"La Ley Azteca" - Re: homosexualidad y lesbianismo

[La Voz de Aztlan]

Thank you Sr. Jerry Offner:

La Voz de Aztlan thanks you for your thoughtful
commentary. We have been researching the subject
for quite some time and have found little on
the "legal system" of our ancient indigenous
ancestors and specially concerning their judicial
and cultural views on  homosexuality and lesbianism.
You commented that Bernarda Reza Ramirez should
perhaps use "a more modern study". Do you or
anyone else on the list know of any modern
studies on the subject?

Also, does anyone on the list know the Nahuatl
terms for homosexual and lesbian? What Nahuatl
terms were used by the Aztecs to denote the
practices?

Respectfully,

Ernesto Cienfuegos
Editor-in-Chief
La Voz de Aztlan
-----------------
Website:  http://www.aztlan.net






On Mon, 21 May 2001 22:38:22 EDT
IXTLIL at aol.com wrote:

>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> kohler's work, although highly accurate and commendable for its time, is
> decades out of date.  Bernarda Reza Ramirez could use a more modern study.
>
> certainly, the rules and penalties reported are representative of what is
> found in the sources describing fifteenth and sixteen century central mexico.
>  application of the rules is more difficult to ascertain in the various
> "Aztec" (and other central Mexican) groups, particularly with respect to
> prosecutorial zeal or disinterest, strict or lax application of rules to
> cases and general custom and practice in the societal groups in question.
> all these help to expand and modify the meaning of "rules." it is quite
> possible that these rules were absent in some locales and mere guidelines and
> advisories in other locales, although it is known that Texcocan jurisprudence
> (which is the origin of several of these rules)  emphasized strict
> application of rules to cases. this was in response to a perceived need to
> control ethnically diverse groups living in close proximity in times of
> considerable social change.  unfortunately most of the evidence of this
> diversity is irretrievably lost. (the term "aztec" captures about as much of
> the diversity that there was in Central Mexico as does the term "Chinese" for
> the many groups in "China").
>
> the "aztecs' of tenochtitlan were only a small part of the story in central
> mexico. with the apparent decline of the single party state in mexico, we may
> see more scholarship devoted to the distribution of power over time among the
> various groups of pre-hispanic central mexico rather than to studies
> stressing centralization under  the "aztecs" of tenochtitlan--who had come
> over time to be the de facto icon of the one party system.
>
> i would have hoped by now that scholarship would have advanced beyond this
> old routine--using rules and penalties out of context to create the familiar
> "Aztec Crime and Punishment Side (i.e. Freak) Show" and causing unnecessary
> concern instead of studying their interesting jurisprudential system in as
> full a cultural and historical context as we are fortunate enough to have.
>
> jerry offner
>
>
>