national level.

This historical monograph makes an original contribution by debunking three widely held misconceptions. First of all, Yvette Nelen shows that the transitional period between the War of Independence to the Porfiriato (from 1823 to 1880) was not one of unbridled chaos and lack of direction at the local and regional level. Even at the height of civil war, foreign interventions, and widespread political unrest, a new form of governance and political discourse was steadily, if gradually, unfolding at the local level, even in regions subject to major military battles and banditry. This study also argues that the Mexican state that emerged after the triumph of Liberal over Conservative forces did not constitute a whole scale imposition by a single center of power. Instead, social agents at the local level played an active role in shaping the expansion and formation of the modern Mexican state, resulting in considerable continuity of local networks of power, as well as administrative structures and systems of land tenure dating back to the colonial era. Finally, the author points out that the simplistic dichotomy of Spanish (or mestizo) versus "Indian" does not do justice to the complexities of social life in rural Mexico.

The municipality of San Pablo Apetatitlan is a valuable case study because of its importance as a center for trade, situated on a crossroad. Its head village was home for a larger number of merchants and artisans than would be the case for most villages of similar size. Moreover, some of its native sons went on to become relatively important political figures on the state level. Unlike other parts of central Mexico, there were no haciendas and two out of five ranchos were communally owned. While dominated by a largely mestizo local elite, important political posts were also held by Nahuas who were more prosperous farmers, artisans and merchants. In this regard the social dynamics of the region under study resemble that of the Mexican faldas ("coastal foothills" or "lowlands") more so than other parts of the high plains of Central Mexico.

The author consulted a variety of archival sources in municipal, state, and national archives, many of which were not fully catalogued at the time of research. She analyzed this data collected from primary and archival sources in the light of the existing literature on Mexico and beyond. The outcome is a book with a sophisticated introduction, well grounded in current historiography, followed by six chapters that present a detailed overview of various aspects of public life in San Pablo. The main body consists of two parts dealing respectively with general themes and three chronological periods. The former include an overview of the new forms of municipal administration in an independent Mexico, the personalities and background of local elected officials, and the family connections among the local political and economic elite. One of the main themes of the book, reinforced in the title of the conclusion, is "the chemistry of traditionalism and modernity."

The advantage of a study conducted by a researcher based in the Netherlands is that he or she has access to up-to-date work being done on both sides of the Atlantic. The introduction and conclusion include references to, and commentary on, the work of scholars with international reputations in the fields of agrarian study, subaltern studies, rural sociology and social anthropology, as well as that of lesser-known investigators from both Europe and Mexico. Unfortunately, with the exception of a few quotations in Spanish and English, the book was written in Dutch - not a very accessible language. I should also warn investigators who read Dutch and want to consult this book on specific topics like the French intervention, the role of the Church, land tenure disputes, or specific historical figures, that there is no Index.

This book is a significant, refreshing contribution to a hitherto neglected historical period. Nevertheless, scholars looking for new information or theoretical approaches on ethnic relations or the presence of native people might not be fully satisfied. The author herself points out that "it is impossible to determine the exact ethnic background of villagers from the sources" (p. 344), although she is able to infer which local actors were Nahuas on the basis of surnames or context. She also assumes, I believe correctly, that the majority of inhabitants of two smaller, largely agricultural, villages were mainly Indian while the head village was more heterogeneous in ethnic composition. I further found a reference to a group of Nahua peasants from one of the smaller villages presenting land documents from the previous century that were written in Nahuatl. A close reading of a legal dispute relating to this incident led the author to conclude that one the officials in the main village was probably knowledgeable of the Nahuatl language, even though another official was not. Several pages further on, the reader also finds out that these and other local officials held the usual stereotype of all Indians as poor and ignorant. To counter such stereotypes, Nelen draws attention to the fact that a minor official with a Nahua surname was adamant in supporting compulsory (Spanish language) education as one of several projects representing a new nationalistic, liberal agenda. This example reminded me of Florencia Mallon's portrayal of a nationalistic liberal ideology associated with Nahua political leaders in the Sierra Norte de Puebla around the same time. However, her main conclusions regarding ethnicity is the now generally accepted criticism against the use of the simplistic dichotomy of Indian versus non-Indian.

One cannot blame a historian about being cautious in generalizing, or speculating on, ethnic dynamics on the basis of very limited data. However, the study could have gone further in "reading between the lines" or interpreting the archival data in the light of other studies of similar communities, including some written by authors cited in her bibliography. For instance, she could have gone further in extrapolating on the information she found on land tenure and ethnicity in the light of similar work done by other historians who have worked on rural Mexico in the nineteenth century. An example that comes to mind is Antonio Escobar, whose journal articles dealing with the strategies used by native communities to preserve their own "communal space" would have been relevant for such extrapolation. Nelen does cite Guardino's work on Guerrero to back up her argument that the majority of the indigenous peasants of San Pablo, like those of other villages in rural Mexico, maintained control over almost all of their agricultural land. Such land (the comun) was not officially owned, nor controlled, by either the new town councils (ayuntamientos) or the Catholic Church. Indeed some of the records in San Pablo still referred to this separate form of land tenure and its governance by the term republica de indios well into the nineteenth century. However, Nelen does not say anything about what implications the legal as well as de facto status of land ownership has for the preservation of ethnic group boundaries.

Another drawback of this excellent but very specialized case study is that it does not give us any clues whether or not the contemporary inhabitants of San Pablo still maintain any Nahua cultural traits today. Today many local and regional historians, including Yvette Nelen, incorporate the insights of anthropologists. However, while bringing contemporary ethnography and ethnohistory to bear on archival research, few of these historians take the time, or have the opportunity, to look at the social structure or e culture of contemporary descendants of the people whose past lives they reconstruct. I suspect that no one in the cabecera ("head town") San Pablo Apetatitlán today speaks Nahuatl, or identities him or herself as Nahua or even indígena. But I am curious to know whether or not such ethnic boundaries are still part of the social structure in the outlying barrios, or what form they might take.

In any case, it is well worth bringing this book to the attention of both Nahua specialists and historians interested in more general aspects of nineteenth-century Mexico. As happens with many Dutch dissertations of high quality, eventually an English version will appear. Hopefully a Spanish translation will also come out in Mexico. In the meantime, readers in North America will have to be content with a four-page English summary included at the end of the book.

Frans J. Schryer
University of Guelph

Illustratons this issue

The illustrations found throughout this issue were taken from Myths of Ancient Mexico. By Michel Graulich. Translated by Bernard R. Ortiz de Montellano and Thelma Ortiz de Montellano. Civilization of the American Indian Series, Vol. 222. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997. Pp. xii+370. $32.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-8061-2910-7 (cloth).

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