Nahuatl scholarship

[Michael Swanton]

Excuse my delay in getting back; its been a bit rough
here in Oaxaca recently and I have been distracted.

Ben, already knowledgeable about New Philology (NP),
asked for biographical information, but also for
suggestions as to “persistent problems, questions and
unexplored avenues that remain”. My message attempted
to provide ideas that build on the important work of
NP, but--as far as I’m aware--have generally not been
unexplored in the NP literature. 

I truly hope I didn’t give anyone the impression that
I consider NP to have been operating with blinders.
This is not at all my belief. I don’t think Lockhart’s
“The Nahuas after the Conquest” has ever presumed to
be “the be-all and end-all” (as Barry said) of
colonial Nahua scholarship. But it is unquestionably a
tremendous advance. I have come back to that book over
and over again and my appreciation for it has only
grown. I also hope nobody took my message to say that
NP has been lazy in its investigations. Again, this
could not be farther from the truth. NP has been an
exceptionally productive school of history. We are
“only human” (as Barry said); it certainly would be
unfair and hypocritical to expect then a superhuman,
all-encompassing research production.

Again, my message was not directed towards established
investigators as a criticism for not having done more
things; it was directed towards someone who is about
to begin a PhD investigation. I believe its important
for someone who is about to set off on such an
investigation to consider actively ways to expand the
already existing research. Perhaps others here have
some ideas as well and would consider posting them
here. I for one would be most interested to read them.

I found John’s message very interesting. Enormous work
needs to be done in the descriptive linguistics and
documentation of Mexican languages. Moreover, it is
becoming increasingly apparent that the continued
internal colonialism of indigenous people in Mexico
needs to be dealt with urgently. Educational programs
such as John’s help do that. My congratulations to him
for having taken up these challenges. 

Based on what has been published over the past three
decades by those claiming to be working in this
school, I would describe NP as the study of colonial
history of indigenous peoples primarily through the
close reading of colonial language texts in their own
languages (most notably Nahuatl, Yucatec and Mixtec).
Is this characterization fair? John, how do you see
your work within the tradition of NP?

To rephrase, and hopefully clarify, my previous
message, I’d make the following off-the-cuff
suggestions for a PhD candidate interested in
preparing a dissertation on Nahuatl-language sources.
1-Consider work on a local, (for example, municipal or
mayordomia) archive. This can be a good way to
understand Mexican archives and also will contribute
directly to the protection of the documents
themselves.
2-(Related to first) Consider lower-level indigenous
institutions (mayordomias, secciones, barrios
) as a
possible case study. Many of these institutions have
left local archives with indigenous-language
documentation which, as far as I’m aware, almost
nobody has looked at.
3-Consider ways in which knowledge from other
disciplines can contribute to the study of these
texts. The issue here is how to avoid the constraints
of disciplinary classifications—-while respecting the
necessary differentiation and specialization of the
social sciences—-to arrive at new, insightful and
useful interpretations of social reality. Ideally this
would have interdisciplinarity be a unifying activity
drawing together divided knowledge to address specific
problem or question. The interpretation of texts (i.e.
philology, new or old) lends itself to such an
interdisciplinary approach.
4-Consider indigenous history after the 18th century.
5-Consider incorporating modern indigenous oral
literature, speech genres and rhetoric into the study
of older documents.
6-Spend some time living in an indigenous community if
you can.

Many other tasks are necessary for the development a
more refined Mesoamerican philology. Many basic tools
are only just being made now. The publication of
critical editions (like Barry is doing) is crucial.
The painstaking work of making morphological or
lexical concordances (like Joe Campbell is doing) is
invaluable. Establishing censes of known
indigenous-language documentation (like Frederick
Schwaller has done and Michel Oudijk and Maria
Castañeda are doing) is also essential. Digitalization
of the texts (like Stephanie and the U Oregon team is
doing with the wired humanities project), the
preservation of texts, the creation of text-based
grammars, etymological dictionaries
the list goes on
and on. And these are just the tools based on the
older written sources! This barely touches on the
living cultures. But perhaps these important tasks
don’t make for a good dissertation topic on Nahua
history.

