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 2002, Number 33
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
Welcome to the 33rd issue of the Nahua Newsletter. In the following pages you will find news items, announcements, a book review and commentary, and additional information that will be of interest to scholars and students of the history, language, and culture of Nahuatl-speaking peoples and other indigenous groups in Mesoamerica. Our sole mission is to facilitate the flow of information to scholars and students and to create a greater sense of common purpose in a highly interdisciplinary field in which the different research literatures do not always interact. To further aid our readers, we are providing a separately printed list of NN subscribers with affiliations and addresses. Please use the list to make contacts and to seek help with your own research interests. Readers will notice that the list contains the world's foremost recognized scholars who reside in 15 different countries. We have used the most up-to-date information but errors are inevitable. Please send corrections to the editor to be incorporated into our master list.
We get occasional requests for back issues of the NN and it has been our custom to photocopy and sent them through the mail. The NN constitutes an important archive of research in Mesoamerica over the years and we are interested in making previous issues more easily available and perhaps even searchable. To reach that goal, we are in the process of putting all past issues of the NN on the Web. As readers are already aware, the more recent issues are on the Web at http://www.ipfw.edu/soca/nahua.htm. We have just completed a project of scanning older issues so that they too can be added as a permanent archive. This summer we hope to finish final editing of the scanned material and will begin formatting and adding them to our Web site. Look for future announcements as the project reaches completion.
Please make use of the NN in your own work. Send information about your interests and current research and we will publish it. Many people have made valuable contacts with other students and scholars through the NN and it has become an important source of news about publications and professional meetings. The NN is mailed free of charge twice each year and all expenses connected with printing and mailing are offset by donations. If you would like to contribute to our efforts please send a check or money order made out to The Nahua Newsletter and we will deposit the money in the NN special account. All funds are applied to printing and mailing charges and there are absolutely no administrative costs. We have been self-supporting for over 16 years with only occasional small grants as sources of outside funding. It is a record to be proud of and we invite you to join us in reducing the hassle of scholarship and creating a community of scholars working in one of the most interesting culture areas in the world.
Please send your news items, calls for cooperation, or commentaries in a digital format to:
Alan R. Sandstrom
Nahua Newsletter
Department of Anthropology
Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne
2101 Coliseum Blvd. East
Fort Wayne, Indiana 46805 U.S.A.
1. Albert Wahrhaftig writes: "Thank you for the mention of Anales de Tepoztlan in NN 32. I am pleased to announce that Anales de Tepoztlan is now open for business at http://www.sonoma.edu/anthropology/tepoztlan. The site is just beginning and as I find time to work on it and learn more about Web page design it will look better and better, not that it looks bad now because I use lots of photographs. Meanwhile, to recapitulate, this site is designed for the exchange of information among scholars interested in Tepoztecan culture and is also designed to be a forum in which all citizens of Tepoztlan are invited to participate. I encourage submission in English, Spanish, or, preferably, both languages. Scholars may send complete papers and articles, notes on their activities, publication announcements, photos, or whatever to me at wahrhaft@sonic.net. I'll get them onto the server. Tepoztecos may send whatever strikes their fancy - family histories, essays, stories, myths, legends, etc. At present the Spanish pages are more developed than the English. I translate the Spanish whenever I have spare moments. Among the sections at present, there is one for scholarly papers, one for anything pertaining to El Tepoztecatl (legends, those who have performed the role of el Tepozteco in the annual El Reto), the Portada de Semillas (which is what I am most interested in), and so forth. Log on and explore!
"In the section on El Tepozteco, there is a copy (profusely illustrated) of 'Talking Walls: The Iconography of Tepoztecan Resistance,' which I presented at the 100th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropology Association on December 2, 2002. My colleague, Pacho Lane, and I are currently working on a video documentary about El Tepozteco (the local god, if I may be permitted that oversimplification), his significance as a mentor for Tepoztecan morality and political action, and about the Portadas de Semillas - beautiful elaborate mosaics of seeds which are erected annually on the town's major feast day. Contributions and suggestions are encouraged. Those interested are also welcome to inspect my own Web page at http://www.sonoma.edu/anthropology/~alwahr.html. There they will find information about other projects, especially those pertaining to the highland Totonac area of Puebla and, for those who might find it relevant, syllabi of the courses I teach including one on 'Communities in Mexico.'
"Well, enough and possibly too much about me. Happy New Year to all and thanks for your fine newsletter which I intend to support when I return home from Tepoztlan." Sent by Albert Wahrhaftig, Professor of Anthropology, Sonoma State University. Home e-mail is wahrhaft@sonic.net.
2. We recently received the following announcement:
Grant Funds for Mesoamericanists
The Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc.
2002 Annual Grant Competition
Deadline: September 30.
Applications must be received by September 30. Applications received after this date will not be considered.
Grants are intended to provide assistance for scholarly investigations of ancient cultures of Mesoamerica (limited to present Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador). Applicants may be working in such fields as Anthropology, Archaeology, Art History, Epigraphy, Ethnohistory, History, Linguistics, or Multi disciplinary Studies involving combinations of these classifications.
To receive your copy of the current brochure outlining policies, grant categories, requisite qualifications, and application forms contact: FAMSI, 268 South Sun Coast Boulevard, Crystal River, Florida 34429-5498, by fax at 352-795-1970 or e-mail at famsi@famsi.org. The brochure may be downloaded from the Web at http://www.famsi.org/grant/ap ply.htm.
Becas Para Los Estudiosos Mesoamericanos
La Fundación para el Avance de Estudios Mesoamericanos, Inc.
Concurso Anual para Becas ~ 2002
Las solicitudes de becas se recibirán hasta el 30 de septiembre en las oficinas de FAMSI. Solicitudes recibido despues de esta fecha no se pueden consider.
Las becas son para apoyar las investigaciones sobre las culturas Mesoaméricanas (hoy dia limitadas a México, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras y El Salvador). Los solicitantes podran presentar un proyecto de investigacion en las siguentes áreas: Antropología, Arqueología, Historia de Arte, Epigrafia, Etnohistoria, Etnografia, Historia, Lingüística, o realizar estudios multidisciplinarios que combinen apropiadamente estas disciplinas.
Para recibir un folleto actualizado con los lineamientos y
requistos indispensables para presentar la solicitud de beca,
favor de dirigirse a FAMSI, 268 South Suncoast Boulevard, Crystal
River, Florida 34429-5498 USA / Facsimil: 352 795-1970 / e-mail:
famsi@famsi.org / nuestro
folleto se puede conseguir en Internet http://www.famsi.org/grant/apply.htm
FAMSI Web site features include / FAMSI Web site ofrece:
Grantee Reports / Informes de las becas
Linda Schele Archive / Dibujos de Linda Schele
Justin Kerr Maya Vase Archive - Portfolio / Fotografias de Justin
Kerr
Bibliografía Mesoamericana / La Bibliografia Mesoamericana
John Montgomery Drawing Archive / Dibujos de John Montgomery
John Pohl Mixtec Codices / Codices de John Pohl
3. Michael Smith sends the following communication: "I have recently published several articles on Aztec political and economic organization in places that may not be checked regularly by Nahuatlatos."
These are:
Smith, Michael E. 2000. "Aztec City-States." In A Comparative Study of Thirty City-State Cultures. Edited by Mogens Herman Hansen, pp. 581-95. Copenhagen: The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. This book also has articles on Mixtec city-states (Michael Lind) and Classic Maya city states (Nikolai Grube). __________. 2001. "The Aztec Empire and the Mesoamerican World System." In Empires: Perspectives from Archaeology and History. Edited by Susan E. Alcock, Terence N. D'Altroy, Kathleen D. Morrison, and Carla M. Sinopoli, pp. 128-54. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Also in this volume is:
Brumfiel, Elizabeth M. 2001. "Aztec Hearts and Minds: Religion and the State in the Aztec Empire." In Empires: Perspectives from Archaeology and History. Edited by Susan Alcock, Terence D'Altroy, Kathleen Morrison, and Carla Sinopoli, pp. 283-310. New York: Cambridge University Press.
The following article compares Tenochtitlan, Tula, and Teotihuacan in terms of archaeological evidence for the existence of empires (concluding that Tula did not rule an empire, whereas the other two cities did):
Smith, Michael E. and Lisa Montiel. 2001. "The Archaeological Study of Empires and Imperialism in Prehispanic Central Mexico." Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 20:245-84.
And finally, a fun article on Gary Jennings' juicy novel, Aztec:
Smith, Michael E. 2001. "The Aztec World of Gary Jennings." In Novel History: Historians and Novelists Confront America's Past (and Each Other). Edited by Mark C. Carnes, pp. 95-105. New York: Simon and Schuster.
4. William Willard writes that he is undertaking a new project: "I am developing an edited collection of articles with the working title of 'Legacy.' 'Legacy' is organized around the involvement of the U.S. federal government through its policies with the health of indigenous peoples. 'Legacy' begins with the federal smallpox vaccination policy in 1789 and continues through the present century. A major difference of this collection and other recent publications is that all indigenous people are considered, not just federally recognized communities as is more usual. Part of that difference is that we are seeking articles concerning the health issues of indigenous people from Central America and Mexico who are living and working in the U.S."
5. The following several messages were received from the Proyecto Archivo General Agrario (CIESAS-RAN) at archagra@juarez.ciesas.edu.mx:
"Por este medio nos permitimos comunicarles la nueva dirección y actualización de la página Web del proyecto: Archivos Agrarios (CIESAS-RAN), la cual se encuentra dentro del servidor del CIESAS en la sección de proyectos especiales. La dirección es: http://www.ciesas.edu.mx/bibdf/
"La página, además de contar con todos los boletines publicados (números del 0 al 13), así como los resúmenes de los libros de la Colección Agraria que han aparecido hasta el año 2001, también cuenta con hipervínculos ha algunos sitios de interés, sobre todo de archivos en México y redes de información. Asimismo, hemos integrado un resumen de los 52 fondos documentales con que cuenta el Archivo Agrario, esto con el fin de que los interesados en la temática agraria de México conozcan el tipo, los periodos y los temas que cubre la documentación. Sin duda esto último facilitara las futuras consultas de este tipo de material."
