Nahuatl scholarship

Fri Oct 27 17:08:06 UTC 2006

Michael,
          A few months ago there was a discussion about how people on  
the list got into Nahuatl. I have been putting off making my  
contribution, but your mail on the “New Philology” has given me  
good excuse to do it now. Let me start off by saying that I consider  
myself within that tradition.
          While doing my MA in Spanish at USC, I took a course in  
Latin American Colonial Literature with Mabel Moraña, and read  
“Visión de los vencidos” by Miguel León Portilla. After asking  
myself why I couldn’t read the texts in the original language, I  
searched around LA for someplace to study Nahuatl. I took two  
semesters of Classical Nahuatl with William Bright at UCLA, using  
Andrew’s text and workbook, which accompany me, rebound, to this  
day. At the same time I approached Jim Lockhart who, although I  
wasn’t a student of his, generously (a characteristic that  
distinguishes him) invited me to participate in the informal study  
group he held at his home. So for the next two years, twice a month,  
I sat at Jim’s kitchen table with other grad students, read and  
commented Carochi, and parsed, analyzed and translated mundane  
Nahuatl documents. Using the expression that Joe and others have  
used, I was hooked immediately. I think there are two things that  
were involved in the start of this love affair. First, Nahuatl  
grammar is a beautifull piece of machinery: everything is systematic  
and easily understandable (the only exceptions I can think of are the  
Classical plural noun endings, and the passive/applicative/causative  
verb radicals). Second, reading mundane documents lets you sit down  
with an indian who lived 300 hundred years ago and listen to his or  
her comments written in Nahuatl on daily life and interactions with  
Spaniards. It’s fascinating. And I think this an aspect of New  
Philology that has integrated itself into the work I do with native  
speakers. More on this in a moment.
          USC wouldn’t let me use Nahuatl to satisfy my second  
language requirement. They said I needed to study a real language, so  
I took two semesters of Latin, and then forgot it. I went on to do my  
Ph.D. in Literature at UCSD. My dissertation, "Procesos de sujeción  
colonial en el municipio tlaxcalteca del siglo XVI y la respuesta  
indígena," was basically a discourse analysis of the Nahuatl text of  
Las Actas de Tlaxcala.
          I returned to Zacatecas in 1993 with my family (my wife and  
I met while I was studying to be an elementary school teacher at the  
Escuela Normal “Manuel Avila Camacho” in Zacatecas, 1977-1981),  
and began to work in the Facultad de Humanidades at the Universidad  
Autónoma de Zacatecas, teaching classes in Hispanic Literature,  
Classical Nahuatl, and finishing my dissertation.
          During that time I became aware that there were many native  
speakers of Nahuatl studying as undergraduates at the university. I  
immediately began to work daily with two of them, Urbano Francisco  
Martínez and Delfina de la Cruz de la Cruz. As I began to learn  
conversational Nahuatl, I immediately became aware of the fact that  
Classical Nahuatl and the Modern Nahuatl of the Huasteca were simply  
two variants of a single system: in other words, one set of rules  
explains all. In fact, over the years, I have come to the conclusion  
that if you study either one in isolation, it’s like trying to read  
a book with some of the pages torn out.
          Together Urbano, Delfina and I have developed a series of  
courses in Older and Modern Nahuatl which we teach at the UAZ, both  
during the school year and during the Summer. We also founding two  
non-profit institutes, one in Mexico (Instituto de Docencia e  
Investigación Etnológica de Zacatecas) and one in the US (Macehualli  
Educational Research) for the purpose of funding our teaching and  
research projects.
          Currently we have about 10 indigenous college students on  
scholarship working with us in the preparation of a monolingual  
dictionary and a monolingual grammar of Modern Huastecan Nahuatl  
(using “Classical” spelling and word entry conventions). I have  
also recently started working with two students who are native  
speakers of wixarika (huichol), and sometime in the future we will  
offer courses and do research projects in this area. I also work  
currently with mundane Nahuatl documents from Colonial Western Mexico.
          We work on a series of principles:
1. The relationship between Older and Modern Nahuatl (or any  
indigenous) language and culture is one of continuity, not of  
rupture. One can not be understood in isolation from the other.
2. Indigenous students need to study older and modern aspects of  
their language and culture; and they need to review, comment on, and  
participate in (not as passive informants, but as research  
assistants) the Western production of knowledge concerning  
Mesoamerica. They need to be authors of their own projects in this area.
3. Bilingualism is a good thing; the lack of monolingual academic  
(especially reference) materials for native speakers is not.  
Institutions of higher education all over the world) need to realize  
that general education courses in ethnic studies offered in the  
dominant language are of zero value if they are not accompanied by  
courses in indigenous languages taught in person by native speakers.
4. Mexican institutions of higher education need to transform  
themselves from deculturalization machines into spaces where  
indigenous students can study a career in Spanish, and at the same  
time become educated in their native language and culture,  
contributing actively to its revitalization and the extension of its  
use in urban society. However, since in general, Mexico and its  
educational institutions have neither the interest nor the resources  
for developing this, partnerships with “1st world” institutions  
will be indispensable. But they will be indispensable for both sides.
          As I said at the beginning, I consider myself within the  
New Philology. I also consider that the future of this school, as  
well as the future of indigenous studies in general will look  
something like what we are doing here in Zacatecas.
John

