Number 31

Editor’s Note: This content is archival.

Nahua Newsletter

February 2001, Number 31

The Nahua Newsletter

A Publication of the Indiana University Center for Latin American and Caribbean
Studies

Alan R. Sandstrom, Editor

With support from the Department of Anthropology

Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne

Contents

Nahua newsletter news

Welcome to the Nahua Newsletter, your friendly and readable, biannual gateway to
scholarship on the culture, history, and language of Nahuatl-speaking and related
peoples in Mesoamerica and surrounding areas. In this issue, you will find news items,
notifications of publications, requests for cooperation, book reviews, and as a special
feature, an Index of all of the book reviews that have appeared in the NN over the
years. The Index should aid readers in finding expert reviews of key works. Please take
note that authors of the reviews, as of the works themselves, number among the
prominent names in Mesoamerican scholarship. They are some of the nearly 400
subscribers from 15 different countries who have found that the NN helps keep them
informed about developments in their field of study.

The Index was prepared by Pamela Effrein Sandstrom, the behind-the-scenes person who
has contributed so much to the success of the NN. Pamela has a Ph.D. in Library and
Information Science and she is an experienced ethnographic field researcher. She has
lived for nearly a year among Tibetans in exile in the Himalaya region of northern
India and for four years among Nahuas in the tropical forests of northern Veracruz,
Mexico. Her own research interests in library and information science focus on how
scholars create and communicate knowledge. She has pioneered in the application of
optimal foraging theory, developed by biologists and adapted by anthropologists to
explain the behavior of subsistence foragers, to understand scholars as they forage in
their information environments. Without her dedication and skills as a designer and
proofreader, the NN would be but a pale shadow of itself.

And now for something completely unexpected. The NN is beginning to play a
significant role in helping indigenous peoples from Mesoamerica and surrounding regions
create an ethnic identity for themselves. As many readers already know, many indigenous
peoples are rejecting their identities as Hispanics and want to be regarded as the
Native Americans that they are. The declaration in defense of their traditional
religion by Nahuas of Chicontepec, Veracruz, published in NN 30 is an example of this
new awareness. One group that is discovering their identity is indigenous prisoners.
Some years ago the NN became essential reading among Nahuas and former Nahuas housed in
the correctional facility at Crescent City, California. We are not sure how they first
got hold of the NN, but they have been writing beautiful hand-written letters to us for
some time now. We currently have 14 subscribers from this institution and although
their names and addresses are not listed with the other subscribers, they receive
issues of the NN as they are published. Many of them do not know English and several
write in Nahuatl. They are extremely interested in finding out more about the Nahuatl
language and about their heritage as Native Americans.

We have sent them some material but would like to put the word out to NN readers who
would be willing to help out. The prisoners are not allowed to receive books but
photocopies and other materials would be fine. Anything at all that relates to ancient
or modern Nahuas and especially material on Nahuatl is in demand. Our impression is
that these men do not know a great deal of the published record concerning their ethnic
heritage nor about the grammar of Nahuatl but they are eager students. Grammars and
methods for learning Nahuatl or perhaps other indigenous languages of Mesoamerica would
be welcome. For the sake of confidentiality, we ask that 14 copies of all material be
sent to us at the address listed below. We will package up whatever we receive and mail
it to Crescent City. We have no idea why these men have been incarcerated but we do
know that many if not all of them are Nahuas or of Nahua heritage and we believe that
it would be a service to them if we could help them discover something about their
ethnic background. A relatively small effort on our parts could make a significant
difference and we hope that you will join us in spreading knowledge to people who call
out for it.

We mentioned in the last issue that the NN is now on the Web. We are putting all
current issues on the Web (without illustrations, however, due to copyright
restrictions), and we plan to mount all past issues as time permits. Unfortunately,
since our last announcement our server has been upgraded and the address provided in NN
30 no longer works. We apologize for the inconvenience caused by the technological
revolution. The new address of the NN on the Web is http://www.ipfw.edu/soca/Nahua.htm.
Readers will note that the address is identical except that everything is in lower
case. Once again, we want to thank our Webmaster Richard Sutter, who is Assistant
Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, and whose
e-mail address is SutterR@ipfw.edu.

By the way, according to our Nahuatl-speaking colleagues in northern Veracruz, one
way to say “write me by e-mail” in Nahuatl is “xinechtlacuihui pan
teposmecaixtlatiltlahcuilloli.” Just thought you would like to know.

Please use the NN to call for cooperation, inform others about your current
projects, spread the word about any accolades or recent publications, ask questions of
the experts, or simply make your opinion known. Send text via e-mail or on a diskette
saved in WordPerfect or MS Word. This saves typing time and helps reduce potential
errors. The NN is sent to subscribers free of charge but it survives on donations from
readers. Finances are always a bit precarious and so any help is welcomed. The
publication is now 15 and a half years old and has continued solely based on the
generosity of our readers. It is a record of which we can all be proud. Please make
checks payable to The Nahua Newsletter and send them to the address below. All funds
are used to print and mail the NN. There are no administrative costs.

Please send all correspondence, comments, questions, calls for action, or
announcements to:

Alan R. Sandstrom
The Nahua Newsletter
Department of Anthropology
Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne
Fort Wayne, IN 46805
By e-mail: sandstro@ipfw.edu
 

News Items

1. Ricardo A. Fagoaga Hernández writes about his current research:

“The main purpose of my research project is to determine the ways in which people in
rural Mexico manage to obtain their food supply. The standard paradigm which holds that
these peasants obtain their nutritional requirements through subsistence agriculture
(that is to say by producing it themselves) is no longer an accurate or adequate
explanation of their activities. Various socioeconomic reasons and regional conditions
have encouraged these people to seek new opportunities to insert themselves in the
monetary market. Yet, the interesting thing is that despite these changes, their food
preparation techniques and patterns of exchange have remained almost intact. The
conceptual framework that I use for this study may be called a ‘food systems’ approach.
This type of methodology examines the way in which people produce, prepare, exchange
and consume different foods without excluding external elements that incidentally may
produce some changes in the diet.

“The above project, titled ‘Yahualica: Un sistema alimentario de la Huasteca
hidalguense,’ was accepted by the prestigious Mexican social sciences research agency
CIESAS-CONACYT in the project ‘La Huasteca: Sociedad, Cultura y Recursos Naturales.
Pasado y Presente,’ which financed my fieldwork of five months in Yahualica, Hidalgo
(Huasteca hidalguense). This place, a little community and cabecera municipal,
presented several special features for a food systems study, including:

“Geography and Ecology: Yahualica is located in a small plateau surrounded by two
rivers; there is only one road to get there by motorized transport. There are four
paths that connect the cabecera municipal with Santo Tomas (a pueblo of the municipio
of Atlapexco), Mecatlan, Tepetitla/Tlalchiyahualica, and Olma (the smallest
settlement). People used to have their milpas on the slope. The terrain has lots of
stones, but the land near the rivers is enriched when the river floods. The
semitropical climate permits two harvests of maize, and the growing of lots of citrus
trees and a great variety of green vegetables and coffee.

“History and Politics: Yahualica was a pre-Hispanic settlement and still preserves
some of the archaeological evidence. The town had significant political power until the
last decades of the 19th century when, in the 1870s, a town named Atlapexco
successfully usurped Yahualica’s position. A federal resolution ended in the creation
of the municipio of Atlapexco in 1922, and later converted it to the municipios of
Yahualica and Huautla. In the 1970s, land invasions occurred that in principle
distributed land equally between poor and rich peasants. The result of this is that
today these lands are monte (meaning that the owners don’t cultivate the land) and
there is a high Index of migration to Pachuca, Hidalgo, or Mexico City.

“Market Circuits: The established market of Huejutla de Reyes provides the people of
the region with daily fresh goods, meat, and even fish. This city is the center of a
circuit that encompasses the towns of Atlapexco, Huatla, El Arenal, Jaltocan,
Tehuetlan, and Chapulhuacanito. The people of Yahualica buy most of their food products
in the first two, including the city. From time to time, people from other communities
and municipios travel to the town selling food from house to house, but the local
producers (mostly women) adopted this idea to earn some pesos.

“Of course, these aren’t the only elements that have transformed or maintained the
food system. Regional and national events also initiated subtle and profound changes in
local conditions, including governmental programs in health, education and
nutrition.

“I would like to thank you again for your interest and help. I will keep in touch
and apologize for writing so late; the Xantolo arrived and I did not notice the passage
of time.” Ricardo A. Fagoaga can be reached at Eugenia 610-W, Col. Del Valle 03100,
México, D.F. México; or by e-mail at rifagoag@datasys.com.mx.