Also this from the Proyecto Archivo General Agrario:
"Por este medio me permito comunicarles de la aparición Boletín del Archivo General Agrario, julio-septiembre 2001, número 14, publicación del proyecto Archivos Agrarios (México), coordinado por la Dra. Teresa Rojas Rabiela.
Índice:
Presentación - Antonio Escobar Ohmstede y Teresa Rojas
Rabiela
La historia agraria de los pueblos indígenas en el Archivo
General Agrario - Laura Ruiz
El INAH y su participación en PROCEDE - Pedro Francisco
Sánchez Nava y Lucía Gabriela Urquiza Puebla
La fotografía y su aporte histórico-antropológico:
¿Análisis o descripción? - Sergio Luis Contreras
El Contadero: ¿Restituir y dotar por necesidad? - Juan
Israel Ahedo
El grupo documental Expropiación de bienes ejidales y comunales
- María del Rayo Campos
"Si a usted le interesaría recibir este boletín, le solicitamos nos envíe su dirección postal a través de la clave electrónica del proyecto Archivo Agrario: archagra@juarez.ciesas.edu.mx"
Also this message:
"El proyecto Archivos Agrarios (CIESAS-RAN) da a conocer el nuevo título de la Colección Agraria, la cual es coordinada por la Dra. Teresa Rojas Rabiela: Antonio Escobar Ohmstede y Teresa Rojas Rabiela, coords. Estructuras y formas agrarias en México: Del pasado al presente. Colección Agraria. México: CIESAS-RAN, Universidad de Quintana Roo, 2001. 463 pp.
"La cuestión agraria mexicana ha sido abordada por la historiografía, la antropología y la sociología a partir de perspectivas teóricas y metodológicas muy variadas, entre las que figuran el positivismo, el marxismo y el revisionismo. De esta manera este texto reune una serie de trabajos que abordan y cuestionan enfoques que han predominado en los diversos estudios contemporáneos. Así, el libro cobija ensayos desde la época prehispánica hasta la actualidad.
Índice:
Introducción - Antonio Escobar Ohmstede y Teresa Rojas Rabiela Calpulli ¿Otra acepción de teccalli? - Hildeberto Martínez
Apuntes para la tenencia patrimonial de la tierra entre los
mayas yucatecos y sus implicaciones en el análisis de la
organización social - Pedro Bracamonte y Sosa
Labores, milpas y memorias: la comunidad agraria en la misión
jesuítica de Sonora, siglo XVIII - Cynthia Radding
Los bienes de comunidad de los pueblos de indios a fines del periodo
colonial - Margarita Menegus Bornemann
The Repartimiento and Indigenous Peoples in The Spanish Empire:
New Perspectives and Old Realities - Robert Patch y Beatriz Cáceres
Las comunidades de indígenas de Ixtlán y Pajacuarán
ante la reforma liberal en el siglo XIX - Brigitte Boehm
La estructura agraria en las Huastecas, 1880-1915 - Antonio Escobar
Ohmstede
Economía y comunidad en Papantla: reflexiones sobre "la
cuestión de la tierra" en el siglo XIX - Emilio H.
Kourí
La posesión del paraíso: el conflicto por la tierra
de Cozumel durante el Porfiriato - Gabriel A. Macías Z.
Propiedad, propietarios, pueblos indios y reforma agraria en la
región purhépecha, 1915-1940 - Arnulfo Embriz
Dotación de ejidos: ¿agrarismo institucional? El
caso del Valle del Mayo, 1922-1939 - Gustavo Lorenzana
Política nacional y organización campesina en Puebla,
1920-1935 - Guillermo Palacios
La política agraria en México desde la Revolución
- Alan Knight
La ganadería bovina en la historia agraria mexicana: Un
ensayo - Ernesto Camou
Campesinos y bosques en la historia de Quintana Roo ¿Dónde
nos encontramos? - Natalia Armijo
La globalización neoliberal y la recreación de la
diversidad rural: procesos asociativos en el Occidente mexicano
al cierre del siglo - Guadalupe Rodríguez
Siglas y referencias
Bibliografía general
"Para adquirir esta publicación, comunicarse al Departamento de Difusión y Publicaciones del CIESAS: ventas@juarez.ciesas.edu.mx."
And lastly, this from Leticia Reina:
"El proyecto: 'Archivo Agrarios' (CIESAS-RAN) da a conocer la reseña realizado al trabajo de Regina Olmedo, Catálogo de documentos históricos del Archivo General Agrario, Vol. 2, México, D.F.: CIESAS-RAN, 2001. Publicación que se encuentra dentro de la Colección Agraria, la cual es dirigida por la Dra. Teresa Rojas Rabiela.
Viejos Papeles en Busca de Nuevas Historias
"La historia de los hombres y de los pueblos se ha escrito y reescrito al paso del tiempo. Antiguamente, debido a que cambiaban los intereses políticos o personales de la persona que relataba el pasado y desde el siglo pasado, me refiero al veinte cuando se institucionalizó el quehacer histórico y se convirtió en una actividad académica, la historia se fue reelaborando fundamentalmente por dos razones: por un lado, debido al cambio en las modas teóricas que implicaba diferentes formas de concebir los procesos, y por el otro a la búsqueda-rescate de nuevas fuentes de información. Esta última, a partir de la década de 1970 contribuyó con verdaderas vetas de oro que enriquecieron y fortalecieron la historiografía regional en todas sus vertientes.
"Afortunadamente, al inicio del siglo XXI siguen apareciendo nuevos filones y que esperan las preguntas del nuevo siglo. Con esto me refiero a la documentación histórica que se puso al alcance de los investigadores gracias al esfuerzo conjunto del Registro Agrario Nacional y del Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores de Antropología Social bajo la dirección de la Dra. Teresa Rojas Rabiela. El proyecto general ha aportado numerosos resultados y de índole diversa, pero en esta ocasión me quiero referir exclusivamente al Catálogo de Documentos Históricos del Archivo General Agrario.
"Este catálogo lo elaboró Regina Olmedo Gaxiola y corresponde a la publicación de los documentos históricos encontrados en una segunda etapa de trabajo de ordenamiento y clasificación del acervo. El registro que Regina nos ofrece en este volumen corresponde a los escritos antiguos que estaban integrados a los expedientes de las acciones agrarias, en sus tres formas de tenencia de la tierra social que existen en México, o sea en las tres formas de acceso a la tierra social, es decir: restitución de tierras, dotación de ejidos, y reconocimiento, confirmación y titulación de bienes comunales.
"El criterio que se utilizó para separar la "documentación histórica" del resto del expediente agrario de cada pueblo fue el orden cronológico. El año designado fue 1915, fecha de emisión de la Ley del 5 de enero y que marcó en cierta forma el momento a partir del cual se inició el proceso de Reforma Agraria. En él se establecieron los procedimientos de restitución, dotación y titulación de tierras aguas y montes de los pueblos, rancherías, congregaciones o comunidades. Ahora bien, para que el nuevo Estado revolucionario pudiera llevar a cabo este procedimiento, los pueblos tuvieron que mostrar y demostrar la titulación de sus tierras durante el periodo colonial, así como la fecha y forma de despojo. Todo lo cual se convirtió en espléndidos relatos de los pueblos contando la historia de las reiteradas ventas de diversas porciones de tierras de las comunidades, de las denuncias y enajenaciones, así como de la recuperación de porciones de terrenos en distintos momentos y épocas, a veces por la vía legal y a veces por la vía del conflicto armado y violento. Estas narraciones constituyen el cúmulo de información que se ordenó y catalogó como "documentación histórica".
"¿Y en esta ocasión, qué tipo de papeles se ordenaron e inventariaron? Este volumen organizado por Regina Olmedo contiene: fundación de pueblos, mercedes de tierras y órdenes religiosas. También tiene el registro de los documentos relacionados con las composiciones de tierras, es decir de los títulos confirmados por Felipe II, así como ventas de tierras, colindancias y linderos entre pueblos y propietarios privados. Al tiempo que aparecen los diferentes litigios que tuvieron muchos predios a lo largo del periodo colonial y del siglo XIX hasta 1915. Esta historia de larga duración en el caso de muchos pueblos, se debe a los litigios que emprendieron los pueblos tanto en la época colonial, como en el siglo XIX. A través de todos estos manuscritos podemos confirmar que los pueblos tienen una cultura legalista y que cuando tomaban las armas era porque ya habían agotado todas las instancias constitucionales. La prueba es que en la documentación está la construcción de los consejos municipales, la presentación de testigos, vistas de ojo, reconocimientos de linderos y los fallos de las autoridades. Y otras tantas pruebas más como las capitulaciones, mercedes reales, denuncias y adjudicaciones, testamentos y escrituras de venta.
"El conjunto de estos manuscritos suma un total de 419 documentos históricos y cuya distribución geográfica es significativa. Casi el 50% de ellos corresponden al estado de México; la cuarta parte al estado de Oaxaca y el resto está distribuido en el centro y sur de Guerrero, Puebla, Tlaxcala e Hidalgo. Es interesante este reparto a lo largo de la República Mexicana pues por un lado nos habla de algunas de las regiones con mayor concentración de población indígena y por el otro, de las entidades federativas con mayor tradición de lucha agraria. A esto abría que agregar que no sólo se trata de regiones indígenas con una cultura legalista, sino también de lugares en donde las políticas liberales generaron su propia paradoja. Esto quiere decir que los gobiernos locales al tiempo que enajenaban tierras comunales, también abrieron los canales para que Estado y pueblos tuvieran sus interlocutores y se pudiera entablar una lucha legal en la defensa-enajenación de las tierras de los pueblos.
