ANCIENT MAP OFFERS KEY TO MESOAMERICAN HISTORY

Wed Sep 2 01:39:49 UTC 2009

Hello
Gerardo,

I suspect the
connection Davíd sought to point out between the Cuauhtinchan 2 and Chicanos is
a literary one: the migration narrative of people who have migrated and faced
considerable adversity in establishing a new home is an old one in Mesoamerica. Hence his interest in the Chicano invocation
of Aztlan. But then that simple, elegant message went through the journalistic
meat-grinder and came out as something incoherent.

But, on the
other hand, I don’t know what to make of Davíd’s comments about Aztlan in the
document he has studied. As Michel already pointed out, Aztlan appears nowhere
in the Cuauhtinchan 2. There is no depiction or description of “the people of
Aztlan coming to the city's rescue” in the Cuahtinchan 2 or any related
documentation. The comments attributed to Davíd are indeed in error. Davíd (or
the reporter) must have confounded the Chichimeca with people from Aztlan and
therefore confused Chicomoztoc with Aztlan as Michel suggests.

The broader
question of what is an “error” in the interpretation of history is a thorny
issue. Still, I think few would dispute that a professional historian would
need to offer some very compelling reasons to advance an interpretation which
has zero evidence in the sources, and indeed is even contradicted by them. I
would go even further to say that the historian has an obligation to challenge
such unsupported interpretations, whether in the academic or popular domains. I
think many historians would agree, which is why many have criticized, say, certain
Hollywood movies as historically inaccurate. And,
of course, just because a particular understanding of the past is popular does
not mean that historians should not criticize it if they have good reason to
think it is erroneous.

I confess I
don’t get what you’re driving at with the issue of Greek-inspired architecture
in Washington.
Surely if a Harvard historian said the ancient Greeks built the Lincoln Monument
(or the ancient Egyptians built the Washington
 Monument), I would expect
that historian wouldn’t be complimented on his interesting alternative hypothesis,
but ridiculed, and rightly so.

Saludos,

Michael

--- On Tue, 9/1/09, Gerardo Aldana <gvaldana at yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Gerardo Aldana <gvaldana at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Nahuat-l] ANCIENT MAP OFFERS KEY TO MESOAMERICAN HISTORY
To: "Michel Oudijk" <oudyk at hotmail.com>, tezozomoc at hotmail.com, nahuatl at lists.famsi.org
Date: Tuesday, September 1, 2009, 4:56 PM

Hi Michel,
I wonder to whom your sign-off "abrazo" is sent?  To me, your message sounds more divisive than conciliatory... but maybe that's just me.

I can't speak to the larger claims concerning Aztlan and the Mapa de Cuauhtinchan since I haven't read the book yet.  As for 'feeding constructions of any identities', though, I wonder how many Americans believe that Columbus argued against a flat-earth theory, or that Galileo was jailed (or worse) for championing science over religion?  Is it historically accurate or erroneous to have Greek architecture in Washington D.C.; or is it something else?  Finally, which "errors" should be given priority for "correcting," and how do "we" set that prioritization?

These all seem like much more complicated issues than determinations of correct v. incorrect.  But maybe I'm misreading the intent of your message.

Sincerely,
Gerardo

From: Michel Oudijk <oudyk at hotmail.com>
To: tezozomoc at hotmail.com; nahuatl at lists.famsi.org
Sent: Tuesday, September 1, 2009 6:18:04 AM
Subject: Re: [Nahuat-l] ANCIENT MAP OFFERS KEY TO MESOAMERICAN HISTORY

#yiv1198876815 .hmmessage P
{
margin:0px;padding:0px;}
#yiv1198876815 {
font-size:10pt;font-family:Verdana;}

Dear all,

I'm not sure how to read this message and its contents. Is it just a journalist who didn't understand anything of what a scholar was saying or is this a failed attempt of a scholar to relate his investigations to laymen? Either way, the contents are deplorable and full of mistakes. The attempt to relate the Mapa de Cuauhtinchan with the Chicanos goes so far as to consider Chicomoztoc to be the same as Aztlan and the Chichimeca who leave Chicomoztoc to be people from Aztlan. Mind you, the Mapa de Cuauhtinchan doesn't contain ANY reference to Aztlan which is a purely Mexica-Tenochca invention. Nor does the Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca where this misconstrued story comes from.