2. Jess Valdovinos Alquicira, a student of social anthropology in Mexico, sends the
following note about his current research:

“The Ocoroni is a Native American ethnic group related to neighboring Yaqui and Mayo
people. The three groups inhabited the region of Cahitas in northeastern Mexico. The
Ocoroni probably disappeared in 1970. We know almost nothing about them and there are
few anthropological studies of these people. In 1903, Fortunato Hernández and
Ricardo E. Cicero wrote an article entitled ‘The Ocoroni Indians’ that appeared in the
Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History 3(3):234-243. Thirty-five photographs
by Rafael Garca accompany the article. The photographs were donated to the Instituto
Nacional de Antropologa e Historia photographic archives. With no other visual
information and few documents, I am using the photographs to describe their daily
lives, children, marriage, games, agriculture, traditions, vegetation of the region,
clothing styles, textiles, houses, celebration, and pottery. After analyzing these
aspects of culture and environment, I will compare the information with contemporary
ethnographic data from their neighbors. Finally, I will try to demonstrate that
photography is a visual instrument to document cultural information that can be used
like written sources. The project is financed by CIESAS and my thesis advisor is Teresa
Rojas Rabiela. You can contact me at valdovinos_98@yahoo.com.”

3. Susan Toby Evans informs readers that the work she co-edited with David L.
Webster, Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America: An Encyclopedia has been
published by Garland Publishing Co. The encyclopedia is a single volume, 948 pages
long, including a 100 page Index. It contains over 500 articles by 300 Mesoamericanist
archaeologists and ethnohistorians. The articles cover regions, sites, time periods,
cultural and natural phenomena and materials. The cost is $150.00 US.

Susan also sent along copies of two articles that she has recently published: “Aztec
Noble Courts: Men, Women, and Children of the Palace.” In Royal Courts of the Ancient
Maya. Vol. 1, Theory, Comparison, and Synthesis. Takeshi Inomata and Stephen D.
Houston, eds., pp. 237 273. Boulder, Co.: Westview Press, 2001; and “Aztec Royal
Pleasure Parks: Conspicuous Consumption and Elite Status Rivalry.” Studies in the
History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes 20 (2000): 206-228.

4. Neville Stiles writes: “I was a Nahuatl scholar for many years, although not any
more since my work in Guatemala involves more mundane matters. I finished my Ph.D.
thesis in 1983 at St. Andrews University, U.K., related to Nahuatl in the state of
Hidalgo and the sociology of language. After setting up the School of Linguistics at
Mariano Galvez University in Guatemala we maintained an exchange of journals (Winak:
Boletin Intercultural) with the NN.

“My purpose for writing is to ascertain any interest there might be amongst your
readership or libraries in the U.S. or other countries in obtaining an original carbon
copy of five volumes of notes from 1926-36, meticulously typed up by the famous
American researcher Byron McAfee. The notes are from the period when McAfee attended
Nahuatl classes with other distinguished people including Robert Barlow. The notes are
on all sorts of different paper, including some sheets with headings. McAfee worked for
the British Petroleum Company in Mexico (El Aguila) in the 1930s and met there a friend
of mine, now deceased, Mr. William Fellowes, of the U.K. Fellowes was an accountant
whose job it was to wind up the affairs of British Petroleum after expropriation.

“In his spare time, Fellowes decided to study Nahuatl and realized that McAfee knew
a lot about the language. He was given some books and began his studies, later
preparing publications for journals and assisting the Museum of Mankind in London. I
was contacted in the early 1980s by the Museum and made contact with Mr. Fellowes and
visited him on two occasions. Some years before his death he recorded an audiocassette
narrating the entire story of his experience with McAfee and handing over the documents
to me. These documents are safely logged in the U.K. and are bound in old-fashioned,
stamp album binders. I would like to sell these documents to an interested party and in
the first instance hope to hear of anyone who would like to have the documents for
their research. I think the original version, if it still exists, may be housed at the
UCLA library where some years ago I located other works by McAfee in the catalog.

“I live in Guatemala and my address is 21a Avenida 33-43, Zona 12 Col. Santa Elisa,
Guatemala, Guatemala, Central America. My e-mail address is samara_s83@hotmail.com. I am looking forward to
hearing from anyone interested in this very special item.”

5. José Luis Moctezuma has sent a CD to the NN containing “Avances y balances
de lenguas yutoaztecas: Homenaje a Wick R. Miller,” edited by José Luis
Moctezuma and Jane H. Hill, and “Bibliografa de Sonora y areas adyacentes,” by Julio
César Montané Mart. The CD is published by Noroeste de México
(nmero especial), Centro INAH Sonora, CONACULTA, INAH. “Avances y balances” will also
be published in traditional book form by the Instituto Nacional de Antropologa e
Historia. The CD costs $15.00 US, plus shipping. To order, please contact José
Luis Moctezuma at vaquero@rtn.uson.mx.

6. José Alcina Franch sent the NN a copy of his book Temazcalli: Higiene,
terapéutica, obstetricia, y ritual en el nuevo mundo. Sevilla: Escuela de
Estudios Hispano-Americanos de Sevilla, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientficas,
2000. ISBN 84-00-07998-1. From the introduction:

“El tema de este libro no es una mera curiosidad. La antropologa médica
contemporánea no sólo está profundizando en mundos de conocimiento
no académico por el mero deseo de conocer, sino porque de da en da se
está comprobando que, aunque no todo, lo que conocan los mal llamados pueblos
‘primitivos’ y todas las civilizaciones antiguas del planeta, pueden aportar
descubrimientos ocasionalmente sensacionales al tratamiento de enfermedades o
conocimientos diversos y comportamientos médicos que pueden mejorar la medicina
y la sanidad de nuestra propria cultura ….

“El presente libro es el resultado de una investigación interdisciplinara
sobre algunos aspectos de la medicina tradicional de los pueblos americanos: todo
él gira en torno al baño de vapor o temazcal que, en cierto modo, es una
verdadera institución que se remonta hasta épocas bastante antiguas y
llega hasta nuestros das, constituyendo, por lo tanto, una arraigada tradición
cultural, especialmente en el mundo indgena de México y Guatemala.”

6. Long-time NN reader Dani®le Dehouve has sent a copy of her recent book
Rudingero el borracho y otros exempla medievales en México virreinal.
México, D.F.: Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropologa
Social, Universidad Iberoamericana, Miguel Angel Porra, Grupo Editorial, 2000. ISBN
970-701-074-6. A review of this book will appear in a future issue. From the cover:

“En Europa, durante los siglos XII y XIII, la Iglesia emprendo una nueva conquista
de las almas, y las órdenes mendicantes, en particular, inventaron una
técnica del sermón destinada a conmover el corazón de los fieles.
En las ciudades, en los camplos, el predicador quiso mostrarse cercano a la vida
cotidiana y a las preocupaciones de su auditorio. Con ese fin empezó a utilizar
relatos breves y edificantes para ilustrar puntos especficos de su enseñanza: a
tales relatos se les dio el nombre latino de exemplum (en plural exempla) segn el
término heredado de la antigºedad romana que designó en aquel tiempo
un modelo de comportamiento o virtud propuesto como ejemplo.

“En la Nueva España los exempla formaron parte del discurso edificante
católico y desempeñaron un papel de extraordinaria importancia: este
serie de relatos y temas (el borracho condenado a beber pez y azufre por toda la
eternidad, el estudiante que carga una pesada capa llena de sofismas quemantes, el
usurero y su hijo que se maldicen en el infierno, etcétera) vivieron con una
fuerza enorme en la mentalidad de todos los grupos de la sociedad virreinal. El hecho
dejó una profunda huella que se nota en la actualidad, de manera más
evidente en algunos aspectos de la literatura oral y aun en temas
cinematográficos.”

7. Kristina Tiedje has sent a copy of her very interesting masters thesis written in
French and entitled “Le R¥le de la Femme Nahua en Changement: Les Voix de Six
Femmes Indiennes de la Huastéque Potosine au Mexique.” Faculté
d’Anthropologie et de Sociologie, Université Lumiére Lyon, France,
1997/1998. She is currently working on her doctoral research that is tentatively
entitled “Ethnicity and Gender in Nahua Ritual Healing.” She can be reached at the
Department of Anthropology, College of Arts and Sciences 1218, University of Oregon,
Eugene, OR 97403 1218.

