cacomistle

[Magnus Pharao Hansen]

Dear Tom

No, tepemaxtla does not mean "mountain splitter", nor is the etymology you
propose possible. Tepe:- does indeed mean mountain, but maxtla does not come
from maxalihui or maxac - it comes from maxtlatl - meaning fox (or by
extension other small furry carnivorous mammals). Tepemaxtla simply means
mountain-fox.  The reason it is not possible to derive maxtla from maxalihui
or maxac is that that would leave the -tla element unexplained, and because
there is no known derivational process that could derive maxtla from
maxalihui or maxactli.

best regards

Magnus


From: grigsby tom <tom_grigsby at yahoo.com>
> To: nahuatl at lists.famsi.org
> Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2011 22:37:27 -0800 (PST)
> Subject: [Nahuat-l] cacomistles
>
> Estimados listeros,
>
>
>
> Am I correct in referring to the tepemaxtla as a “mountain splitter?”  My
> reasoning is as follows:
>
>
>
> The *tepemaxtla*  is a nocturnal <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturnal>,
> arboreal <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arboreal> and omnivorous<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnivore>mammal known
> in English as the ring-tailed cat or *cacomistle* (*Bassariscus
> sumichrasti <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cacomistle>* or *B.astutus*) and
> is a member of the Procyonidae family that includes the raccoons<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procyon_%28genus%29>,
> coatis <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coati>, kinkajous<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinkajou>,
> and olingos <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olingo>.   The etymology of the
> animal’s Tepoztecan name comes from the Nahuatl *tepetl*, “mountain or
> hill, and the verb *maxalihui*, to split, divide, or fork; I would
> therefore gloss the barrio’s epithet as “the mountain splitter.”  According
> to Redfield’s informants, the propensity to “live under the rocks” may
> account for the barrio’s inhabitants’ identification with the *tepemaxtla*and their nickname (1930:82).
>
>
>
>
>  [1] Alonso de Molina, 1571, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y
> mexicana y castellana (Mexico City: Porrua, 1970), f. 78r.  Frances
> Karttunen (1992:141) writes: The sequence MAX appears in many entries in M
> (Molina) and S (Simeon) having to do with bifurcation…and under *Maxac*-*
> tli*, “thighs or crotch” (p.141). In San Andrés de la Cal the Nahuatl word
> *maxac* refers to the *labia* *majora* (Grigsby 1990; field notes.
>
>
>
> Thank you for your comments,
>
>
>
> Tom Grigsby
> G.S. Rakovski St., No.79
> Boboshevo, 2660 Bulgaria
> GSM: 359 0899 784 081
>
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-- 
Magnus Pharao Hansen
Graduate student
Department of Anthropology

Brown University
128 Hope St.
Providence, RI 02906

*magnus_pharao_hansen at brown.edu*
US: 001 401 651 8413
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