I am in complete agreement with John that we should
make the training and support of indigenous
professionals in history (linguistics, archaeology,
sociology, etc) a priority; I would argue we should
make it our foremost priority. But, of course, it is
not reasonable to expect much advance on this from a
PhD student who has yet to determine his dissertation
topic.

Anyway, thanks for the interesting comments.

Mike Swanton


--- Amapohuani at aol.com wrote:

> Listeros:
> 
> I feel that Michael's comments are very thoughtful
> and I am glad that he has 
> shared them with the list. 
> 
>  I speak only for myself but I especially like what
> I take to be his 
> well-expressed suggestions about aggressively
> reaching out and incorporating into all 
> of our work whatever is useful and illuminating [and
> I mean that in both the 
> sense of those doing the work and their audiences,
> the two not always being so 
> different]. I share that sentiment, only pointing
> out that individuals and 
> even small groups of collaborating scholars can only
> do so much. For example, 
> Louise Burkhart and I are going to end up spending
> twelve very arduous years 
> putting out the four-volume NAHUATL THEATER set. And
> currently I am on a longterm 
> fellowship at the Newberry Library in Chicago
> working on some remarkable, and 
> basically unknown, Carochi papers. I am going to
> work up a critical edition: 
> and I conservatively estimate three more years on
> this project alone! I can 
> imagine doing more, learning how to do more, and
> wish I could do more, but 
> unfortunately I am only human. So if new folks want
> to join in the work and bring 
> new perspectives and skill sets, IMHO, the more the
> merrier! 
> 
> I would only add an observation. I remember when
> xeroxes of a few chapters of 
> Jim's THE NAHUAS AFTER THE CONQUEST were sitting in
> boxes at UCLA circa 1990 
> to be read by his grad students. One of those
> students, Kevin Terraciano, has 
> taken Jim's place at UCLA, and Kevin's own survey of
> the Mixtecs is now the 
> equivalent for that group of what Jim's is for early
> Nahuas. That people might 
> now find that Jim's THE NAHUAS is not the be-all and
> end-all [I never thought 
> it was or was meant to be but appreciated it for
> helping speed the rest of us 
> on our way] and that more work in many directions is
> necessary and feasible, I 
> find both fascinating and a bit funny. Whatever it
> is called, Early Latin 
> American Studies, the New Philology [as opposed to
> the old and now-displaced 
> one?], Ethnohistory, mainstream this or cutting-edge
> that, work on early Nahuatl 
> texts is very v ery far from being even modestly
> 'finished.' It is not an 
> 'accomplished fact' sitting on the 'road of
> progress' getting in the way but, to my 
> way of thinking, a constantly moving target -- note
> that Louise and I have 
> effectively made Jim's discussion of early Nahuatl
> theater very thin and dated, 
> but Jim's work is still very valuable in many
> respects even as people add it 
> to, modify it, and even replace it. In fact, on a
> personal note I must say that 
> I do not think I will get to see much more than
> modest advances in my lifetime 
> just on the textual corpus alone, not to mention all
> the others directions 
> and projects that Michael lists.   
> 
> Again, I thank Michael for sharing his thoughts with
> us and wish him well in 
> his future endeavors. 
> 
> Ye ixquich.
> Barry D. Sell
> 
> In a message dated 10/27/06 8:00:26 AM,
> mwswanton at yahoo.com writes:
> 
> 
> > 
> > Lockhart¡Çs "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¡Çm
> 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 mayordom$(D+?a 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¡Ç 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 Lockhart$(D+$"os work.
> > > While I received a few responses (Schwaller,
> Wood,
> > > Gilchrist $(D+$¡È 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:
> > >
> > > $(D+$)MAs 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?$(D+$¢®
> > >
> > > 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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