John Sullivan, Ph.D.
Profesor de lengua y cultura nahua
Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas
Instituto de Docencia e Investigación Etnológica de Zacatecas, A.C.
Tacuba 152, int. 47
Centro Histórico
Zacatecas, Zac. 98000
México
Oficina: +52 (492) 925-3415
Fax: +52 (492) 925-3416
Domicilio: +52 (492) 768-6048
Celular: +52 (492) 118-0854
idiez at mac.com
www.idiez.org.mx
www.macehualli.org

On Oct 27, 2006, at 9:59 AM, Michael Swanton wrote:

>
> Lockhart‚s "New Philology" clearly represents an
> enduring contribution to understanding indigenous
> culture during Spanish colonial rule. It has
> contributed significantly to the view that cultural
> change during that time was not the simple
> displacement of indigenous culture, but rather
> functioned through already existing indigenous
> mechanisms and ways of understanding. It is a
> extremely important historical school. There are many
> consequences to their work, which provides an
> important base for all future investigation. I‚m a big
> fan of New Philology.
>
> I believe however that it can, and should, be
> expanded. The following suggestions come to mind:
> 1. The selection of sources. Most of the major sources
> used by the new philologists are located in national
> or foreign archives and libraries. Very little work
> has been carried out in more local archives, I suspect
> because of their poor organization and difficult
> access. The mayordomía archives are practically
> untouched. A worthwhile project you might consider is
> the organization of a local archive. Not only might
> that provide a solid case study, the basis for which
> major synthetic studies are built, but it will
> contribute to the preservation of the Nahuas
> historical patrimony.
>
> 2. Interdisciplinary study. In their method, the new
> philologists‚ study ends where the text ends. The
> contextualization of the Nahua ancestral documents
> reaches little beyond the texts themselves. It is
> uncommon that data from archaeology, cultural
> geography, linguistics, contemporary social structure,
> historical architecture, etc. are ever brought to bear
> on issues raised in the texts under examination. Thus,
> in his major synthetic study, Lockhart dedicates a
> whole section to the architectural layout of colonial
> households, yet never considers the mass of
> archaeological data that directly relates to this
> issue. Such data can potentially enrich the reading
> and interpretation of the texts considerably, but its
> use would involve transgressing disciplinary
> boundaries and leaving the domain of traditional,
> document-based history. Mesoamerica is a rewarding
> area for interdisciplinary study.
>
> 3. The study of post-Independent Mexico Nahuas. New
> Philology invariably studies texts that are temporally
> limited to the centuries of Spanish colonial rule.
> Writing in indigenous languages continued after the
> colony, and, though considerably different in its
> content and audience, this too reflects social
> realities of Indigenous Mexico. Moreover, in Mexico
> and Guatemala today, many Native Americans continue to
> produce texts, both written and oral, in their
> languages. While recognizing continuity in indigenous
> ways of understanding during the dramatic changes from
> the precolonial to colonial periods, New Philology has
> not incorporated indigenous cultural continuity after
> 1821 into their investigations. The great Hellenist
> Milman Parry, significantly changed how we understand
> the classical Greek texts by studying early 20th
> century oral literature in Yugoslavia. I am convinced
> the study of modern oral literature, speech genres and
> rhetorical devises would shed much light on the older
> texts. In general, it has been my experience that
> trying to understand the present day realities of
> indigenous life will help inspire and ground your work
> in new and unexpected ways.
>
> Saludos,
> Michael Swanton
>
>
> --- b.leeming at rivers.org wrote:
>
>>
>> Listeros,
>>
>> I posted an inquiry to the list back in July asking
>> for information on who
>> is currently doing scholarship on the corpus of
>> 16th-18th century
>> Nahuatl-language documents that is the focus of much
>> of Lockhartâ•˙s work.
>> While I received a few responses (Schwaller, Wood,
>> Gilchrist â•„ thank you!),
>> my hunch is that there may be more of you actively
>> reading posts now that
>> the academic year is in full swing and so I would
>> like to pose part of my
>> original query again.
>>
>> In particular, it is the second part of my question
>> (which was not
>> responded to) that I would like to resubmit.  I
>> wrote:
>>
>> â•˛As a soon-to-be doctoral student who is hoping to
>> focus his research on
>> Nahuatl documents such as these, I am interested in
>> determining what are
>> the persistent problems, questions and unexplored
>> avenues that remain.  Or,
>> put another way, where would you advise a would-be
>> scholar who wants to
>> work with Nahuatl source material turn his
>> attention?â•ˇ
>>
>> Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
>>
>> Ben Leeming
>> The Rivers School
>> Weston, MA
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> http://www.famsi.org/mailman/listinfo/nahuatl
>>
>
>
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