8. Julieta Valle Esquivel (ENAH) along with Rodrigo Fuentes Moreno, Carlos Guadalupe
Heiras Rodrguez, José Bardomiano Hernández Alvarado, Maricela
Hernández Montes, José Antonio Romero Huerta, and Linda Lea Salinas Orr
have produce two valuable manuscripts relating to the Huasteca region. The first is “La
etnografa de la Huasteca a través de sus autores: Bibliografa comentada,” a
75-page annotated bibliography that covers the major works of ethnography on the
Huasteca. The second is entitled “Reciprocidad, jerarqua y comunidad en la tierra del
Trueno (La Huasteca),” written with the collaboration of Angela Ixkic Duarte Gastian
and Baltazar Hernández Vargas. It is an analysis of the unique social
organization found among indigenous groups in the Huasteca. The manuscript is 177 pages
in length and covers a wide range of topics. Anyone interested in learning more about
these works should contact Julieta Valle Esquivel at julietaxvalle@yahoo.com.mx or Carlos Guadalupe
Heiras Rodrguez at cghr@terra.com.mx.

9. Enrique Hugo Garca Valencia (INAH-Xalapa) has forwarded a copy of a book to the
NN about the paper-cutting tradition that survives among the Otom people of the Sierra
Norte de Puebla and northern Veracruz region. The work is entitled Papel ceremonial
entre los Otomes by Beatriz Oliver Vega. México, D.F.: Instituto Nacional de
Antropologa e Historia, 1997. ISBN 968-29-9485-3. The work is a catalog of Otom ritual
paper cuttings housed at the Museo Nacional de Antropologa. Each specimen is presented
in a photograph along with catalog numbers, the name of the spirit portrayed in
Spanish, and the dimensions of the figure. The work contains several hundred specimens
along with a brief introduction covering the history of papermaking and paper cutting.
There is also some information on how the figures are used by contemporary Otoms during
religious observances.

10. Mara J. Rodrguez-Shadow and Robert D. Shadow send the NN a copy of their recent
book entitled El pueblo del Señor: Las fiestas y peregrinaciones de Chalma.
Toluca:Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, 2000. ISBN
968-835-562-3. Dra. Beatriz Barba de Piña Chan writes about the work:

“El estudio de las expresiones de la religon popular ha constituido una de las
preocupaciones profesionales de los antropólogos Mara J. Rodrguez-Shadow y
Robert D. Shadow. En esta ocasión nos presentan un estudio integral sobre el
santuario de Chalma que ha sido escrito no sólo para los académicos, sino
también para el disfrute de los peregrinos y devotos del Señor de
Chalma.

“Es un libro en el que se incluyó todo; inicia con una sección en la
que se descute el concepto de religión popular como categora analtica, contina
con el relato de la historia de la aparación del Señor de Chalma y la
destrucción de Ostoc Téotl, a quien los antiguos pobladores adoraban.
Sigue con la descripción de las caractersticas geográficas y
poblacionales del área, y su desarrollo social antes de la llegada de los
españoles.

“Se expone el proceso de evangelización y el origen y desarrollo del culto y
veneración del cristo crucificado. Se habla del asentamiento y la forma en la
que se distribuye la población, las capillas y los comercios en el paisaje
quebrado de la barranca.

“Se incluye una descripción minuciosa de las transformaciones que se han
operado en la fisonoma de santuario, desde su fundación hasta nuestros das,
mencionándose algunas de las muestras más relevantes de los exvotos que
los fieles han dejado como significativos testigos de los favores recibidos.

“Como en una sección significativa ce citan los testimonios de los
peregrinos, los y las lectoras podrán deleitarse y saborear el profundo sentido
pragmático y religioso de las motivaciones de los penitentes,a quienes los
autores dedican su obra. Se trata de un libro escrito de manera sencilla, agradable e
interesante.”

Mara J. Rodrguez Shadow’s e-mail address is davecita@hotmail.com.

11. Please take note of two recent and excellent licenciatura theses in ethnohistory
from the Escuela Nacional de Antropologa e Historia (ENAH), both written under the
direction of Jess Ruvalcaba Mercado.

The first is by Patricia Gallardo Arias and is entitled “Medicina traditional y
brujera entre los teenek y nahuas de la huasteca potosina.” From the introduction (p.
7): “El tema de esta tesis es la práctica médica tradicional de los
teenek de Aquismón, San Luis Potos. El objectivo inicial era analizar las
representaciones en torno a la brujera en este grupo, mismo que tuve que ampliar
durante la investigación debido a que el trabajo de campo me permitió
conocer otros aspectos y problemas de la vida indgena relacionados con el eje de la
investigación, tales como la terapéutica tradicional, los conceptos de
salud y enfermedad y la relación entre medicina académica y medicina
tradicional. Si bien la información proviene de médicos indgenas nahuas y
teenek de diferentes lugares de la Huasteca potosina, el estudio se centró en el
municipio de Aquismón, en aspectos amplios como prácticas y teoras
indgenas que detallan la curación de los padecimeintos y enfermedades, las
creencias y la naturaleza de las enfermedades. Estas cuestiones son de importancia,
porque las concepciones y condiciones de vida de los teenek y nahuas son
representativas, al menos en buena parte, de la problematica indgena en México
porque la enfermedad es algo con lo que los pueblos indios conviven diariamente.”

The second thesis, by Marcela Hernández Ferrer, is entitled “Ofrendas a
Dhipak: Ritos agrcolas entre los teenek de San Luis Potos.” From the introduction (p.
11): “Buena parte de este estudio consistió en caminar en la Huasteca por las
diversas veredas, que sin pavimentar y entre la maleza sirven a los pobladores para
transitar de una comunidad a otra, de un barrio a otro, de un municipio a los caminos
que s tienen pavimento. Pero fundamentalmente, este trabajo se basa en mis encuentros
con diversas familias que me permitieron involucrarme con so modo de vida y sus
actividades cotidianas; en mis visitas constantes a unas y otras personas que me
abrieron sus puertas y de buena gana convivieron conmigo y me hacan sentir lo tan
semejante y diferente que soy de ellos. As es como empecé a caer en la cuenta de
que como todo grupo humano, para los teenek, su vida diaria tiene que ver con su
sobrevivencia material y que en realidad eso es lo que a ellos más les importa:
tener alimento, trabajo, bienestar para su familia y estar bien con los miembros de su
comunidad en sus relaciones con ellos y con los otros. De ese modo sus actividades
extraordinarias, tienen cabida perfecta y su correspondiente lugar en la vida familiar
de todo los das, como lo es trabajar en el campo, preparar la comida, edificar una casa
o una escuela, colaborar con los parientes, charlar, rer, bromear y ritualizar.

“Y, de vuelta a la academia, el objectivo principal planteado para la
investigación fue el de averiguar acerca de los ritos agrcolas dedicados a la
deidad del maz: Dhipak y percibir cómo en ellos está plasmada su
cosmovisión.”

These important theses were based upon ethnohistorical as well as ethnographic
research and they each contribute a great deal to better understanding of a
little-known area of Mexico. For more information on these works, please contact Jess
Ruvalcaba Mercado by e-mail at ruvalca@buzon.main.conacyt.mx.

12. The NN is pleased to announce publication of the second edition of Félix
Báez-Jorge’s Los oficios de las diosas. Xalapa, Veracruz: Universidad
Veracruzana, 2000. ISBN 968-834-534-2. From the back cover:

“Con la primera edición de Los oficios de las diosas, Félix
Báez-Jorge inició un ambicioso proyecto de cinco ttulos dedicados al
estudio de la religiosidad popular y las cosmovisiones de los pueblos indios de
México. Doce años después, en el momento de presentar estas
segundo edición, ha cumplido con una parte sustancial del proyecto anunciado,
particularmento en lo referente al sincretismo y a la religión popular a partir
de la Colonia.

“Este primer ttulo abarca una dimensión histórica de ‘larga
duración,’ desde diferentes temporalidades de la época
prehispánica hasta la Colonia y la actualidad. Su método es
dialéctico y diacrónico, tanto porque tiene en cuenta las contradicciones
que se generan al interior de los grupos sociales, como porque visualiza a la
religión como una institución subjeta a las transformaciones de la
sociedad, esto es, en tanto que producto históricamente determinado.

“El libro presenta una sntesis etnográfica del pasado y el presente. Aporta,
asimismo, un enfoque original que puede servir de paradigma para otras investigaciones
y para la discusión teórica en general. La memoria indgena y el
sincretismo ideológico como procesos creativos, la religiosidad popular y la
gran riqueza de las tradiciones culturales de México son abordados aqu de una
manera atractiva y original, tal como indica Johanna Broda en el prólogo de esta
obra.”

