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I, for one, don't take it as surprising. I would have been inclined to the same position, but what really would have solidified it for me was the 1986 Campbell, Kaufman, Smith-Stark paper in <font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><i>Language</i></span></font>.<div><br></div><div>BTW, among the characteristics of Mesoamerican high rhetoric, both prose and verse, is repetition in pairs and pairs of pairs. In verse it is shared codas of vocables such as "ohuaya ohuaya." If one comes across even a fragment of a typical song in Nahuatl with an ohuaya coda, one has a sense of the likely whole: four verse-pairs, each pair with a common coda.</div><div><br></div><div>I WAS surprised at the time and sort of pleased to come across a fragment with an ohuaya in one of the Yucatec Maya Books of Chilam Balam. Aha! I said to myself. It's not just Nahuatl. It's a Mesoamerican verse form. Sort of like finding out for all on one's own that not all sonnets are English and Elizabethan.</div><div><br></div><div><br><div><div>On Jan 31, 2010, at 4:26 PM, Michael Smith wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region"> <o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="PlaceName"> <o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="PlaceType"> <o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"> <o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="PersonName"> <!--[if !mso]> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--> <style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:justify; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} h1 {margin-top:6.0pt; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center; page-break-after:avoid; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; text-transform:uppercase;} h2 {margin-top:6.0pt; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:justify; page-break-after:avoid; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} p.MsoFooter, li.MsoFooter, div.MsoFooter {margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:justify; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} p.MsoEnvelopeReturn, li.MsoEnvelopeReturn, div.MsoEnvelopeReturn {margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:justify; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline;} p.Quote, li.Quote, div.Quote {margin-top:0in; margin-right:.5in; margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:30.0pt; margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:justify; line-height:150%; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} span.EmailStyle21 {mso-style-type:personal-compose; font-family:Arial; color:windowtext;} /* Page Definitions */ @page {mso-endnote-separator:url("<a href="cid:header.htm\@01CAA281.55C400F0">cid:header.htm\@01CAA281.55C400F0</a>") es; mso-endnote-continuation-separator:url("<a href="cid:header.htm\@01CAA281.55C400F0">cid:header.htm\@01CAA281.55C400F0</a>") ecs;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:.7in 1.0in .7in 1.0in; mso-footer:url("<a href="cid:header.htm\@01CAA281.55C400F0">cid:header.htm\@01CAA281.55C400F0</a>") f1;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="2050" /> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:shapelayout v:ext="edit"> <o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" /> </o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--> <div class="Section1"><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:Arial">I would be interested in hearing commentary from linguists and others about David’s very interesting paper in Acta Universitaria (the link is in his latest post). I found this paper extremely enlightening and very surprising. Who would have thought that the political, urban, and social hierarchies in Otomi and Nahuatl cultures were virtually identical in structure? Perhaps my amazement comes from ignorance or naiveté. But in Mesoamerican studies we are accustomed to thinking in ethnic terms, and interpreting societies, cultures, and material culture in terms of ethnic groups. The Nahuas were like this, and the Otomis were like that. Maybe we have internalized the ethnic stereotypes in Sahagún (Otomi blockheads, etc.). But I found David’s article enlightening and I am having students read it.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:Arial"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:Arial">How common is his notion of a “essentially homogeneous plurilinguistic culture” ? Is this a common occurrence in other areas? Is his model surprising, or something to be expected? What are the implications of this kind of model for understanding prehispanic society in central <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Mexico</st1:country-region></st1:place>? (please pardon my ignorance here, I readily admit to being among the linguistically-challenged, and I no longer have departmental colleagues like <st1:personname w:st="on">John Justeson</st1:personname> to pester about these things).<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:Arial"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:Arial">Mike Smith<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:Arial"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="margin-left:.5in;text-align:left; text-indent:-.5in;text-autospace:none"><font size="3" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial">Wright Carr, David Charles<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="margin-left:.5in;text-align:left; text-indent:-.5in;text-autospace:none"><font size="3" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial">2</span></font><font face="Arial"><span lang="ES" style="font-family:Arial">008 La sociedad prehispánica en las lenguas Náhuatl y Otomí. <i><span style="font-style:italic">Acta Universitaria (Universidad de Guanajuato)</span></i> 18(especial):15-23.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="ES" style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:Arial"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><st1:personname w:st="on"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Michael E. Smith</span></font></st1:personname><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">, Professor</span></font><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">School</span></font></st1:placetype><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Human</st1:placename></span></font></st1:place><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"> Evolution & Social Change</span></font><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Arizona</span></font></st1:placename><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"> <st1:placetype w:st="on">State</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></span></font></st1:place><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Arial"><a href="http://www.public.asu.edu/~mesmith9">www.public.asu.edu/~mesmith9</a></span></font><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Arial"><a href="http://publishingarchaeology.blogspot.com">http://publishingarchaeology.blogspot.com</a></span></font><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Arial"><a href="http://calixtlahuaca.blogspot.com">http://calixtlahuaca.blogspot.com</a></span></font><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p> </div> </o:smarttagtype></o:smarttagtype></o:smarttagtype></o:smarttagtype></o:smarttagtype><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">_______________________________________________</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Nahuatl mailing list</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="mailto:Nahuatl@lists.famsi.org">Nahuatl@lists.famsi.org</a></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://www.famsi.org/mailman/listinfo/nahuatl">http://www.famsi.org/mailman/listinfo/nahuatl</a></div> </blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>