Editor’s note: This content is archival.
Nahua Newsletter
November 1990, Number 10
With support from the Department of Anthropology
Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne
Alan R. Sandstrom, Editor
A Publication of the Indiana University
Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Contents
- Nahua Newsletter News
- 1990 American Anthropological Association Meeting
- Items of interest
- Directory update
Nahua Newsletter News
Welcome to the tenth issue of the Nahua Newsletter. Reader responses to the
Newsletter continue to be extremely positive and we now have nearly 300 subscribers.
The success of the Nahua Newsletter is due to the efforts of its founder and editor
Brad Huber who correctly saw a need to increase communication among the world’s
scholars interested in the history, language, and culture of Nahua peoples. Brad
created the Nahua Newsletter, assembled a mailing list, edited and distributed the
first nine issues, and secured the funding to support publication. After this effort in
establishing the Newsletter as a successful and important tool for students of Nahua
culture, Brad has decided to direct his attention to other projects. To assure the
continuity of the Newsletter, Brad turned editing responsibilities over to me beginning
with this issue. It is my intention to follow Brad’s editorial policies as best I can
and to maintain the high standards we have all come to expect of the Nahua
Newsletter.
From now on please send all news, announcements, requests for cooperation, changes
of address, and suggestions to the following address:
I plan to continue distributing the Newsletter free of charge biannually in the fall
and spring. The division of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Anthropology of
Indiana-Purdue University at Fort Wayne have generously agreed to support publication
for the next year. During this period, I will be searching for a permanent source of
funding to cover printing and mailing costs. If anyone has suggestions about where I
might obtain support for the Newsletter I would appreciate it if you would contact
me.
I look forward to hearing from you with the latest news of your activities. Please
join me in expressing appreciation to Brad for his creative vision of giving Nahua
afficionados a means to keep in closer communication with one another.
1990 American Anthropological Association Meeting
This year’s Nahua symposium at the annual American Anthropological Association
meeting is being organized by Paul Jean Provost. The title of the symposium is “The
Aztec Heritage: Perspectives on Self, Society, and Culture” and features papers by
seven Nahua specialists. The AAA meetings will be held in New Orleans from Tuesday,
November 27th through Sunday, December 2nd at the New Orleans Hilton Riverside.
According to the Preliminary Program of the meetings the Nahua syposium is scheduled
from 2:00 to 4:15 p.m. on Sunday, November 2nd. Symposia on Nahua language, culture,
and history have been held at the AAA meetings continuously since 1986 and they have
been well attended and highly successful.
Following is a list of participants and paper titles for this year’s meeting:
2:00 p.m.Alan R. Sandstrom (Indiana-Purdue) “Nahua Oral Narratives and the Creation
of Ethnic Identity”
2:15 p.m. Louise N. Burkhart (SUNY Albany) “The Emergence of the Guadalupe Legend,
1555-1649”
2:30 p.m.Jill L. Furst (Moore College/Penn Museum) “The Aztec Journey of the
Soul”
2:45 p.m. James M. Taggart (Franklin and Marshall) “Sibling Relations in Nahuat and
Spanish Oral Tradition”
3:00 p.m.Break
3:15 p.m. Karen Dakin (Instituto de Investigaciones Filologicas)
“Patient Nouns in Nahuatl”
3:30 p.m.Frances Karttunen (Texas-Austin) “A Century of Milpa AltaNahuatl”
3:45 p.m.Joseph W. Whitecotton (Oklahoma) “The Nahua Presence in Oaxaca: Another
Look”
4:00 p.m.Discussion
Hope you can join us.
Items of interest
Hugo Nutini writes that during the first week in November of 1989, a colloquium
entitled “Messico Terra d’Incontro: La Cultura Mestiza” (“Mexico Land of Encounters:
The Mestizo Culture”) took place in Rome, Italy. It was sponsored by the Dipartimento
de Studi Glottoantropologici (Department of Anthropology) of the University of Rome.
The participants included scholars from Mexico, Europe, and the United States: Solange
Alberro (Colegio de México), Félix Báez-Jorge (Universidad
Veracruzana, Jalapa), Marcello Carmagnani (Università di Torino), Pedro Carrasco
(State University of New York), Henri Favre (CNRS, Paris), Serge Gruzinski (CNRS,
Paris), John Ingham (University of Minnesota), Alfredo López Austin (Universidad
Nacional Autónoma de México), Hugo G. Nutini (University of Pittsburgh),
Luisa Pranzetti (Università di Roma), Julian Pitt-Rivers (Ecole Pratique des
Hautes Etudes, Paris), and Italo Signorini (Università di Roma).
The participants delivered papers on several aspects of Mestizo culture which
generated a significant amount of discussion. The topics presented and discussed were
the following: the dynamics of ethnic status (Pitt-Rivers), Indian and Mestizo
relations (Favre), religious mestizaje and the Mesoamerican tradition (López
Austin), religious syncretism (Ingham), religious mentality and popular Catholicism
(Nutini), Mestizo cultural traditions (Carrasco), social and symbolic aspects of
compadrazgo (Báez-Jorge), Creole sociability and acculturation (Alberro),
syncretism and folk medicine (Signorini), transculturation and literary traditions
(Pranzetti), and mestizaje of image and object (Gruzinski). Syncretism, acculturation,
diffusion, and convergence were recurrent themes that the participants employed in
explaining the structure and formation of contemporary Mestizo culture. The most
salient characteristic that pervaded the colloqium was the concern of distinguishing
Indian from Mestizo culture and society, but equally important, highlighting the common
traditions from which they developed and the dynamics of divergence.
The papers of the colloquium with an introduction by Signorini and a conclusion by
Nutini have just been published in two issues of L’Uomo (Italian journal of social and
cultural anthropology). The price of the two issues is 50,000 lire (approximately
$38.00 U.S.) and they can be ordered directly from the publisher: Giardini Editori e
Stampatori in Pisa, Via S. Bibbiana 28, 56100 Pisa Italy.
This is an important work that should be brought to the attention of
Mesoamericanists, particularly because comparatively little has been written by
anthropologists on Mestizo culture and society, and there is no comprehensive volume
with the range of topics of the two issues of L’Uomo (1990). The work should be of
interest to graduate and undergraduate students and professional anthropologists
working with Mestizo populations in rural and urban environments.
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