13. Russell J. Barber and Frances F. Berdan have written a book that will be of
great interest to Mesoamericanists and ethnohistorians in general. It is entitled The
Emperor’s Mirror: Understanding Cultures through Primary Sources. Tucson: University of
Arizona Press, 1998. ISBN 0-8165-1848-3. From the back cover:

“Russell J. Barber and Frances F. Berdan have created the ultimate guide for anyone
doing cross-cultural and/or document-driven research. Presenting the essentials of
primary source methodology, The Emperor’s Mirror includes 13 chapters on paleography,
calendrics, source and quantitative analysis, and the visual interpretation of
artifacts such as pictographs, illustrations, and maps.

“As an introduction to ethnohistory, this book clearly defines terminology and
provides practical and accessible examples, effectively integrating the concerns of
historians and anthropologists as well as addressing the needs of anyone using primary
sources for research in any academic field.”

14. Lorenzo Ochoa and Gerardo Gutiérrez send the NN an article they published
entitled “Notas en torno a la cosmovisión y religión de los huastecos,”
Anales de Antropologa (Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, Universidad
Nacional Autónoma de México) 33 (1996-1999): 91-163. The article covers
aspects of Huastec religion and world view based on archaeological, ethnohistorical,
and ethnographic data. One unique contribution of the work is that it contains a
photograph of cut-paper figures used by contemporary Huastecs in ritual offerings. This
is the first direct proof we have seen that Huastecs are part of the ritual
paper-cutting complex previously thought to be confined to neighboring Otoms, Nahuas,
Totonacs, and Tepehuas.

15. We wish to alert readers to the recent publication of The Oxford Encyclopedia of
Mesoamerican Cultures, David Carrasco, editor-in-chief. New York: Oxford University
Press, 2001. ISBN 0-19-510815-9. Orders can be sent to the Press by phone
1-800-451-7756, and a description of the work can be found at http://www.oup.org/reference/mesoamerican.
The three volume set contains 615 articles, many written by readers of the NN, covering
a wide range of topics from archaeology, ethnohistory, natural history, linguistics,
art history, ethnography, etc. The work contains 1,500 pages and 200 illustrations,
with extensive bibliographies and cross Indexing.

16. The latest issue of Desacatos: Revista de Antropologa Social (ISSN 1405-9274)
published by the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores in Antropologa Social
(CIESAS) is devoted to the cosmovision of indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. There are
articles on the Lacandon, Mazatec, Huichol, and of particular interest to NN readers,
Nahuas of Chicontepec, Veracruz. The article entitled “Los equilibrios del cielo y de
la tierra: Cosmovisión de los nahuas de Chicontepec,” no. 5 (invierno 2000):
79-94, is written by Félix Báez-Jorge and Arturo Gómez
Martnez.

17. The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México’s Instituto de
Investigaciones Estáticas has sent the NN a copy of a recent copy of their
special issue of Boletn Informativo (ISSN 1405 4817) entitled “La pintura mural
prehispánico en México,” año VI, nmeros 12-13 (junio diciembre
2000).The 63-page publication contains eight original articles on mural painting plus
additional material related to the topic.

Reviewer/Author book review Index

Following is an Index to book reviews published in the Nahua Newsletter 13-31, 1992
2001, prepared by Pamela Effrein Sandstrom as a service to NN readers and reviewers.
The Index acknowledges the contributions of scholars to a greater understanding of the
Nahuas and other indigenous cultures of Mesoamerica.

The Index is organized in two parts. The first is an alphabetical listing of authors
of the 85 works that have been reviewed since the inception of the book review section
in 1992 (with name of reviewer along with the NN issue number and date of the review).
The second listing is alphabetized by reviewers’ last name and provides brief
bibliographic information (titles and authors) for reviewed works, and the NN
reference.

Index to Authors and their Works

Aguirre Beltrán, Gonzalo. Cuatro nobles titulados en contienda por la tierra.
Mexico, D.F.: Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropologia Social,
1995. (Richard Bradley, reviewed in NN 22, 1996)

Anderson, Arthur J. O., transl. Bernardino de Sahagn’s Psalmodia Christiana
(Christian Psalmody). Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1993. (Daniéle
Dehouve, reviewed in NN 17, 1994)

Andrews, Jean. Peppers: The Domesticated Capsicums. New ed. Austin: University of
Texas Press, 1995. (Robert H. Cichewicz, reviewed in NN 27, 1999)

Báez-Jorge, Félix, and Arturo Gómez Martnez. Tlacatecolotl y el
diablo: La cosmovisión de los nahuas de Chicontepec. Xalapa: Gobierno del Estado
de Veracruz, Secretara de Educación y Cultura, 1998. (Mara Teresa Rodrguez,
reviewed in NN 27, 1999)

Baudot, Georges; Bernard R. Ortiz de Montellano and Thelma Ortiz de Montellano,
transl. Utopia and History in Mexico: The First Chronicles of Mexican Civilization
(1520-1569). Niwot, Colo.: University Press of Colorado, 1995. (John Fredrick
Schwaller, reviewed in NNá 26, 1998)

Beber de tierra generosa. México, D.F.: Fundación de Investigaciones
Sociales (FISAC), 1998. Historia de las bebidas alcohólicas en México,
Vol. 1; Ciencia de las bebidas alcohólicas en México, Vol. 2. (Susan
Kellogg, reviewed in NN 29, 2000)

Berdan, Frances F., and Patricia Rieff Anawalt. The Essential Codex Mendoza.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997. (Frederic Hicks, reviewed in NN 24-25,
1997-1998)

Bierhorst, John, ed. Four Masterworks of American Indian Literature: Quetzalcoatl,
The Ritual of Condolence, Cuceb, The Night Chant. Tucson: University of Arizona Press,
1984. (Juan Adolfo Vazquez, reviewed in NN 15, 1993)

Bierhorst, John, ed. Codex Chimalpopoca: The Text in Nahuatl with a Glossary and
Grammatical Notes. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1992. (H. R. Harvey, reviewed
in NN 16, 1993)

Bierhorst, John, ed. History and Mythology of the Aztecs: The Codex
Chimalpopocaá. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1992. (H. R. Harvey,
reviewed in NN 16, 1993)

Black, Nancy Johnson. The Frontier Mission and Social Transformation in Western
Honduras: The Order of Our Lady of Mercy, 1525-1773. New York: E.J. Brill, 1995.
(Richard Bradley, reviewed in NN 29, 2000)

Burkhart, Louise M. Holy Wednesday: A Nahuatl Drama from Early Colonial Mexico.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996. (Gordon Brotherston, reviewed in
NN 23, 1997)

Byland, Bruce E., and John M. D. Pohl. In the Realm of Eight Deer: The Archaeology
of the Mixtec Codices. Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1994. (Byron E. Hamann,
reviewed in NN 21, 1996)

Cantoni, Gina, ed. Stabilizing Indigenous Languages. Flagstaff: Northern Arizona
University, 1996. (David L. Shaul, reviewed in NN 23, 1997)

Cardenal, Ernesto; John Lyons, transl. The Doubtful Strait=El estrecho dudoso.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995. (Russell Salmon, reviewed in NN 22,
1996)

Cardenal, Ernesto; Carlos and Monique Altschul, transl.; Russell O. Salmon, ed.
Golden UFOs: The Indian Poems=Los ovnis de oro: Poemas indios. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 1992. (John Bierhorst, reviewed in NN 15, 1993)

Carrasco, David. Religions of Mesoamerica: Cosmovision and Ceremonial
Centersá. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1990. (Paul Jean Provost, reviewed in
NN 28, 1999)

Castro, Felipe. Historia de los pueblos indgenas de México. México,
D.F.: Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropologa Social, 1996.
(Richard Bradley, reviewed in NN 24-25, 1997-1998)

Chase, Diane Z., and Arlen F. Chase, eds. Mesoamerican Elites: An Archaeological
Assessment. Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992. (Mike Pisani, reviewed
in NN 16, 1993)

Chenault, Victoria, and Mara Teresa Sierra. Pueblos indgenas ante el derecho.
México: Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropologa Social,
1995. (Susan Kellogg, reviewed in NN 24-25, 1997-1998)

Clendinnen, Inga. Aztecs: An Interpretation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1991. (Alan R. Sandstrom, reviewed in NN 13, 1992)

Coe, Sophie D. America’s First Cuisines. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994.
(Barbara J. Petit, reviewed in NN 20, 1995)

Graulich, Michel. Montezuma ou l’apogée et la chute de l’empire
aztáÆque. Paris: Fayard, 1994. (Jacqueline de Durand-Forest, reviewed in
NN 20, 1995)