"Por otra parte, y hay que destacarlo, este material no sólo es importante porque nos permite conocer la historia de la tenencia de la tierra, sino cómo ésta se fue transformando en el largo plazo y cuál fue la complejidad de sus cambios, así como de sus permanencias. La abundancia y riqueza diversa de estos documentos nos permiten reconstruir la cuestión agraria de los pueblos y regiones de México, no como un procedimiento lineal sino como un proceso complejo y contradictorio, pleno de contradicciones, contrariedades y enfrentamientos. La documentación es tan rica, que permite reconstruir los actores sociales: pueblos y propietarios, por medio de sus argumentos y contra argumentos, versiones oficiales y versiones de la gente. La mayoría de las veces o por lo menos los procesos más largos y violentos fueron entre pueblos y particulares, aunque también los hubo entre pueblos y a veces entre gente de un mismo pueblo.
"Indudablemente, todo ello conforma un valioso acervo de fuentes de primera mano para el estudio de la historia agraria de nuestro país. Ahora, con este caudal de material, se nos ofrece la oportunidad para trabajar nuevas historias. Podemos plantearnos el reconstruir procesos que van más allá de una historia agraria clásica y de rebasar los típicos estudios sobre tenencia de la tierra y sus procesos legales de deslindes. Esta documentación nos ofrece el reto para plantearnos nuevas preguntas, cuyas respuestas están esperando entre las líneas de estos viejos papeles. Las nuevas interrogantes surgen del reencuentro de la historia con la antropología, de la etnohistoria y de lo que los franceses han aportado en el terreno de la historia de las mentalidades, así como de la variante inglesa en el terreno de la historia cultural.
"Entre líneas encontraremos elementos para el estudio de la ritualidad agraria, incluso cuando las comunidades están efectuando un proceso legal y de la territorialidad de los pueblos entendida como la representación simbólica del espacio (región) en donde viven, producen, se reproducen y entierran a sus muertos. Estas son tan sólo algunas de tantas posibilidades que contienen estos viejos papeles, pues las lecturas factibles son muchas. Por ello mismo le agradecemos a Regina que nos haya hecho este regalo, pues el Catálogo constituye una luz en una veta de oro, que hoy pone en nuestras manos para que los estudiosos e interesados en los procesos agrarios reconstruyamos tantas nuevas historias como nuestra imaginación nos lo permita."
Please send an e-mail message to archagra@juarez.ciesas.edu.mx for more information.
6. From Richard Golde: "I am a prisoner working on independent studies relating to the Aztec calendar system and the translation of the Cantares Mexicanos from Nahuatl to English. Due to my limited access to study materials my progress is slow. I am asking for any assistance at all. I can not pay for any help so it must be on a voluntary basis. I have no access to the Internet and prison regulations forbid me from receiving used books. I would particularly ask authors of Aztec studies to consider sending me complimentary copies of their books, which must be sent from the publisher. I consider myself competent and focused. I am just looking for some help on the rough spots. I welcome correspondence from all those interested. Thank you." Sent by Richard Golde, #D-02443, C.S.P. L.A.C. C-4-244, 44750 60th St. West, Lancaster, CA 93536.
7. Louise Burkhart sends the following information about her new book, Before Guadalupe: The Virgin Mary in Early Colonial Nahuatl Literature. IMS Monograph, 13. Albany, N.Y.: Institute for Mesoamerican Studies, University at Albany; distributed by the University of Texas Press, 2001. 260 pp. $25.00. ISBN 0-942041-21-6 (paper).
From the flyer:
"The introduction of the Virgin Mary to the Nahuas (or Aztecs) of Central Mexico has often been linked with the origins of the Mexican devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. However, the Guadalupe devotion did not play a major role in indigenous life until after its foundation legend was published in Spanish in 1648 and in Nahuatl the following year. How, then, did Nahuas encounter, interpret, and appropriate Christianity's principal female figure?
"This anthology of Nahuatl-language texts offers the most in-depth examination to date of how Marianism was introduced into a Native American linguistic and cultural context. The texts, which include narratives, sermons, prayers, catechism lessons, hymns, and chants, date from the 1540s to the 1620s and represent Franciscan, Augustinian, Dominican, Jesuit, and Nahua authors.
"Far from fomenting some 'syncretic' mixing of Mary with native goddess cults or presenting only rudimentary teachings, Catholic churchmen and Nahua scholars strove to adapt into Nahuatl a large part of the medieval cult of Mary, with its feast days, the rosary and other prayer traditions, and popular miracle legends. This was not simply an expansion of Spanish-Christian hegemony, for Nahuas who mastered the discourses and practices of Marian devotion controlled potent symbolic capital.
"Nahuatl texts and English translations are presented here in parallel columns, making the book useful to students of Nahuatl as well as to anyone interested in Marianism, evangelization, or Mexican religion. Extensive commentary on the texts traces their European background and illuminates their meanings and uses in the Mexican setting.
"Louise M. Burkhart is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Latin American and Caribbean Studies and Director of the Institute for Mesoamerican Studies at the University at Albany, SUNY."
Order from: University of Texas Press, P.O. Box 7819, Austin, TX 78713 7819. By phone: 800-252-3206, or fax: 800-687-6046.
8. Keiko Yoneda writes: "Soy investigadora del CIESAS del Golfo, y conocí The Nahua Newsletter por medio de Maria Teresa Rodríguez de la misma institución, y me pareció muy interesante el contenido. Abajo escribo una pequeña presentación de mis estudios:
"Hasta ahora he trabajado sobre el conjunto de documentos pictográficos producidos en Cuauhtinchan, en el siglo XVI, desde distintas perspectivas, y abordé los siguentes temas: la cartografía, la historoiografía y la escritura mesoamericanas. Analicé, asimismo, el contexto histórico en los cuales se produjeron estos documentos, y las líneas de los mojones anotados en ellos. Actualmente trabajo sobre la cultura chichimeca y su cosmovisión, con base en el Mapa de Cuauhtinchan No. 2, como tesis doctoral en Antropología, por la UNAM. Agradezco su atención a la presente, y le envío un cordial saludo. Atentamente." Sent by Keiko Yoneda, CIESAS del Golfo, Av. Encanto, esq. Antonio Nava, Col. El Mirador, Xalapa, Veracruz 91170 MEXICO.
9. James Maffie, a philosopher with an interest in Mesoamerica, has sent a copy of a recent article that will be of interest to readers:
Maffie, James. 2002. "Why Care about Nezahualcoyotl?: Veritism and Nahua Philosophy." Philosophy of the Social Sciences 32(1):71-91.
From the abstract:
"Sixteenth-century Nahua philosophy understands neltiliztli (truth) and tlamitiliztli (wisdom, knowledge) nonsemantically in terms of a complex notion consisting of well-rootedness, alethia, authenticity, adeptness, moral righteousness, beauty, and balancedness. In so doing, it offers compelling a posteriori grounds for denying what Alvin Goldman calls veritism. Veritism defends the universality of correspondence (semantic) truth as well as the universal centrality of correspondence (semantic) truth to epistemology."
10. Walden Browne writes to alert readers to his book: Sahagún and the Transition to Modernity. Oklahoma Project for Discourse and Theory, Vol. 20. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000. ISBN 0-8061-3233-7. 260 pp.
11. Roberto Campos Navarro has sent two books on his research into contemporary folk medicine in Mexico. One is entitled Nosotros los curanderos: Experiencias de una curandera tradicional en el México de hoy. México, D.F.: Editorial Patria Nueva Imagen, 1997. ISBN 968-39-0952-3.
From the back cover:
"Los curanderos de México - tanto los urbanos como los rurales - ocupan un espacio insustituible en el campo de la cultura médica popular. Forman parte de nuestras raíces y, por ende, de nuestra identidad como nación.
"Nosotros los curanderos, de Roberto Campos Navarro, es un obra pionera que vuelve accesible el universo de la medicina tradicional urbana; nos explica cuáles son las enfermedades que con más frequencia se tratan, como el susto y el empacho, para después aventurarse en el mundo de las hierbas medicinales y la influencia de la medicina académica en la curandería, entre otros temas importantes.
"Aun en las postrimerías del siglo XX, en plena era tecnológica, se ha comprobado que la medicina tradicional todavía ocupa un lugar incuestionable entre las opciones curativas, y no sólo en México sino en el mundo entero, donde hoy más que nunca los especialistas están volviendo los ojos hacia los secretos milenarios de nuestros curanderos."
The second book, edited by Roberto Campos, is entitled El empacho en la medicina mexicana: Antología (siglos XVI-XX). México. D.F.: Instituto Nacional Indigenista, Biblioteca de la medicina traditional, 2000. ISBN 970-18 5782-8.
From the Prólogo written by Ruy Pérez Tamayo:
"Este es un libro singular, ya que presenta un extenso estudio histórico, antropológico, social y geográfico de una enfermedad tradicional, o popular, conocida como empacho. Se presentan 79 textos relevantes, publicados a partir del siglo XVI, empezando con el Libellus de Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis, escrito en 1552, y terminando con observations contemporáneas en distintas partes del país, entre las que destacan dos del propio autor: una, la descripción (en primera persona) de 'Todo lo que usted siempre habia querido saber acerca del empacho y no se atrevia a preguntar,' por una curandera de la ciudad de México, que es un documento drámatico pero, al mismo tiempo, valiosísimo porque revela el abismo que separa a la medicina tradicional, o popular, de la medicina científica moderna; el otro, un relato de un caso clinico de empacho (visto en 1987) que da motivo a las únicas consideraciones analíticas de toda la obra, que son principalmente de antropología social. Además, hay una lista, impresionante por su longitud y su variedad, de los distintos elementos utilizados en el tratamiento del empacho, classificados por siglos."
12. The University of Oklahoma Press announces the 2001 publication of the English edition of El Pasado Indígena (1996) by Alfredo López Austin and Leonardo López Luján, translated by Bernard R. Ortiz de Montellano, in their Civilization of the American Indian Series, Vol. 240. ISBN 0-8061-3214-0 (cloth).
From the book jacket:
"This handsomely illustrated book offers a panoramic view of ancient Mexico, beginning more than thirty thousand years ago and ending with European occupation in the sixteenth century. Drawing on archaeological and ethnohistorical sources, the book is one of the first to offer a unified vision of Mexico's precolonial past.
"Typical histories of Mexico focus on the prosperity and accomplishments of Mesoamerica, located in the southern half of Mexico, due to the wealth of records about the glorious past of this region. Mesoamerica was only one of three cultural superareas of ancient Mexico, however, all interlinked by complex economic and social relationships.