I don't know if this interview has anything to do with Carrasco or not, but it seems to me a mistake to feed the need for the construction of Chicano identity with erroneous information.

Un abrazo,

Michel

Source: EFE: 08/27
====

ANCIENT MAP OFFERS KEY TO MESOAMERICAN HISTORY

A map painted by Mexican Indians in the mid-16th century has become a
key document for understanding the migration of Mesoamerican peoples
from their land of origin in what is now the U.S. Southwest,
according to a scholar at Harvard University Divinity School. "Five
years of research and writing (2002-2007) by 15 scholars of
Mesoamerican history show that this document, the Map of Cuauhtinchan
2, with more than 700 pictures in color, is something like a
Mesoamerican Iliad and Odyssey," Dr. David Carrasco told Efe in a
telephone interview. "The map tells sacred stories and speaks of
pilgrimages, wars, medicine, plants, marriages, rituals and heroes of
the Cuauhtinchan community, which means Place of
 the Eagle's Nest (in
the present-day Mexican state of Puebla)," he said. The map, known as
MC2, was painted on amate paper made from tree bark probably around
1540, just two decades after the Spanish conquest of Mexico.

Through images and pictographs, the map recounts the ancestral
history of the Mesoamerican people of Chicomoztoc, meaning Place of
the Seven Caves, followed by their migration to the sacred city of
Cholula and the foundation of Cuauhtinchan, probably in 1174. The
document was apparently meant to resolve a dispute between the
indigenous peoples and the conquistadors as to land ownership in
Cuauhtinchan and surrounding areas, following the evangelizing
process that began in 1527 and was intensified in 1530 with the
building of the town's first convent, which seems to have entailed
the dismantling of the Indian temple. "The history begins in a sacred
city under attack and continues with the
 people of Aztlan coming to
the city's rescue. In compensation they are granted divine authority
to travel long distances until they find their own city in the land
promised them. Their travels are guided by priests, warriors and
divinities," Carrasco said.

That sacred city and the original land of Aztlan would have been in
what is today the Southwestern United States. MC2 remained in
Cuauhtinchan until 1933, the year it was sent to a regional museum
and later came into the possession of an architect. In 2001,
philanthropist Espinosa Yglesias acquired the map and shortly
afterwards contacted Harvard's Center of Latin American Studies to
ask who could analyze the map. Harvard chose Carrasco.

The result of five years of interdisciplinary studies was the
publication of the 479-page book "Cave, City, and Eagle's Nest: An
Interpretive Journey Through the Map of Cuauhtinchan No. 2." Carrasco
said that in
 2010 the University of New Mexico, which published the
original version, will edit the version in Spanish. "This map and the
book we published to decipher it have changed our understanding of
the Mesoamerican codices and of the sacred lands of that region,"
Carrasco said.

That new understanding has political and social significance today.
"This map links the identity and politics of Mexican-Americans, that
is, the Chicano people, with the art, rituals and philosophical
practices of pre-Colombian Mexicans," he said. "The insistence of
Mexican-American scholars and activists on using Aztlan as their
symbol is strengthened by the history recounted by this map, since it
places Mexicans in the United States within a wider history of
migration, ethnic interactions, religions and rituals," the academic
said. MC2, according to Carrasco, links Chicanos "with the lands
where the struggle for their freedom and rights
 took place before the
oppression."

So great is the connection of this map with Chicanos that Colgate
University astronomy professor Anthony Aveni and independent
journalist Laana Carrasco - David's daughter - published a children's
book telling the story of 10-year-old Mexican-American twins who
"travel in time" and go on pilgrimage with their ancestors 100 years
before the Spaniards arrived. This book "connects many of the
concerns and hopes of the present-day Chicano Movement with the
cosmology and life of the ancient indigenous Mexicans," David
Carrasco said. Together with his students and his interdisciplinary
team, Carrasco continues to study the sacred objects and numerous
plants that appear on the map. "This map is a treasure for academics
because it reveals with artistic splendor and in detail the way of
life of an Indian community that told its own story in the midst of a
serious social
 conflict," he said.

Source: EFE: 08/25
====

The above articles were originally published and copyrighted by the
listed sources. These articles are offered for educational purposes
which CIS maintains is  'fair use' of copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.

end: Mexico Week In Review: 08.24-08.30

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