Dover, Robert V. H., Katherine E. Seibold, and John H. McDowell, eds. Andean
Cosmologies Through Time: Persistence and Emergence. Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, 1992. (Paul Proulx, reviewed in NN 16, 1993)

Downing, Todd. The Mexican Earth. 2nd ed. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,
1996. (Luis Leal, reviewed in NN 22, 1996)

Durán, Diego; Doris Heyden, transl. The History of the Indies of New Spain.
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994. (Kay A. Read, reviewed in NN 20, 1995)

Eber, Christine. Women and Alcohol in a Highland Maya Town. Austin: University of
Texas Press, 1995. (Michael R.Nusbaumer, reviewed in NN 27, 1999)

Foster, George McClelland. Hippocrates’ Latin American Legacy: Humoral Medicine in
the New World. Langhorne, Penn.: Gordon and Breach, 1994. (Brad H. Huber, reviewed in
NN 27, 1999)

Foster, Nelson, and Linda S. Cordell, eds. Chilies to Chocolate: Food the Americas
Gave the World. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1992. (Susan Toby Evans, reviewed
in NN 26, 1998)

Fowler, William R. The Cultural Evolution of Ancient Nahua Civilizations: The Pipil
Nicarao of Central America. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989. (Nancy J.
Black, reviewed in NN 18, 1994)

Francis, Norbert, Malintzin: Bilingismo y alfabetización en la Sierra de
Tlaxcala (México). Quito, Ecuador: Ediciones Abya-Yala, 1997. (Jane H. Hill,
reviewed in NN 30, 2000)

Graulich, Michel; Bernard R. Ortiz de Montellano and Thelma Ortiz de Montellano,
transl. Myths of Ancient Mexico. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997. (James M.
Taggart, reviewed in NN 29, 2000)

Greenberg, James B. Blood Ties: Life and Violence in Rural Mexico. Tucson:
University of Arizona Press, 1989. (Hugo G. Nutini, reviewed in NN 17, 1994)

Greenblatt, Stephen, ed. New World Encounters. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1993. (John Frederick Schwaller, reviewed in NN 17, 1994)

Gruzinski, Serge; Eileen Corrigan, transl. The Conquest of Mexico: The Incorporation
of Indian Societies into the Western World, 16th-18th Centuries. Cambridge, England:
Polity Press, 1993. (Susan Toby Evans, reviewed in NN 18, 1994)

Hassig, Ross. War and Society in Ancient Mesoamerica. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1992. (Robert J. Jeske, reviewed in NN 15, 1993)

Hassig, Ross. Mexico and the Spanish Conquest. London: Longman, 1994. (Michel
Graulich, reviewed in NN 22, 1996)

Hogan, Ernest. High Aztec. New York: Tor, 1992. (Alan R. Sandstrom, reviewed in NN
19, 1995)

Hu-DeHart, Evelyn; Zulai Marcela Fuentes Ortega, transl. Adaptacon y resistencia en
el Yaquimi: Los Yaquis durante la colonia. México, D.F.: Centro de
Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropologa Social, Instituto Nacional
Indigenista, 1995. (Gregory F. Truex, reviewed in NN 21, 1996)

Jones, Lindsay. Twin City Tales: A Hermeneutical Reassessment of Tula and
Chichén Itzá. Niwot, Colo.: University Press of Colorado, 1995. (Jay
E.Silverstein, reviewed in NN 24-25, 1997 1998)

Karttunen, Frances. Between Worlds: Interpreters, Guides, and Survivors. New
Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1994. (Bernard Ortiz de Montellano, reviewed in NN
20, 1995)

Kay, Margarita Artschwanger. Healing with Plants in the American and Mexican West.
Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1996. (George M. Foster, reviewed in NN 23,
1997)

Kellogg, Susan. Law and the Transformation of Aztec Culture, 1500-1700. Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1995. (Doris Heyden, reviewed in NN 24-25, 1997-1998)

Knab, Timothy J. A War of Witches: A Journey into the Underworld of the Contemporary
Aztecs. New York: HarperCollins, 1995. (Doren L. Slade, reviewed in NN 23, 1997)

León-Portilla, Miguel; J. Jorge Klor de Alva, ed. The Aztec Image of Self and
Society: An Introduction to Nahua Culture. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press,
1992. (Harold B. Haley, reviewed in NN 15, 1993)

León-Portilla, Miguel. Fifteen Poets of the Aztec World. Norman: University
of Oklahoma Press, 1992. (Kay A. Read, reviewed in NN 18, 1994)

Lévine, Daniel. Le grand temple de México: Du mythe la
réalité – l’histoire des aztéques entre 1325 et 1521. Editions
Artcom, 1997. (José Alcina Franch, reviewed in NN 29, 2000)

Lipp, Frank J. The Mixe of Oaxaca: Religion, Ritual, and Healing. Austin: University
of Texas Press, 1991. (Carlos Garma Navarro, reviewed in NN 15, 1993)

Lomnitz-Adler, Claudio. Exits from the Labyrinth: Culture and Ideology in the
Mexican National Space. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. (Alan R.
Sandstrom, reviewed in NN 18, 1994)

Lutz, Christopher H., ed; Karen Dakin, transl. Nuestro pesar, nuestra
aflicción=Tunetuliniliz, tucucuca: Memorias en lengua náhuatl enviadas a
Felipe II por indgenas del Valle de Guatemala hacia 1572. México, D.F.:
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1996. (Susan Schroeder, reviewed
in NN 24-25, 1997-1998)

Mallon, Florence E. Peasant and Nation: The Making of Postcolonial Mexico and Peru.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995. (Frances A. Rothstein, reviewed in NN
22, 1996)

Markman, Peter T., and Roberta H. Markman; introduction by Joseph Campbell. Masks of
the Spirit: Image and Metaphor in Mesoamerica. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1989 [1994 printing]. (Cecelia F. Klein, reviewed in NN 22, 1996)

Monaghan, John. The Covenants with Earth and Rain: Exchange, Sacrifice, and
Revelation in Mixtec Sociality. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995. (Alan R.
Sandstrom, reviewed in NN 2, 1996)

Mulhare, Eileen de la Torre. Totemihuacán: Su Historia y Vida Actual. Puebla:
Secretara de Cultura, Gobierno del Estado de Puebla, 1995. (Hugo G. Nutini, reviewed in
NN 24-25, 1997-1998)

Nelen, Yvetter. De Illustere Heren van San Pablo: Lokaal bestuur in
negentiende-eeuws Mexico/Tlaxcala, 1823-1880. Leiden: University of Leiden, Research
School CNWS, 1999. (Frans J. Schryer, reviewed in NN 29, 2000)

Nutini, Hugo G., and Jack M. Roberts. Bloodsucking Witchcraft: An Epistemological
Study of Anthropomorphic Supernaturalism in Rural Tlaxcala. Tucson: University of
Arizona Press, 1993. (Barry L. Isaac, reviewed in NN 21, 1996)

Pasztory, Esther. Teotihuacan: An Experiment in Living. Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press, 1997. (Susan Toby Evans, reviewed in NN 28, 1999)

Paul, Anne, ed . Paracas Art and Architecture: Object and Context in South Coastal
Peru. Iowa City, Iowa: University of Iowa Press, 1991. (Lawrence A. Kuznar, reviewed in
NN 14, 1992)

Phillips, Jr., William D., and Carla Rahn Phillips. The Worlds of Christopher
Columbusá. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. (Paul Jean Provost,
reviewed in NN 15, 1993)

Pollard, Helen Perlstein. Tariacuri’s Legacy: The Prehispanic Tarascan State.
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. 1993. (John M. Weeks, reviewed in NN 17,
1994)

Poole, Stafford. Our Lady of Guadalupe: The Origins and Sources of a Mexican
National Symbol, 1531-1797. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1995. (Mulhare, Eileen
M., reviewed in NN 21, 1996)

Quiñones Keber, Eloise. Codex Telleriano-Remensis: Ritual, Divination, and
History in a Pictorial Aztec Manuscript. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995.
(Doris Heyden, reviewed in NNá 26, 1998)

Radding, Cynthia. Entre el desierto y la sierra: Las naciones o’odham y
tegáma de Sonora, 1530 1840. México, D.F.: Centro de Investigaciones y
Estudios Superiores en Antropologa Social, Instituto Nacional Indigenista, 1995.
(Gregory F. Truex, reviewed in NN 21, 1996)

Radding, Cynthia. Wandering Peoples: Colonialism, Ethnic Spaces, and Ecological
Frontiers in Northwestern Mexico, 1700-1850. Durham: Duke University Press, 1997.
(Christopher S. Beekman, reviewed in NN 26, 1998)