"Tracing the large social transformations that took place from the earliest hunter-gatherer times to the Postclassic states, the authors describe the ties between the three superareas of ancient Mexico, which stretched from present day Costa Rica to what is now the southwestern United States. According to the authors, these superareas - Mesoamerica, Aridamerica, and Oasisamerica - cannot be viewed as independent entities. Instead, they must be considered as a whole to understand the complex reality of Mexico's past and possible visions of Mexico's future."
The work can be ordered by writing to Marketing and Sales, University of Oklahoma Press, 4100 28th Avenue N.W., Norman, Oklahoma 73069, or on the Web at http://www.ou.edu/oupress.
Nicholson, H. B. Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl: The Once and Future Lord of the Toltecs. Mesoamerican Worlds. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2001. lxi + 360 pp., 1 map, 11 color plates, 10 figures. ISBN 0-8708-1547-4 (cloth). ISBN 0-8708-1554-7 (paper).
This interesting book, which has the rare privilege of being greeted at the outset as a classic by the editors, David Carrasco and Eduardo Matos Moctezuma - a classic at least for the happy few who had the honor and the pleasure of reading the author's Ph.D. dissertation at Harvard in 1957 - is a comprehensive compilation and appreciation of most of the sources concerning Quetzalcoatl as Lord of Tollan. An editor's note is followed by a foreword written by Gordon Willey, a prologue by Alfredo López Austin, and a preface and 1957 and 2001 introductions by Nicholson, who dedicates 30 pages to new sources or new editions and translations of sources on Quetzalcoatl. The book would of course have been much more useful if those data had been incorporated and taken into account in the text itself.
Duly prepared by these preliminaries, the reader arrives at the heart of the matter: the "relevant Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl [TQ] material," i.e., the written or pictorial sources, retold in a slightly summarized way and preceded by a systematic presentation of the sources and, if known, their authors. Next follows a summary of the essential facts and an often very useful commentary on and appreciation of the material.
The sources are divided into ten parts, according to their provenience and character. Understandably more than half of the text concerns Central Mexican Nahuatl and non-Nahuatl sources (Parts 1-2). Next come Oaxaca, Chiapas, Highland Guatemala, the Pipil, Nicaragua, Tabasco-Campeche, and Yucatan (Parts 3-9). Part 10 is dedicated to archaeological evidence. Then follow 37 pages of "interpretation of the basic data," and in Part 12, a short conclusion.
A compilation implies a classification. The sources are classified not only by region and date but also according to more subjective criteria. For Central Mexican Nahuatl sources for example, Nicholson differentiates between "earliest accounts, important supplementary accounts, important fragments, scraps," but also "late, probably distorted versions." These distinctions may or may not be justified and the criteria are disputable. Obvious Christian influences may still be interesting inasmuch as they indicate that the Indian or Spanish authors saw relationships, for example, between TQ and Jesus or one of his apostles. Ixtlilxochitl is completely unreliable when he situates TQ at the time of Jesus (a detail omitted by Nicholson with good reason) and still more perhaps when he introduces episodes of Western medieval history into his writings to show that the Texcocoan royal court was comparable to the French court. But to reject data as distorted because they differ too much among themselves or from others, or because they identify Topiltzin with Huemac, appears to result from preconceived ideas.
One may regret that Nicholson presents summaries, and not complete quotations of the texts. To summarize is also to make choices and sometimes important details are lost. At times he quotes passages literally in Spanish, but also in less familiar languages such as Italian or 16th-century French, which has at least the advantage of avoiding uncertain translations. For instance, in his 1965 translation of the Histoyre du Méchique, Garibay translates erroneously "une pallace" by "palacio" instead of "estera." Quotations in Indian languages are absent. One may also regret that the author omits interesting data, such as the mysterious text in which the Tenochca dynasty "claimed direct descent from him [TQ]" (p. xlvii; see also Nicholson 2000).
Concerning the Codex Vaticanus A or Ríos, Nicholson observes that in the scene depicting the end of the Fourth Sun, "there is nothingŠ that specifically links this age with Tollan and the Toltecs" (p. 66). This is a surprising statement because the image not only conveys the end of an era (and the fall of Tollan is the end of an era), but also features an old woman distributing sacrificial banners to men, an obvious reference to an episode in the fall of the Toltecs told in Sahagún's third book.
Sometimes the impression is conveyed that the author is less critical toward sources in Nahuatl than in other languages, in particular Spanish. However, more than anything else the Quetzalcoatl tale or myth or history certainly requires very careful, critical scrutiny. Care is required because of post-Conquest reinterpretations and manipulations by the Aztecs and the missionaries, who both had very good reasons to make a case that there had been holy men and religious reformers among the Indians who rejected human sacrifice.
The final, interpretative Part 11 is the most disputable. The author reconstructs what he calls "the basic Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl of Tollan tale" in seven main episodes which in my view are easily reducible to two parts: TQ's youth, with his victory over his uncles who killed his father, his enthronement, and the foundation of Tollan; and a second part with TQ's fall and departure. He probably was "a significant religious innovator who attempted to advance the cult of an old creator/fertility god symbolized by the feathered serpent" (p. 260). It is a tale, says Nicholson, not myth: "'Myth' would clearly be a misnomer, unless one is willing to take an outright Brintonian stand" (p. 252). And: "It is already evident, from preliminary remarks made in the commentary sections, that I believe that a certain amount of genuine historicity probably does adhere to Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl" (p. 255). He mentions in support (p. 258) "the Homeric epics, the Sanskrit Vedas, the Genesis Patriarchal tales, the Chinese Huang Ti cycle, and the Arthurian romances," which were still believed by some in the 1950s to be historical. After all, history is the easiest way to get rid of myth. To quote Nicholson, "the rough outer shell of the marvelous" concealed "the valid historical pearl." It is the old classical attitude. Nicholson might say, like Plutarch in his Life of Theseus, "May I therefore succeed in purifying Fable, making her submit to reason and take on the semblance of History." But he would not agree when Plutarch goes on to write, "But where she obstinately disdains to make herself credible, and refuses to admit any element of probability, I shall pray for kindly readers, and such as receive with indulgence the tales of antiquity." Nicholson omits such passages. However he also frankly admits that today he would be "somewhat more cautious in speculating along these lines" (pp. lix-lx).
Nicholson's belief in "a certain amount of genuine historicity" comes as no surprise because he excluded from the compilation "the purely supernatural figure, whom I shall refer to as Ehecatl Quetzalcoatl." He did concede that the two are "almost inextricably entwined" and that "ideally, both aspects should be considered jointly." But the ideal demanded "a far more extensive investigation" (p. xxvi). So, looking for a man and excluding the god, he found a man. He thereby continued the work of 16th-century authors who equally "omitted the fables" (p. 11), for instance in the Juan Cano Relaciones. But Juan Cano had very good reasons to ask for history, not myth because he had to defend at court the claims of his wife, Motecuhzoma's daughter.
One of the main problems with the historical Quetzalcoatl is that he appears both at the beginning and the end of the Toltecs' long history. Nicholson prefers the beginning, others the end, but we have clearly seen in Nicholson's reconstruction of the tale that TQ is to be found at both ends of the chain, at the beginning and the end of the Toltec era.
The data concern both the first and the last part of his life, and the first and last part of the history of the Toltecs. Let us take a look at the first part of TQ's life, points one to three in Nicholson's ordering. The man and the god are so entwined that if the god Quetzalcoatl is famous for having descended into the underworld to find bones from which to create humanity in the tale, the man Quetzalcoatl looks for the bones of his murdered father, Mixcoatl, exhumes them, and buries them in Mixcoatl's Hill (Mixcoatepec). But Mixcoatl, whose bones his son collected, was also regarded as the source of Mexico's different nations.
Having buried his father, the man Quetzalcoatl kindles fire and vanquishes his father's assassins. He thus creates life, and more precisely creates the sun, as in a New Fire ceremony on the top of Mixcoatl's Hill (the hill was equated with the Cerro de la Estrella where the sun was recreated by new fire every 52 years). His kindling of fire at Mixcoatepec before killing his uncles reminds us of Huitzilopochtli-Sun conquering his elder sister and brothers with his fire serpent at Coatepec. It also reminds us of the myth of the creation of the sun at Teotihuacan by the sacrifice of Nanahuatl, avatar or son of Quetzalcoatl.
One supernatural figure that Nicholson should have included, even if the name is not equated with Quetzalcoatl, is the Tarascan deity called Siratatapeci. It cannot be denied that the youth of this supernatural is quite comparable to that of TQ. In order to explain horses to the Tarascan ruler, the Mexicas repeated the story of Siratatapeci whose father attempted to conquer Achurihirepe's village but was beaten by him in the ballade and subsequently sacrificed. His son, born some time later, was raised as a foundling, became a hunter, and an animal revealed to him what happened to his father. Siratatapeci went to the murderer's village to avenge his father, which he surely did but it is not mentioned here because the purpose of the history is to explain what horses were like. He exhumed the bones, carried them on his back, dropped them to shoot quails, and his father turned into a deer (one of the names of TQ's father, Mixcoatl, was Mixcoatl-Deer, according to Craine and Reindorp 1970:63-65). Nicholson is well aware that the theme of Quetzalcoatl's vengeance on his uncles is "frequent in legends and folktales" (p. 260), and this version should have been taken into account. The story is also strikingly similar to the Popol Vuh where the twins' adventures in the underworld culminated in their jumping into the fire and their transformation into sun and moon. Half a century ago, Krickeberg had already noticed the similarities between the Twins' adventures, Quetzalcoatl's vengeance on Mixcoatepec, and the Aztec myth of Coatepec.
Placed in a broadened context that includes the Popol Vuh with its very ancient myths, a context that includes dozens of modern ethnographic versions of the same tale, the story of Quetzalcoatl appears to be the typical myth of the beginning of a new age or Sun.
