emotions & the senses

[John Sullivan]

PIyali Ben,
	I can’t remember if you were at the Maryland conference in 2010, but James Taggert gave a very interesting talk on the classification of emotions, “Love and Envy: The Discourse on Emotion in Contemporary Nahuat Culture.” I can’t remember what region/village he focused on, but he discussed the general ideas of jealousy and envy, and said that there was a big distinction in Nahuatl culture between those emotions that only effected the individual, vs those that endangered the fabric of the family and the community (this fits in well with what we know about how discussion topics were treated in the colonial Nahuatl cabildos). When I got back to Zacatecas, I asked the macehualmeh what they thought about it, and they came to the conclusion that in Chicontepec there definitely was a division between emotions that put people “out of control“ and others that didn’t. It’s in a chapter in our Modern Nahuatl text that deals with the body. I’ll ask when we get back to work on Monday and see if they made up a chart. I’ll ask about pain and suffering too and then get back to you.
John

John Sullivan, Ph.D.
Professor of Nahua language and culture
Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas
Zacatecas Institute of Teaching and Research in Ethnology
Tacuba 152, int. 43
Centro Histórico
Zacatecas, Zac. 98000
Mexico
Work: +52 (492) 925-3415
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idiez at me.com



]On Jan 4, 2012, at 7:31 PM, Ben Leeming wrote:

> Piyali listeros,
> I am interested in how Nahuas pre- and post-Contact understood emotions and
> the senses.  As I am away from Albany this semester (and therefore the
> library!) I haven't been able to search the Florentine - a good place to
> start, I imagine.  I also suspect Lopez Austin's "Human Body and Ideology"
> might be another place to look.  In particular I am interested in exploring
> the ways in which Nahuas conceptualized and made sense of pain and
> suffering.  Part of my dissertation research involves looking at the way
> these emotions/sensations functioned in descriptions of hell and judgment
> in ecclesiastical Nahuatl texts.  Not the world's most uplifting line of
> inquiry, I know!  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
> 
> Happy New Year to all-
> 
> Ben
> 
> -- 
> Ben Leeming
> PhD Student
> Department of Anthropology
> University at Albany, SUNY
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