Ramirez, Arnulfo G., Jose Antonio Flores, and Leopoldo Vilinas. Se tosaasaanil, se
tosaasaanil: Adivinanzas nahuas de ayer y hoy. México, D.F.: Centro de
Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropologa Social and Instituto Nacional
Indigenista, 1992. (Catharine Good, reviewed in NN 16, 1993)

Rea, Amadeo M. At the Desert’s Green Edge: An Ethnobotany of the Gila River Pima.
Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1997. (Lawrence A. Kuznar, reviewed in NN 26,
1998)

Reff, Daniel T. Disease, Depopulation, and Culture Change in Northwestern New Spain,
1518 1764. Salt Lake City, Utah: University of Utah Press, 1991. (Michael H. Logan,
reviewed in NNá 13, 1992)

Rodriguez, Jeanette. Our Lady of Guadalupe: Faith and Empowerment among Mexican
American Women. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994. (John M. Ingham, reviewed in
NN 21, 1996)

Rodriguez-Shadow, Mara J. La mujer azteca. México, D.F.: Universidad
Autónoma del Estado de México, 1997. (Cristina Lirón, reviewed in
NN 28, 1999)

Rodrguez-Shadow, Mara J., La mujer azteca. 4a. ed. México, D.F.: Universidad
Autónoma del Estado de México, 2000. (Ana Lau J., reviewed in NN 31,
2001)

Rudolf van Zantwijk, ed. De zon en de arend: Duizend jaar Azteekse vertelkunst[The
Sun and the Eagle: A Thousand Years of Aztec Story-Telling]. Amsterdam: Prometheus,
1996. (Henri Gooren, reviewed in NN 28, 1999)

Sahagn, Bernardino de; paleography of Nahuatl text and English translation by Thelma
D. Sullivan; completed and revised, with additions, by H.B. Nicholson, et al. Primeros
memoriales. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997. (Frances Karttunen, reviewed in
NN 26, 1998)

Sahagn, Bernardino de; facsimile edition photographed by Ferdinand Anders. Primeros
memoriales. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press; Madrid: in cooperation with the
Patrimonio Nacional and the Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, 1993. (Frances
Karttunen, reviewed in NN 26, 1998)

San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuantzin, Don Domingo de;
Arthur J. O. Anderson and Susan Schroeder, eds. and transl. Codex Chimalpahin: Society
and Politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Texcoco, Culhuacan, and other Nahua
Altepetl in Central Mexico. 2 vols. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997. (Gordon
Brotherston, reviewed in 30, 2000)

Schaefer, Stacy B., and Peter T. Furst, eds. People of the Peyote: Huichol Indian
History, Religion, and Survival. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1997.
(Frank J. Lipp, reviewed in NN 27, 1999)

Shimada, Izumi. Pampa Grande and the Mochica Culture. Austin: University of Texas
Press, 1994. (Lawrence A. Kuznar, reviewed in NN 19, 1995)

Slade, Doren. Making the World Safe for Existence: Celebration of the Saints among
the Sierra Nahuat of Chignautla, Mexico. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992.
(James Dow, reviewed in NN 18, 1994)

Sousa, Lisa, Stafford Poole, and James Lockhart, eds. and tranls. The Story of
Guadalupe: Luis Laso de la Vega’s Huei tlamahuicoltica of 1649. Stanford, Calif.:
Stanford University Press, 1998. (Paul Jean Provost, reviewed in NN 31, 2001)

Stone, Andrea. Images from the Underworld: Naj Tunich and the Tradition of Maya Cave
Painting. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995. (Gordon Brotherston, reviewed in NN
21, 1996)

Stresser-Péan, Guy, ed., facsimile del códice con un estudio e
interpretación; ayudado por Claude Stresser-Péan, y la prefacio de
Charles H. Dibble. El Códice de Xicotepec: Estudio e interpretación.
México. D.F.: Gobierno del Estado de Puebla, Centro Francés de Estudios
Mexicanos y Centroaméricanos, Fondo de Cultura Económica. (Yolotl
Gonzalez Torres, reviewed in NN 22, 1996)

Suarez, Jorge A. Las lenguas indigenas mesoamericanas. México D.F.: Instituto
Nacional Indigenista, Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropologia
Social, 1990 [1983]. (David L. Shaul, reviewed in NN 21, 1996)

Turner II, Christy G., and Jacqueline A. Turner. Man Corn: Cannibalism and Violence
in the Prehistoric American Southwest. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1999.
(Robert J. Jeske, reviewed in NN 29, 2000)

Umberger, Emily, and Tom Cummins, eds. Native Artists and Patrons in Colonial Latin
America. Tempe: Arizona State University, 1995. (Norman W. Bradley, reviewed in NN 21,
1996)

Wilson, Richard. Maya Resurgence in Guatemala: Q’eqchi’ Experiences. Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1995. (Cindy Vandenbergh Hull, reviewed in NN 21,
1996)

Yoffee, Norman, and George L., eds. The Collapse of Ancient States and
Civilizations. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1991. (Richard E. Blanton, reviewed
in NN 15, 1993)

Zapata y Mendoza, Juan Buenaventura; Luis Reyes Garca and Andrea Martnez Baracs,
transl. Historia cronológica de la noble ciudad de Tlaxcala. México, D.
F.: Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Secretara de Extensión
Universitaria y Difusión Cultural; Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios
Superiores en Antropologa Social, 1995. (David Robichaux, reviewed in NN 29, 2000)

Zorita, Alonso de; Benjamin Keen, transl. Life and Labor in Ancient Mexico: The
Brief and Summary Relation of the Lords of New Spain. Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press, 1994. (Louise M. Burkhart, reviewed in NN 22, 1996)

Index to Reviewers

Alcina Franch, José, review in NN 29, 2000 of Le grand temple de
México: Du mythe la réalité – l’histoire des aztéques entre
1325 et 1521 by Daniel Lévine.

Beekman, Christopher S., review in NN 26, 1998 of Wandering Peoples: Colonialism,
Ethnic Spaces, and Ecological Frontiers in Northwestern Mexico, 1700-1850 by Cynthia
Radding.

Bierhorst, John, review in NN 15, 1993 of Golden UFOs: The Indian Poems=Los ovnis de
oro: Poemas indios by Ernesto Cardenal; translated by Carlos and Monique Altschul;
edited, with an introduction and glossary by Russell O. Salmon.

Black, Nancy J., review in NN 18, 1994 of The Cultural Evolution of Ancient Nahua
Civilizations: The Pipil Nicarao of Central America by William R. Fowler.

Blanton, Richard E., review in NN 15, 1993 of The Collapse of Ancient States and
Civilizations edited by Norman Yoffee and George L. Cowgill.

Bradley, Richard, review in NN 22, 1996 of Cuatro nobles titulados en contienda por
la tierra by Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán.

Bradley, Richard, review in NN 24-25, 1997-1998 of Historia de los pueblos indgenas
de México by Felipe Castro.

Bradley, Richard, review in NN 29, 2000 of The Frontier Mission and Social
Transformation in Western Honduras: The Order of Our Lady of Mercy, 1525-1773 by Nancy
Johnson Black.

Bradley, Norman W., review in NN 21, 1996 of Native Artists and Patrons in Colonial
Latin America edited by Emily Umberger and Tom Cummins.

Brotherston, Gordon, review in NN 21, 1996 of Images from the Underworld: Naj Tunich
and the Tradition of Maya Cave Paintingá by Andrea Stone.

Brotherston, Gordon, review in NN 23, 1997 of Holy Wednesday: A Nahuatl Drama from
Early Colonial Mexico by Louise M. Burkhart.

Brotherston, Gordon, review in NN 30, 2000 of Codex Chimalpahin: Society and
Politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Texcoco, Culhuacan, and other Nahua
Altepetl in Central Mexico collected and recorded by Don Domingo de San Antón
Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuantzin; edited and translated by Arthur J. O.
Anderson and Susan Schroeder.

Burkhart, Louise M., review in NN 22, 1996 of Life and Labor in Ancient Mexico: The
Brief and Summary Relation of the Lords of New Spain by Alonso de Zorita.

Cichewicz, Robert H., review in NN 27, 1999 of Peppers: The Domesticated Capsicums
by Jean Andrews.

Dehouve, Daniéle, review in NN 17, 1994 of Bernardino de Sahagn’s Psalmodia
Christiana (Christian Psalmody) translated by Arthur J. O. Anderson.