While the tales of the young Quetzalcoatl refer to the birth of a Sun, the myths of the old Quetzalcoatl (points four to seven in the author's ordering) placed in a wider context refer to the end of an era or of a Sun. This wider context includes the myths of paradise lost, of which Quetzalcoatl and the Toltecs' transgressions in Tollan are clearly a variant. When attention was first drawn to the impressive evidence of the myths of paradise lost, there was scepticism which today has almost disappeared after investigators, such as Florescano, Castellón Huerta, Olivier, and especially López Austin, accepted them, the latter making them also a cornerstone of his interpretation of Aztec cosmovision.
The confrontation of the texts concerning the young and the old Quetzalcoatl in what Nicholson and other investigators regard as the most reliable sources, yields fascinating results. The young and the old Quetzalcoatl are diametrically opposed. The young one is a poor warrior, always on the move, always victorious, never deceived by his enemies whom he kills and sacrifices. The old one is a priest who has riches, does not leave his palace, does not sacrifice humans (in the paradisiacal Tollan disease and death appear only as a result of transgressions) lets himself be deceived by his enemies, loses, and dies. Quetzalcoatl at the end of Tollan reminds us of Motecuhzoma at the end of Mexico-Tenochtitlan. He also remained in his city motionless, without reaction consulting the gods, acting more like a priest than a warrior, always taken at short notice by his Spanish opponents who were young valiant migrants who remind him of what the Mexicas were at the beginning of their own history.
As I explained in my own compilation of sources about Quetzalcoatl, what these two aspects of Quetzalcoatl stand for is the rise and the fall of an empire, an age, a Sun, the period between, say, 700-1100, during which he seems to have been a major deity. A somewhat comparable interpretation has recently been proposed by A. López Austin and L. López Luján (1999) and by William M. Ringle, Tomás Gallerete Negrón, and George J. Bey III (1998:9), for whom Quetzalcoatl characterizes a period (or an epoch?). But Nicholson denied himself the possibility of reaching similar conclusions by his choice of testimonies on Quetzalcoatl the man. He barred from his collection texts as fundamental as the myth of Teotihuacan or the important passage in the Historia de los Mexicanos por sus pinturas according to which Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca alternated as rulers of the Suns or eras. The passage explains why Quetzalcoatl was driven out of Tollan by Tezcatlipoca, who became the 5th Sun under the aspect of Huitzilopochtli or the red Tezcatlipoca, and also explains why the Aztecs feared the end of their Sun and the return of Quetzalcoatl.
In the present state of our sources, the historicity of TQ as main ruler of Tollan cannot and has not been accepted by the scientific community. It is possible that an important person named TQ ruled Tollan at a certain time, but with the material now at hand, nothing can be said about his life. But the value of Nicholson's book does not rest on this tentative and cautious interpretations. It is and will remain a very rich, precise, and useful compilation of sources on a major figure of pre-Hispanic Mexico by one of the most important scholars in this field.
References Cited
Craine, Eugene R., and Reginald Carl Reindorp, eds. 1970. The
Chronicles of Michoacán. Civilization of the American Indian
Series, Vol. 98. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
López Austin, Alfredo, and Leonardo López Luján.
1999. Mito y realidad de Zuyuá: Serpiente Esplumada y las
transformaciones mesoamericanas del Clásico al Postclásico.
Mexico: El Colegio de México, Fideicomiso Historia de las
Américas, Fondo de Cultura Económica.
Nicholson, H. B. 2000. "The Iconography of the Feathered
Serpent in Late Postclassic Central Mexico." In Mesoamerica's
Classic Heritage: From Teotihuacan to the Aztecs. David Carrasco,
Lindsay Jones, and Scott Sessions, eds., pp. 145-46. Boulder:
University Press of Colorado. Ringle, William M., Tomás
Gallerete Negrón, and George J. Bey III. 1998. "The
Return of Quetzalcoatl: Evidence for the Spread of a World Religion
during the Epiclassic Period." Ancient Mesoamerica 9:183-232.
Michel Graulich
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Section des Sciences Religieuses,
Sorbonne, Paris, and
Université Libre, Bruxelles
H. B. Nicholson sends the NN the following comments:
Alan Sandstrom has forwarded to me a copy of this review, graciously providing me with the opportunity to respond to it.
Commencing in the 1970s, Michel Graulich has published many interesting and provocative papers on Mesoamerican ethnohistory, concentrating on religious/ritual and calendric aspects, with special attention to myth. In 1982 (reissued in 1987) he published his most important work, Mythes et rituels du Mexique ancien préhispanique, a Spanish translation of which appeared in 1990 and an English version (sans the section on the 18 veintena rituals) in 1997. In 1988, he also published Quetzalcoatl y el espejísimo de Tollan, reiterating most of his ideas concerning Mesoamerican myth while focusing particularly on Quetzalcoatl, whom he has called "the most controversial figure in ancient Mesoamerica."
Graulich's studies are characterized by an ambitious attempt to determine the basic underlying, unifying structure of Mesoamerican myth, invoking in his analyses and interpretations the "new comparative mythology" of Levi-Strauss, Dumezil, and others. They constitute a remarkable melange of densely packed information derived from primary ethnohistorical sources and modern Middle American ethnographic "survivals," (and even, occasionally, indigenous South American myths), intertwined with a plethora of interpretative hypotheses. Some of these agree with the views of earlier scholars, such as Eduard Seler, but they also frequently strike out in interesting new directions.
In his publications on Mesoamerican myth and ritual - and especially in his 1988 book - Graulich has taken a determinedly "mythicist" approach to Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl and the Toltecs. He is highly skeptical of any amount of genuine historicity in the accounts of Tollan and its empire. Rather, conflating the creator/wind deity Ehecatl Quetzalcoatl (EQ) and the priest/ruler Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl (TQ), he attempted to explain the "history" of the Toltecs and their most prominent lord in essentially mythic terms.
This is hardly the appropriate place for a serious analysis and discussion of the broad array of Graulich's frequently somewhat controversial views. In this reply to his review of my book I will limit myself to comments on specific points that he has raised. Graulich, in effect, deplores the fact that I did not incorporate new data provided by editions and analyses of the primary sources published since 1957 into the body of the text. Summarizing these new data in an introduction at least had the advantage of highlighting the recent progress that has been made in this field - particularly in providing students with more accurate and accessible editions of the primary sources and more thorough analyses of them. In any case, I hope I did succeed in my aim of specifying any significant modifications and corrections of or additions to the text that have been necessitated by the appearance of these post-1957 publications.
Graulich clearly entertains some doubt concerning the validity of my classification of the primary sources on TQ. Here I was indeed advancing what amounted to a series of hypotheses. I would not expect any of my fellow students to entirely agree with my classification. But it did seem to me that some attempt to classify the tangled, complicated skein of the primary sources that provide so many differing accounts of his life and career might be helpful when comparing and analyzing them. My tentative reconstruction of what I called "The Basic Topilztin Quetzalcoatl of Tollan Tale," in an attempt to ascertain an approximation of what might have been taught concerning TQ in the calmecac(s) of the leading Central Mexican polities at the time of the Conquest, was perhaps the most audacious of my hypotheses - and I certainly regard it as a fair target for criticism and analysis. Graulich opines that it is regrettable that "Nicholson presents summaries, and not complete quotations of texts." My decision to provide summaries rather than complete texts was necessitated, of course, by practical considerations of space and length. What is most crucial with regard to these summaries is the question of their accuracy and completeness, which I strove to attain. How well I have succeeded, the reader can judge.
Regarding my occasional quotations of passages from the primary sources in Spanish, French, and Italian, this was done both to convey something of the original linguistic flavor of these sources and, in some cases, to avoid translational ambiguities. These three European languages are familiar to most educated persons. On the other hand, I refrained from quoting passages in the indigenous languages because I felt that they would be out of place in a book intended for a general readership.
I am not sure I understand Graulich's reference to "the mysterious text in which the Tenochca dynasty 'claimed direct descent from him [TQ].'" Can he be doubting, after the sources that I cited in support, that Motecuhzoma II was believed to have been the direct dynastic descendant of TQ, occupying, in effect, a "borrowed throne"? I am convinced that the case for the existence of this belief at the time of the Conquest, at least in Mexico Tenochtitlan, is a strong one.
Concerning my supposed failure to recognize that the depiction of the fourth cosmogonic Era, or Sun, on fol. 7r of the Codex Vaticanus A refers to the fall of Tollan, I did clearly so state, based on the annotatory text, but at the same time observed that there is nothing in the illustration that specifically connotes Tollan or the Toltecs. I agree that the figures carrying the sacrificial banners almost certainly do constitute a reference to the fall of the Toltec imperial capital.
I do not believe that the sources in Nahuatl are necessarily more reliable than those in Spanish or other languages. However, they are undeniably of particular value due to the fact that the information they convey was expressed in the indigenous communication system. Regarding the reviewer's remark that the TQ tale "certainly requires very careful, critical scrutiny," one of the major purposes of my book was precisely to emphasize the importance and indispensability of this task - in the face of so much uncritical use of the sources concerning TQ, especially by popular writers.
As indicated, Graulich has always expressed a strong preference for a mythicist interpretation of the narratives concerned with TQ, so it is hardly surprising that he is quite critical of my consideration of the possibility of some degree of historicity in the basic Tale. It is true, as he recognizes, that I have become increasingly less optimistic over the years that we will ever be able to "solve" this question in any definitive fashion. However, I still think it unlikely that all accounts of the Toltecs and TQ can be explained as pure myth. Certainly the Mesoamericans had developed many of the tools that facilitated their ability to maintain their histories, e.g., writing systems, well developed calendrics, and animal skin and paper screenfolds and cotton sheets on which could be recorded and stored much historical information. By the Late Postclassic, if not much earlier, there is little doubt that every sizable polity was systematically recording its history. And the same goes for the maintenance of highly structured poetic oral narratives that could also convey much valuable historical information.
In any case, whatever one's views, undeniably the problem of deciding between history and myth - in the case of numerous Old World heroes and ancient rulers, some of whom I cited - can be a formidable one. Graulich implies, in reference to those "which were still believed by some in the 1950s," that any recognition of possible elements of historicity in narratives concerning them has been discarded - and, ergo, that my views are outdated. I would regard this putative final victory of the mythicists as somewhat premature. I doubt that all critical scholars would agree, particularly in the cases of, for example, the Iliad and the biblical Patriarchal, Mosaic, and early Hebrew Monarchial narratives. Raglan may have won many battles, but I don't think all - or at least not yet.
