Uto-Aztecan Homeland

[Mark David Morris]

Dear List,

Yes, this is interesting and I am not competent enough in the details to
raise many hard substantive points about the matter.  But, the first
question that I ask myself is how did the PUA linguistic family get into
the Americas and into Mesoamerica?  If you take an expansive view of the
Otomanguean family and affinitive branches, there is a general extension
of these languages over central, southeastern and south central
Mesoamerica from the Panuco River to Subtiaba.  From there, it is easy to
conclude there was an westward bound intrusion of UA (as Nahuatl) into the
central and southern area (and in at least two major waves as Dakin and
Wichann describe), fragmenting and altering the older Otomanguean
languages spread through the region.  If UA originated within the
Mesoamerican cultural sphere, why would it present itself clearly as an
irruption into a landscape of otherwise affinitive languages?  I
would still be inclined, hence, to view UA's arrival into western
Mesoamerica a consequence of southern migrations.  That does not discount
the possibility, I believe, that a "Mesoamericanized" UA then returned
north with agricultural cultivators.  If anyone sees any big problems with
this hypothesis, I would really like to hear about it since (barring a
significant epiphany) this is what I will tell my students in winter
survey course of Mesoamerican civilization.

best,
Mark Morris



















~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

La muerte tiene permiso a todo

MDM, PhD Candidate
Dept. of History, Indiana Univ.