Dow, James, review in NN 18, 1994 of Making the World Safe for Existence:
Celebration of the Saints among the Sierra Nahuat of Chignautla, Mexico by Doren
Slade.

Durand-Forest, Jacqueline de, review in NN 20, 1995 of Montezuma ou l’apogée
et la chute de l’empire aztéque by Michel Graulich.

Evans, Susan Toby, review in NN 18, 1994 of The Conquest of Mexico: The
Incorporation of Indian Societies into the Western World, 16th-18th Centuries by Serge
Gruzinski; translated by Eileen Corrigan.

Evans, Susan Toby, review in NN 26, 1998 of Chilies to Chocolate: Food the Americas
Gave the World edited by Nelson Foster and Linda S. Cordell.

Evans, Susan Toby, review in NN 28, 1999 of Teotihuacan: An Experiment in Living by
Esther Pasztory.

Foster, George M., review in NN 23, 1997 of Healing with Plants in the American and
Mexican West by Margarita Artschwanger Kay.

Garma Navarro, Carlos, review in NN 15, 1993 of The Mixe of Oaxaca: Religion,
Ritual, and Healing by Frank J. Lipp; forward by Munro S. Edmonson.

González Torres, Yolotl, review in NN 22, 1996 of El Códice de
Xicotepec: Estudio e interpretación facsimil del Códice con un estudio e
interpretación del Dr. Guy Stresser-Péan, ayudado por Claude
Stresser-Péan, y la prefacio de Charles H. Dibble.

Good, Catharine, review in NN 16, 1993 of Se tosaasaanil, se tosaasaanil:
Adivinanzas nahuas de ayer y hoy by Arnulfo G. Ramirez, Jose Antonio Flores, and
Leopoldo Vilinas.

Gooren, Henri, review in NN 28, 1999 of De zon en de arend: Duizend jaar Azteekse
vertelkunst [The Sun and the Eagle: A Thousand Years of Aztec Story-Telling]
translated, edited, and introduced by Rudolf van Zantwijk.

Graulich, Michel, review in NN 22, 1996 of Mexico and the Spanish Conquest by Ross
Hassig.

Haley, Harold B., review in NN 15, 1993 of The Aztec Image of Self and Society: An
Introduction to Nahua Culture by Miguel León-Portilla; edited with an
introduction by J. Jorge Klor de Alva.

Hamann, Byron E., review in NN 21, 1996 of In the Realm of Eight Deer: The
Archaeology of the Mixtec Codices by Bruce E byland and John M. D. Pohl.

Harvey, H. R., review in NN 16, 1993 of History and Mythology of the Aztecs: The
Codex Chimalpopoca translated by John Bierhorst; also Codex Chimalpopoca: The Text in
Nahuatl with a Glossary and Grammatical Notes edited by John Bierhorst.

Heyden, Doris, review in NN 24-25, 1997-1998 of Law and the Transformation of Aztec
Culture, 1500-1700 by Susan Kellogg.

Heyden, Doris, review in NN 26, 1998 of Codex Telleriano-Remensis: Ritual,
Divination, and History in a Pictorial Aztec Manuscript by Eloise Quiñones
Keber.

Hicks, Frederic, review in NN 24-25, 1997-1998 of The Essential Codex Mendoza by
Frances F. Berdan and Patricia Rieff Anawalt.

Hill, Jane H., review in NN 30, 2000 of Malintzin: Bilingüismo y
alfabetización en la Sierra de Tlaxcala (México)á by Norbert
Francis.

Huber, Brad H., review in NN 27, 1999 of Hippocrates’ Latin American Legacy: Humoral
Medicine in the New World by George McClelland Foster.

Hull, Cindy Vandenbergh, review in NN 21, 1996 of Maya Resurgence in Guatemala:
Q’eqchi’ Experiences by Richard Wilson.

Ingham, John M., review in NN 21, 1996 of Our Lady of Guadalupe: Faith and
Empowerment among Mexican-American Women by Jeanette Rodriguez.

Isaac, Barry L., review in NN 21, 1996 of Bloodsucking Witchcraft: An
Epistemological Study of Anthropomorphic Supernaturalism in Rural Tlaxcala by Hugo G.
Nutini and Jack M. Roberts.

Jeske, Robert J., review in NN 15, 1993 of War and Society in Ancient Mesoamerica by
Ross Hassig.

Jeske, Robert J., review in NN 29, 2000 of Man Corn: CaNNibalism and Violence in the
Prehistoric American Southwest by Christy G. Turner II and Jacqueline A. Turner.

Karttunen,Frances, review in NN 26, 1998 of Primeros memoriales by Bernardino de
Sahagn; facsimile edition photographed by Ferdinand Anders; also paleography of Nahuatl
text and English translation by Thelma D. Sullivan; completed and revised, with
additions, by H.B. Nicholson, et al.

Kellogg, Susan, review in NN 24-25, 1997-1998 of Pueblos indgenas ante el derecho
edited by Victoria Chenault and Mara Teresa Sierra.

Kellogg, Susan, review in NN 29, 2000 of Beber de tierra generosa: Historia de las
bebidas alcohólicas en México, Vol. 1; Ciencia de las bebidas
alcohólicas en México, Vol. 2.

Klein, Cecelia F., review in NN 22, 1996 of Masks of the Spirit: Image and Metaphor
in Mesoamerica by Peter T. Markman and Roberta H. Markman.

Kuznar, Lawrence A., review in NN 14, 1992 of Paracas Art and Architecture: Object
and Context in South Coastal Peru edited by Anne Paul.

Kuznar, Lawrence A., review in NN 19, 1995 of Pampa Grande and the Mochica Culture
by Izumi Shimada.

Lau J., Ana, review in NN 31, 2000 of La mujer azteca by Mara J.
Rodrguez-Shadow.

Leal, Luis, review in NN 22, 1996 of The Mexican Earth by Todd Downing.

Lipp, Frank J., review in NN 27, 1999 of People of the Peyote: Huichol Indian
History, Religion, and Survival edited by Stacy B. Schaefer and Peter T. Furst.

Lirón, Cristina, review in NN 28, 1999 of La mujer azteca by Mara
Rodriguez-Shadow.

Logan, Michael H., review in NN 13, 1992 of Disease, Depopulation, and Culture
Change in Northwestern New Spain, 1518-1764, by Daniel T. Reff.

Mulhare, Eileen M., review in NN 21, 1996 of Our Lady of Guadalupe: The Origins and
Sources of a Mexican National Symbol, 1531-1797 by Stafford Poole.

Nusbaumer, Michael R., review in NN 27, 1999 of Women and Alcohol in a Highland Maya
Town by Christine Eber.

Nutini, Hugo G., review in NN 17, 1994 of Blood Ties: Life and Violence in Rural
Mexico by James B. Greenberg.

Nutini, Hugo G., review in NN 24-25, 1997-1998 of Totemihuacán: Su Historia y
Vida Actual by Eileen de la Torre Mulhare.

Ortiz de Montellano, Bernard, review in NN 20, 1995 of Between Worlds: Interpreters,
Guides, and Survivors by Frances Karttunen.

Petit, Barbara J., review in NN 20, 1995 of America’s First Cuisines by Sophie D.
Coe.

Pisani, Mike, review in NN 16, 1993 of Mesoamerican Elites: An Archaeological
Assessment edited by Diane Z. Chase and Arlen F. Chase.

Proulx, Paul, review in NN 16, 1993 of Andean Cosmologies Through Time: Persistence
and Emergence edited by Robert V. H. Dover, Katherine E. Seibold, and John H.
McDowell.

Provost, Paul Jean, review in NN 15, 1993 of The Worlds of Christopher Columbus by
William D. Phillips, Jr., and Carla Rahn Phillips.

Provost, Paul Jean, review in NN 28, 1999 of Religions of Mesoamerica: Cosmovision
and Ceremonial Centers by David Carrasco.

Provost, Paul Jean, review in NN 31, 2001 of The Story of Guadalupe: Luis Laso de la
Vega’s Huei tlamahuicoltica of 1649 edited and translated by Lisa Sousa, Stafford
Poole, and James Lockhart.

Read, Kay A., review in NN 18, 1994 of Fifteen Poets of the Aztec World by Miguel
León Portilla.

Read, Kay A., review in NN 20, 1995 of The History of the Indies of New Spain by
Diego Durán; translated, annotated, and with an introduction by Doris
Heyden.

Robichaux, David, review in NN 29, 2000 of Historia cronológica de la noble
ciudad de Tlaxcala by Juan Buenaventura Zapata y Mendoza.