In the case of TQ, it may well be that only further archaeological discoveries can provide significant new information relevant to the problem of his possible historicity. With excavations continuing at Tula, perhaps there is some hope - although, as I have stressed in earlier articles, the difficulties of successfully meshing archaeological data with traditional histories must always be clearly recognized.
Apropos of this problem, Graulich makes the odd statement: "So, looking for a man and excluding the god [EQ], he found a man." I, of course, did not "find" a "man." The "man" was there when Cortés arrived - in the historical traditions of many of the indigenous polities. Although in some of the accounts he had been invested with at least quasi-supernatural status and at death had been converted into a sacred star, TQ was clearly regarded, in what appear to be the earliest and most reliable accounts, to have been an essentially human, usually royal figure. Graulich correctly recognizes that "One of the main problems with the historical (sic!) Quetzalcoatl is that he appears both at the beginning and the end of the Toltecs' long history (sic!)." This has been recognized as a problem from the beginning of serious research on the "Toltec problem," concerning which major scholars have often differed (most notably, Jiménez Moreno vs. Kirchoff).
Graulich, always conflating EQ and TQ, typically explains this seeming contradiction in terms of solar mythology. I preferred the earlier TQ because most of the "core group" of primary sources appeared to support this placement I am also faulted for not including in my discussions and comparisons the "Tarascan deity" called Siratatapeci, whose tale is recounted in the Relación de Michoacan and which Graulich has previously discussed. I agree that there are elements in this narrative that resemble some in the TQ Tale, particularly some that have a widespread folkloristic distribution. However, I very much doubt that Siratatapeci's tale constituted a genuine West Mexican variant of that of TQ. As for the Popol Vuh, I did include this important source in my comparisons, taking a more conservative stance than Graulich vis-à-vis the possibility of its narrative displaying some resemblances to the TQ Tale.
Graulich concludes his review by reiterating, in some detail, his interpretative hypothesis, developed particularly in his 1987[1982] and 1988 books, that "the story of Quetzalcoatl appears to be the typical myth of the beginning of a new age or Sun. While the tales of the young Quetzalcoatl refer to the birth of a Sun, the myths of the old Quetzalcoatl placed in a wider context refer to the end of an era or Sun. This wider context includes the myths of paradise lost, of which Quetzalcoatl and the Toltecs' transgressions in Tollan are clearly a variant." He appears confident that, after initial skepticism, his controversial "paradise lost" hypothesis has won the day. He also suggests that, with the two aspects of Quetzalcoatl standing for "the rise and fall of an empire, an age, a Sun, the period between, say 700-1100, during which he seems to have been a major deity," I denied myself similar conclusions because of my separation of EQ and TQ.
Both Graulich and I are attempting to better understand and explain, based on only a battered remnant of a set of traditions that describe the rise and fall of a prominent priest/ruler of the past who, in most versions, was believed to have ruled for a time over an imperial capital and then departed - but expected to return to reestablish his royal dignity. Graulich prefers to interpret these putatively historical traditions as basically solar myths. I, on the other hand,, while recognizing that many mythic and folkloristic elements have obviously been incorporated into them, entertain the possibility that they contain some degree of genuine historicity. To me it seems unlikely that all historical knowledge of the Early Postclassic, the period ascribed in the traditions to the Toltecs and their rulers, would have been lost, especially considering the undoubted strong interest in their history of the Mesoamericans and their possession of the necessary means to preserve it.
Finally, I agree that, "In the present state of our sources, the historicity of TQ as the main ruler of Tollan cannot and has not been accepted by the scientific community." But it is certainly not implausible. Future archaeological discoveries may, hopefully, throw further light on the problem. Graulich's particular mythic interpretation of the TQ tradition must be regarded as a stimulating hypothesis deserving of serious consideration. But it is just that, an hypothesis, to be further tested and carefully examined before being accepted as a definitive solution to a very challenging set of historical problems. If my book does nothing else, I would hope that it will stimulate further research and discussion concerning the personage, mythic or historical, who has been generally agreed to be the most fascinating and enigmatic figure of ancient America.
H. B. Nicholson
Emeritus Professor of Anthropology
University of California, Los Angeles
The illustrations in this issue were taken from Alfredo López Austin and Leonardo López Luján's Mexico's Indigenous Past. Translated by Bernard R. Ortiz de Montellano. Civilization of the American Indian Series, Vol. 240. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2001. $39.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-8061 3214-0.
This supplement to the February 2002 Nahua Newsletter provides an updated alphabetical list of the names and addresses of NN subscribers. We have done everything possible to insure the accuracy of each entry but mistakes are inevitable. If you detect an error, please drop a note to the editor and the correction will appear in the next issue. Your help in this matter will be greatly appreciated.
A number of subscribers have written to suggest that we include e-mail addresses in the directory. Unfortunately we do not have the clerical support to make this enhancement possible. Readers should be able to locate a colleague's e-mail address with ease using a Web search engine such as Google.com with the institutional affiliation or city information provided here for each NN subscriber.
Michael K. Aakhus
School of Liberal Arts
University of Southern Indiana
8600 University Blvd.
Evansville, IN 47712
Bertie Acker
1705 Briardale Ct.
Arlington, TX 76013
Richard N. Adams
Latin American Studies
Sid W. Richardson Hall
University of Texas-Austin
Austin, TX 78712
Rolena Adorno
Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese
Yale University
P.O Box 208204
New Haven, CT 06520
Carmen Aguilera
Periferico Sur 2775, C-103
San Jerónimo
México, D.F. 10200 MEXICO
Jose Alcina
Vallehermoso, 68
28015 Madrid SPAIN
Universidad de las Américas
Biblioteca, A.P. 100
Sta. Catarina Mártir
Puebla, Puebla 72820 MEXICO
Jonathan Amith
1460 James Howe Rd.
Dallas, OR 97338
Marsha Ammann
P.O. Box 148
Boerne, TX 78006
Patricia Anawalt
Center for the Study of Regional Dress
UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History
Box 951549
Los Angeles, CA 90095
Helene Anderson
Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese
New York University
19 University Place
New York, NY 10003
J. Richard Andrews
Box 1718, Station B
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN 37235
Archaologisches Institut
der Universitat Hamburg
Johnsallee 35
D-2000 Hamburg 13 GERMANY
Wiebke Ahrndt
Übersee-Museum Bremen
Bahnhofsplatz 13
28195 Bremen GERMANY
Philip P. Arnold
Dept. of Religion
Syracuse University
501 Hall of Languages
Syracuse, NY 13244
Werner Asche
Abelhain 20
26209 Hatten-Sandkrug GERMANY
William O. Autry, Jr.
59389 CR 13
Elkhart, IN 46517
Félix Báez-Jorge
Representación SEP-Veracruz
Xico No. 34, Fracc. Pomona
Xalapa, Veracruz 91040 MEXICO
Manuel Ballesteros
Ibanez Martin, 6
28015 Madrid SPAIN
Victor N. Baptiste
Hofstra University
Hempstead, NY 11550
Elizabeth Baquedano
68 Danecroft Rd.
London SE24 9NZ ENGLAND
Manlio Barbosa Cano
Puebla-Tlaxcala INAH
Fuertes de Loreto y G.
Puebla, Puebla 72270 MEXICO
Monica Barnes
377 Rector Place, 11J
New York, NY 10280
Don F. Bauer
Department of Anthro./Soc.
Lafayette College
Easton, PA 18042
Ulf Baukmann
Ortwinstrasse 15A
1000 Berlin 28 GERMANY
Carolyn Baus
Sub-Dirección de Arq.
Museo Nacional de Antropología
Reforma y Gandhi
México, D.F. 11560 MEXICO
Pierre Beaucage
Université de Montreal
Departement d'anthropologie
Montreal, Que. B3C 3J7 CANADA
Richard and Patricia Beller
7315 Oakstone Dr.
Dallas, TX 75249
Frances Berdan
Department of Anthropology
CSU San Bernardino
San Bernardino, CA 92407
Russell Berg
Inst. of Latin American Studies
834 International Affairs
Columbia University
New York, NY 10027
Brent Berlin
Dept. of Anthropology
University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602
H. Russell Bernard
Dept. of Anthropology
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611
John Bierhorst
P.O. Box 10
West Shokan, NY 12494
Samantha Birk
336 W. Wallen Rd.
Fort Wayne, IN 46825
Nancy Black
Anthropology and International Studies
Metropolitan State Univ.
700 E. Seventh St.
St. Paul, MN 55106
Richard E. Blanton
Department of Anthro./Soc.
Purdue University
Lafayette, IN 47907
Pamela D. Block
Art Reference Library
The Brooklyn Museum
2000 Eastern Parkway
Brooklyn, NY 11238
Carmen Block Iturriaga
Coord. de la Biblioteca "Justino Fernández"
Inst. de Investigaciones Estéticas, UNAM
Cir. Mario de la Cueva, Ciudad Univ.
México, D.F. 04510 MEXICO
Elizabeth H. Boone
Dept. of Art History
Tulane University
New Orleans, LA 70118
Barbara E. Borg
Dept. of Soc./Anthro.
College of Charleston
66 George Street
Charleston, SC 29424
Lars Ivar Owensen-Lein Borge
Dreieichstrasse 5
D-60594 Frankfurt am Main GERMANY
Norman Bradley
Dept. of Visual & Performing Arts
Indiana-Purdue University
2101 Coliseum Blvd. East
Fort Wayne, IN 46805
Richard Bradley
1505 Shunk St.
Philadelphia, PA 19145
James E. Brady
Department of Anthropology
2400 Birch St.
Alhambra, CA 91801
William Bright
Department of Linguistics
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309
Johanna Broda
Inst. de Invest. Historicas
UNAM, Humanidades
Delegación Coyoacan
México, D.F. 04510 MEXICO
Gordon Brotherston
Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN 47405
Walden Browne
6815 N. Green Mountain Place
Tucson, AZ 85718
Elizabeth Brumfiel
Dept. of Anthro./Soc.
Albion College
Albion, MI 49224
Louise Burkhart
Department of Anthropology
SUNY-Albany
Albany, NY 12222
Jeff Burnham
Departmento de Humanidades
Universidad de Sonora
Hermosillo, Sonora, MEXICO
Rudy V. Busto
Dept. of Religious Studies
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305
Serials Receiving
Acquisitions Dept., Library
University of California San Diego
9500 Gilman Dr. 0175A
La Jolla, CA 92093
Edward E. Calnek
Department of Anthropology
University of Rochester
Rochester, NY 14627
Lyle R. Campbell
Dept. of Geography and Anthropology
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
R. Joe Campbell
2l8 Ridgeview Drive
Bloomington, IN 47401
Una Canger
Ulriksdalvej 3
2500 Valby DENMARK
Linda Cano
2286 W. Loma Linda
Fresno, CA 93711
John B. Carlson
Center for Archaeoastronomy
P.O. Box X
College Park, MD 20741
Pedro Carrasco
Dept. of Anthropology
Brandeis University
Waltham, MA 02254
Victor Castillo Farreras
Taller de Traducción
Inst. de Invest. Historicas
Ciudad Universitaria
México, D.F. 04510 MEXICO
Giancarlo Cavagna
12911 Buccaneer Road
Silver Spring, MD 20904
Thoric N. Cederstrom
Farmer-to-Farmer Program
University of Arizona, BARA
907 E. 6th Street
Tucson, AZ 85721
Center for Latin American
and Caribbean Studies
843 Bolton Rd., U-161
Storrs, CT 06269
Geraldo Cepeda Cardenas
Puebla-Tlaxcala INAH
Fuertes de Loreto y G.
Puebla, Puebla 72270 MEXICO
Thomas H. Charlton
Department of Anthropology
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52242
Marie-Noelle Chamoux
CNRS
27 Rue Paul Bert
94204 Ivry FRANCE
John K. Chance
Department of Anthropology
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ 85287
Jacques M. Chevalier
Dept. of Soc./Anthro.
Carleton University
Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5BK CANADA
Garry E. Chick
HRRM, College of Health & Human Devel.
Pennsylvania State University
201 Mateer Bldg.
University Park, PA 16802
Alec Christensen
301 Cattell Ave., 1st floor
Collingswood, NJ 08107
Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología
Social (CIESAS) del Golfo, Biblioteca
Av. Encanto, esq. Antonio Nava
Col. El Mirador
Xalapa, Veracruz 91170 MEXICO
CIRMA / Library
Apartado Postal 336
5a Calle Oriente Oriente No. 5
La Antigua, GUATEMALA
Biblioteca del CIESAS
Hidalgo y Matamoros, s/n
Casa Chata, Tlalpan
México, D.F. 14000 MEXICO
Flora S. Clancy
Dept. of Art and Art History
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131
Susan Clement-Brutto
7575 Hwy. 337
Gravel Switch, KY 40328
S. L. Cline
Department of History
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
George Collier
Latin American Studies
Stanford University
Bolivar House, 482 Alvarado
Stanford, CA 94305
Brad Coon
Library, Reference
Montana State University Bozeman
P.O. Box 173320
Bozeman, MT 59717
University of Copenhagen
Department of Am Ind Lang and Cult
Institute of History of Religion
Njalsgade 80
DK-2300 Copenhagen S DENMARK
Chip and Pat Coronel
1602 14th Street
Greeley, CO 80631
N.C. Christopher Couch
32 Oak St.
Florence, MA 01062
N. Ross Crumrine
1670 Earlston Ave.
Victoria, B.C. V8P 2Z7 CANADA
Eloy Cruz
Oriente 168 #30
Colonia Moctezuma
México, D.F. 15500 MEXICO
Jose Cuello
Center for Chicano-Boricua Studies
Wayne State University
656 W. Kirby
Detroit, MI 48202
Karen Dakin
Inst. de Invest. Filológicas
UNAM
10 Piso, Torre 11 de Humanidades
México, D.F. 04510 MEXICO
Nigel Davies
P.O. Box 7571
Chula Vista, CA 92012
Thomas Davies
Latin American Studies
San Diego State University
San Diego, CA 92182
Danièle Dehouve
24 Boulevard Raspail
75007 Paris FRANCE
Anne Delfeld
Rt. 1, Box 452
Brownsville, WI 53006
Ignacio Díaz Balerdi
Depto. de Historia del Arte
Universidad del País Vasco
c/ Marqués de Urquijo s/n
01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz SPAIN
Charles E. Dibble
335 E. Center
North Salt Lake, UT 84054
Richard Dorfsman
Actipan 36-1102
Col. Insurgentes-Mixcoac
México, D.F. 03920 MEXICO
Eduardo de Jesús Douglas
305A Moore Blvd.
Austin, TX 78705
James W. Dow
Dept. of Soc./Anthro.
Oakland University
Rochester, MI 48309
Paul Drake
Latin American Studies
University of California-San Diego
La Jolla, CA 92093
Steve Drury-Thurgood
Ethnography Library
Museum of Mankind
The British Museum
6 Burlington Gardens
London W1X 2EX, ENGLAND
Mary Jo Dudley
Latin Amer. Studies Program
190 Uris Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
Dumbarton Oaks
Pre-Columbian Library
1703 32nd St., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20007
Jacqueline de Durant-Forest
15 Rue Lakanal
75015 Paris FRANCE
Ursula Dyckerhoff
Am Weidenstück 4
53229 Bonn GERMANY
Colleen Ebacher
Modern Languages Department
Towson University
8000 York Rd.
Towson, MD 21252
Edwin Effrein
P.O. Box 806
Hewitt, NJ 07421
Marc Eisinger
49 rue Anguste Lancon
F-75013 Paris FRANCE
J.G.R. Elferink
Kasteelhof 9
2314 XL Leiden THE NETHERLANDS
Michael C. Ennis-McMillan
Anthropology, Skidmore College
815 N. Broadway
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
Zarina Estrada F.
Salvatierra #33
Los Arcos
Hermosillo, Sonora MEXICO
Susan Evans
Dept. of Anthropology
Penn State University
University Park, PA 16802
Ricardo A. Fagoaga Hndz.
Eugenia 610-W
Col. Del Valle
México, D.F. 03100 MEXICO
Anita Fahringer
Serials Librarian
University of Pennsylvania
University Museum
33rd and Spruce Streets
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Diana Fane
The Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway
Brooklyn, NY 11238
Brian Farley
Dept. of Soc./Anthro.
Southwest Missouri State University
901 S. National Ave.
Springfield, MO 65804
Ramón Favela
Dept. of Art History
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
University of Florida
George A. Smathers Libraries
Latin American Collection
Gainesville, FL 32611
George Foster
Department of Anthropology
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720
Melvin Fowler
Department of Anthropology
Univ. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Milwaukee, WI 53201
William R. Fowler, Jr.
Department of Anthropology
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN 37325
Norbert Francis
Education , Box 5774
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, AZ 86011
Judith Friedlander
Division of Social Sciences
SUNY-Purchase
Purchase, NY 10577
Peter T. Furst
11 Cerrado Dr.
Santa Fe, NM 87505
Joaquim Galarza
Musée de l'Homme
75016 Paris FRANCE
César Gallegos
15533 Seaforth Ave.
Norwalk, CA 90650
Enrique Hugo García Valencia
Privada del Bosque #23
Col. Luz del Barrio
Xalapa, Veracruz 91020 MEXICO
Irma García Ortíz
Jefe de la Biblioteca
Inst. de Invest. Antropológicas
México, D.F. 04510 MEXICO
José Z. García
Dept. 3 LAS
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, NM 88003
Josefina García Quintana
Taller de Traducción
Inst. de Invest. Historicas
Ciudad Universitaria
México, D.F. 04510 MEXICO
Carlos Garma Navarro
Depto. de Antropología
Univ. Autonoma Metro.
Michoacan y La Purisima
Iztapalapa, México, D.F. MEXICO
Susan D. Gillespie
Dept. of Anthropology
1112 Turlington Hall
P.O. Box 117305
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611
Willard Gingerich
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
St. John's University
Jamaica, NY 11439
Arturo Gómez Martínez
Instituto de Investigaciones
Historico-Sociales de la Univ. Veracruzana
Diego Leño No. 8, Col. Centro
Xalapa, Veracruz 91000 MEXICO
Yolotl González Torres
Ex Convento de El Carmen
Av. Revolución y Monasterio
San Angel
México, D.F. 01000 MEXICO
Stella Ma. Gonzalez Cicero
Biblioteca Nacional
de Antropología e Historia
Reforma y Gandhi
México, D.F. 11560 MEXICO
Henri Gooren
Grondelsloot 73
2724 BT Zoetermeer THE NETHERLANDS
Michel Graulich
Univ. Libre de Bruxelles
Av. F.D. Roosevelt
1050 Brussels, BELGIUM
Ruth Gubler
155 Ocean Lane Dr. 505
Key Biscayne, FL 33149
Egill Oscar Gustafson
El Mundo Maya
Centro de Antropología
Yajalon, Chiapas 29930 MEXICO
Laura Gutierrez-Witt
The General Libraries
Benson Latin American Coll.
University of Texas-Austin
Austin, TX 78712
Charles Hale
Department of History
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52242
Harold B. Haley
2311 Broadway Ave., S.W.
Roanoke, VA 24014
Byron Hamann
Dept. of Anthropology
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN 37235
William F. Hanks
University of Chicago
1126 East 59th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
Robert C. Harman
Department of Anthropology
California State University
Long Beach, CA 90840
Herbert R. Harvey
Department of Anthropology
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI 53706
Ross Hassig
Department of Anthropology
University of Oklahoma
Norman, OK 73019
John Hays
Modern Language Program
Tyler Junior College
P.O. Box 9020
Tyler, TX 75711
Annabeth Headrick
Dept. of Anthropology
Vanderbilt University
Box 6050, Station B
Nashville, TN 37235
John S. Henderson
Department of Anthropology
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
Barbara Hergianto
South Florida Community College
600 W. College Drive
Avon Park, FL 33825
Angela Marie Herren
151 E. 90th Street, Apt. 1D
New York, NY 10128
Fermin Herrera
California State University
18111 Nordhoff Street
Northridge, CA 91330
Doris Heyden
INAH
Dir. Etnología y Antro. Social
A.P. 20-385
México, D.F. 01000 MEXICO
Frederic Hicks
Department of Anthropology
University of Louisville
Louisville, KY 40292
Jane Hill
Department of Anthropology
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
Kenneth C. Hill
Department of Anthropology
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
Eike Hinz
Arch. Inst., Univ. Hamburg
Johnsallee 35
D-2000 Hamburg 13 GERMANY
Harol Hoffman-Meisner
1 Deerwood Court
Greensboro, NC 27410
Clyde Holler
P.O. Box 88
Morgantown, GA 30560
Steve Holler
Thomas More College
Crestview Hills, KY 41017
John W. Hoopes
Department of Anthropology
University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS 66045
James F. Hopgood
Dept. of Anthropology
Northern Kentucky University
Highland Heights, KY 41099
Rebecca Horn
Dept. of History
University of Utah
380 S. 1400 East, Room 211
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
Brad Huber
Department of Soc./Anthro.
College of Charleston
Charleston, SC 29424
Cindy Hull
Department of Anthro./Soc.
Grand Valley State Univ.
256 Ash
Allendale, MI 49401
Serials Department (Periodicals)
Helmke Library
Indiana-Purdue University
2101 Coliseum Blvd. East
Fort Wayne, IN 46805
Serials Department (Archives)
Helmke Library
Indiana-Purdue University
2101 Coliseum Blvd. East
Fort Wayne, IN 46805
Indiana University
Serials Department
Main Library
Bloomington, IN 47405
John H. Ingham
Dept. of Anthropology
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Institute for Mesoamerican Studies
Social Science 263
University at Albany, SUNY
1400 Washington Ave.
Albany, NY 12222
Barry L. Isaac
Dept. of Anthropology
University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, OH 45221
Lori Jacobson
McAllen International Museum
l900 Nolana
McAllen, TX 78504
Marilee Jantzer-White
70 Animosa Circle
Durango, CO 81301
J. Eduardo Jaramillo
Coordinator
Latin American Studies
Denison University
Granville, OH 43023
Olivia Jarvio Fernández
Coord., Desarrolo de Colecciones
Universidad Veracruzana
Av. de las Culturas Veracruzanas No. 1
Xalapa, Veracruz 91090 MEXICO
Robert J. Jeske
Department of Anthropology
University of Wisconsin Milwaukee
Milwaukee, WI 53201
Patrick Johansson
Calle Paris 241
México, D.F. 04100 MEXICO
David K. Jordan
Department of Anthropology
University of California-San Diego
La Jolla, CA 92093
Terrence Kaufman
Department of Anthropology
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
John Keber
Dept. of Religious Studies
Manhattan College
Riverdale, NY 10471
Julio de Keijzer
Ana Maria Mariscal
Gardenia No. 33
Fracc. Briones
Xalapa, Veracruz MEXICO
Susan Kellogg
Department of History
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204
Mary Ritchie Key
Dept. of Linguistics
Univ. of California-Irvine
Irvine, CA 92697
Jerry King
Cherokee Center
Route 2, Box 463
Lavonia, GA 30553
John King
P.O. Box 983
Plymouth, CA 95669
Vernon Kjonegaard
Dept. of Religious Studies
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Linda L. Kjeldgaard
Editor, ENCUENTRO
Latin American Institute
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131
Susanne Klaus
Im Grommesgarten 13
D-53332 Bornheim-Sechtem GERMANY
Cecelia F. Klein
Department of Art
UCLA
405 Hilgard Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90024
Timothy James Knab Herbes
Depto. de Antropologia
Universidad de las Americas, Puebla
Ex-Hacienda Sta. Catarina Martir
Cholula, Puebla 72820 MEXICO
Shirley Kregar
Ctr. for Latin American Studies
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Frances Krug
1512 Park Street, No. 10
White Bear Lake, MN 55110
Donald V. Kurtz
Department of Anthropology
Univ. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Milwaukee, WI 53201
Kerstin Ladewig
Hertha-Feiner-Asmus-Steig 5
22303 Hamburg
GERMANY
Pacho Lane
Depto. de Antropología
Escuela de Humanidades
Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos
Cuernavaca, Morelos 62210 MEXICO
George Lang
Dept. of Comparative Literature
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E6
CANADA
Yolanda Lastra de Suarez
Inst. de Invest. Antropológicas
UNAM
Ciudad Universitaria
México, D.F. 04510 MEXICO
Luis Leal
P.O. Box 381
Goleta, CA 93116
Norman Lederer
Thaddeus Stevens State
School of Technology
750 East King Street
Lancaster, PA 17602
Dana Leibsohn
Department of Art
Smith College
Northampton, MA 01063
Tonia Leon
10 Gail Court
Huntington, NY 11743
Kathy Leonard
Foreign Lang. and Lit.
300 Pearson Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011
Ascensión Hernández de León Portilla
Instituto de Investigaciones Filológicas
Circuito Mario de la Cueva
Cuidad Universitaria
México, D.F. 04510 MEXICO
Miguel León-Portilla
Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas
Circuito Mario de la Cueva
Ciudad Universitaria
México, D.F. 04510 MEXICO
Jorge de Leon Rivera
Orizaba #8 Mza. 55
San Jeronimo Aculco-Lidice
México, D.F. 10400 MEXICO
Patrick Lesbre
2, Allée de la Soulane
31320 Auzeville FRANCE
Elena Limón Ríos
Univ. de las Americas
A.P. 60, Sta. Catarina Mártir,
Puebla 72820 MEXICO
Frank Lipp
3860 Cannon Plaza
Bronx, NY 10463
James Lockhart
Department of History
UCLA
Los Angeles, CA 90024
Michael H. Logan
Department of Anthropology
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 37996
Alfredo López Austin
Inst. de Invest. Antropológicas
Delegación Coyoacan
México, D.F. 04510 MEXICO
J. López y Maguño
19222 Huntington Street
Huntington Beach, CA 92648
Leonardo López Lujan
Museo del Templo Mayor
Guatemala 60, Centro
México, D.F. 06060 MEXICO
Christopher Lutz
75 Richdale Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02140
Robert E. MacLaury
3500 Powleton Ave., B-403
Philadelphia, PA 19104
William Madsen
Department of Anthropology
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
James Maffie
Dept. of Philosophy
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523
Joyce Marcus
University of Michigan
Museum of Anthropology
Univ. Mus. Bldg., 1109 Geddes
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Elio Masferrer Kan
A.P. 21-456 Coyoacan
México, D.F. 04000 MEXICO
Eduardo Matos Moctezuma
Museo del Templo Mayor
Calle de Guatemala
Colonia Centro
México, D.F. 06060 MEXICO
Theresa May
University of Texas Press
P.O. Box 7819
Austin, TX 78713
Enrique Mayer
Latin American Studies
Yale University
New Haven, CT 06520
Pilar Máynez Vidal
Tejocotes 181, D. 402
México, D.F. 03100 MEXICO
Brian T. McCormack
1109 S. Reseda St.
Anaheim, CA 92806
Terry McCoy
Ctr. for Lat. Amer. Studies
319 Grinter Hall
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611
James H. McDonald
Division of Behavioral and Cultural Sciences
University of Texas at San Antonio
San Antonio, TX 78249
Jill L. McKeever-Furst
250 E. Wynnewood, Apt. B8
Wynnewood, PA 19096
Norman A. McQuown
University of Chicago
1126 East 59th St.
Chicago, IL 60637
John A. Mead
401 S. Gillespie
Pampa, TX 79065
Gilbert Merkx
Latin American Institute
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131
Jacqueline Messing
3709 N. Fremont Ave.
Tucson, AZ 85719
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Robert Goldwater Library
5th Ave. and 82nd Street
New York, NY 10028
Susan Milbrath
Curator,
Florida Museum of Natural History
Gainesville, FL 32611
Ann V. Millard
Department of Anthropology
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
[Information removed from posted version]
Lisa Mitten
Anthropology Bibliographer
207 Hillman Library
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Luz María Mohar Betancurt
CIESAS
Hidalgo y Matamoros, Tlalpan
México, D.F. 14000 MEXICO
John Monaghan
Dept. of History
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo, MI 49008
Carmen Morúa
Depto. de Letras y Lingüística
Universidad de Sonora
A.P. 793
Hermosillo, Sonora 83000 MEXICO
Daniel O. Mosquera
Dept. of Modern Languages and Literatures
Union College
Schenectady, NY 12308
Eileen M. (de la Torre) Mulhare
R.D. 2, Box 38, East Lake Rd.
Hamilton, NY 13346
Patrick Murphy
I.T.E.S.M.
Campus Querétaro
Querétaro 76000 MEXICO
Timothy D. Murphy
Department of Anthropology
Northern Kentucky University
Highland Heights, KY 41076
Federico Nagel B.
Talara 66
Col. Tepeyac-Insurgentes
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The image that appears below was cut by a Nahua ritual specialist from the village of Teposteco, near Chicontepec in northern Veracruz. It represents simultaneously tonana tlalticpac, "our mother earth's surface, "totata tlalticpac, "our father earth's surface," and totiotsij, "our sacred deity." It is cut from hand made bark paper and was collected by Lic. Arturo Gómez Martínez, a Nahuatl speaker who has published widely on Nahua religion. Plant images are cut from the figure's body and a phallic-vaginal symbol indicates that the spirit incorporates male and female characteristics. The headdress may be the open jaws of the earth. In Nahua belief from this area, the earth is an ambivalent figure that is the source of fertility and life, and at the same time, a devourer of the dead. A rich and complex religious system is found in northern Veracruz and the surrounding region among the Nahua, Tepehua, and Otomi, based on the depiction of key spirit entities in such cut-paper images. Ritual specialists place the images on elaborate altars and dedicate offerings to them, including blood.
Last updated: 11/29/07