Rodrguez, Mara Teresa, review in NN 27, 1999 of Tlacatecolotl y el diablo: La
cosmovisión de los nahuas de Chicontepec by Félix Báez-Jorge and
Arturo Gómez Martnez.

Rothstein, Frances A., review in NN 22, 1996 of Peasant and Nation: The Making of
Postcolonial Mexico and Peru by Florence E. Mallon.

Salmon, Russell, review in NN 22, 1996 of The Doubtful Strait=El estrecho dudoso by
Ernesto Cardenal; translated by John Lyons.

Sandstrom, Alan R., review in NN 13, 1992 of Aztecs: An Interpretation by Inga
Clendinnen.

Sandstrom, Alan R., review in NN 18, 1994 of Exits from the Labyrinth: Culture and
Ideology in the Mexican National Space, by Claudio Lomnitz-Adler.

Sandstrom, Alan R., review in NN 19, 1995 of High Aztec by Ernest Hogan.

Sandstrom, Alan R., review in NN 2, 1996 of The Covenants with Earth and Rain:
Exchange, Sacrifice, and Revelation in Mixtec Sociality by John Monaghan.

Schroeder, Susan, review in NN 24-25, 1997-1998 of Nuestro pesar, nuestra
aflicción=Tunetuliniliz, tucucuca: Memorias en lengua náhuatl enviadas a
Felipe II por indgenas del Valle de Guatemala hacia 1572, edited and introduced by
Christopher H. Lutz, transcribed, translated, and with commentary by Karen Dakin.

Schryer, Frans J., review in NN 29, 2000 of De Illustere Heren van San Pablo: Lokaal
bestuur in negentiende-eeuws Mexico/Tlaxcala, 1823-1880 by Yvetter Nelen.

Schwaller, John Frederick, review in NN 17, 1994 of New World Encounters edited by
Stephen Greenblatt.

Schwaller, John Fredrick, review in NN 26, 1998 of Utopia and History in Mexico: The
First Chronicles of Mexican Civilization (1520-1569) by Georges Baudot; translated by
Bernard R. Ortiz de Montellano and Thelma Ortiz de Montellano.

Shaul, David L., review in NN 21, 1996 of Las lenguas indigenas mesoamericanas by
Jorge A. Suarez.

Shaul, David L., review in NN 23, 1997 of Stabilizing Indigenous Languages edited by
Gina Cantoni.

Silverstein, Jay E., review in NN 24-25, 1997-1998 of Twin City Tales: A
Hermeneutical Reassessment of Tula and Chichén Itzá by Lindsay Jones.

Slade, Doren L., review in NN 23, 1997 of A War of Witches: A Journey into the
Underworld of the Contemporary Aztecs by Timothy J. Knab.

Taggart, James M., review in NN 29, 2000 of Myths of Ancient Mexico by Michel
Graulich; translated by Bernard R. Ortiz de Montellano and Thelma Ortiz de
Montellano.

Truex, Gregory F., review in NN 21, 1996 of Entre el desierto y la sierra: Las
naciones o’odham y tegºima de Sonora, 1530-1840, by Cynthia Radding.

Truex, Gregory F., review in NN 21, 1996 of Adaptacon y resistencia en el Yaquimi:
Los Yaquis durante la colonia by Evelyn Hu-DeHart; translation by Zulai Marcela Fuentes
Ortega; revised by Teresa Rojas Rabiela.

Vazquez, Juan Adolfo, review in NN 15, 1993 of Four Masterworks of American Indian
Literature: Quetzalcoatl, The Ritual of Condolence, Cuceb, The Night Chant edited with
commentaries and new translations by John Bierhorst.

Weeks, John M., review in NN 17, 1994 of Tariacuri’s Legacy: The Prehispanic
Tarascan State by Helen Perlstein Pollard.

Book reviews

The Story of Guadalupe: Luis Laso de la Vega’s Huei tlamahuicoltica of 1649. Edited and translated by Lisa Sousa, Stafford Poole, and James Lockhart. UCLA Latin American Studies, Vol. 84; Nahuatl Studies Series No. 5. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0 8047-3482-8 (cloth), $45.00. ISBN 0-8044-3483-6 (paper), $16.95.

I was reading this book on an airplane when I fell into friendly conversation with
the stranger seated next to me. Eventually, my companion asked me about the book that I
was reading. I felt that this could be an opportunity for a “dry run” of my planned
review for the Nahua Newsletter. So, with my trapped companion’s permission, I launched
my attempted to enlighten him about this slim and exotic volume. My attempt was
immediately frustrated because I found it very hard to discuss the book without a
single picture, drawing, photograph, or illustration of the main subject of the book –
the famous image of the Virgin of Guadalupe herself. Ironic oversight, considering that
The Story of Guadalupe concerns the apparition of the Virgin’s image on the humble
cloak of Don Juan Diego in 1531 A.D. The story of Guadalupe is the story of this
miracle and not a single impression of the image is to be found in this book. I feel it
is reasonable to expect to see the famous likeness somewhere in the book or on the dust
jacket. The same can be said of the Samuel Stradanus engravings referred to in the text
(pp. 13, 17-18). It would be easier for a reader to follow the discussion of the
lithographs with a copy of the image at hand. After all, a picture is worth a thousand
words.

The religious conversion of Mexico in the sixteenth century was a Roman Catholic
missionary’s dream: heathens without morals and savages without mercy. These are the
ideal conditions for those interested in living out the Catholic mission of spreading
the true faith to the benighted heathen. In the sixteenth century the recently opened
Orient was socially too sophisticated, culturally ancient, and politically powerful for
this dream, but the New World Indians were “perfect” ? being technologically primitive,
politically defeated, medically devastated, and culturally crushed. It was a stage set
for missionaries and consequently attracted highly motivated legions of the most
devoted servants of the Church: Franciscans, Dominicans, and Jesuits.

The religious conquest of Mexico is almost more stunning than its military conquest.
In fact, both were extremely rapid and benefitted from the extraordinary confluence of
events and institutions. One of the key elements of this historical transformation was
the miraculous appearance of the Blessed Virgin Mary to the poor Nahua, Juan Diego, at
Tepeyac in 1531. This event is a source of much anthropological, historical,
theological, and nationalistic literature that by its sheer weight would undoubtedly be
the heaviest question in Mesoamerican studies. Therefore, it is exciting to have a
version of the original story as published in the late 1640s available for scrutiny by
the English-speaking scholarly community.

For Mesoamericanists this volume is analogous in a sense to the Dead Sea scrolls and
takes its place among the other original documents on post-Conquest life and culture.
The release of the first translation of a document about an important historical event
always makes academic scholars’ hearts beat a little faster, a fact that probably would
have pleased the Aztec priests who attended Coatlicue’s temple, which originally stood
in pre-Conquest times on the very hill where the Christian-era event took place.

The Story of Guadalupe fills a need for a high-quality, complete English translation
of this important document and the authors state that they wish to remedy this
situation “by offering a faithful transcription of the complete text of the 1649 book,
together with a translation and critical apparatus. We hope to serve three main
purposes. The first is to give the English speaking public access to a version of the
texts, which will be easily readable and reveal their true qualities. The second is to
provide advanced students of Nahuatl with an annotated, readily usable transcription
and translation of what is, although not so intended, surely one of the best works ever
produced for the learning of the refinements of the older form of the Nahuatl language.
The third (partly overlapping with the second) is to advance the philological analysis
of texts, trying to penetrate deeper into the nature of words and expressions, not only
in order to comprehend the meaning better, but also to try to find out more about the
works affinities and authorship” (p. 4). I think no more succinct description of this
volume could be written.

Being neither a philologist nor linguist, I leave the assessment of those parts to
scholars that can be more enlightening as to the merits of this work. Speaking for the
general audience, I feel that the authors should be congratulated for filling a gap in
the library of codices, manuscripts, and ethnohistorical documents concerning
Mesoamerica during its post-Conquest transformation period. This work joins other
recent releases of original documents such as Guy Stresser-Peán’s Codice de
Xicotepec (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1995) that will be
appreciated by scholars from diverse backgrounds as basic resources in Mesoamerican
studies for years to come.

The nicely presented translations that grace the work are delightful to read and one
can see why the story generated such fervor among the new converts to the Church in the
late-sixteenth century. The work would also have benefitted from having an Index, but
for those interested in Mesoamerica, it is a welcome addition to our understanding of
post-Conquest life and times.

Paul Jean Provost
Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne
 

The following unsolicited review was sent to the NN for publication. A review of an earlier edition of La mujer azteca appeared in NN 28 but the work is of sufficient interest that it is already in its fourth edition and we decided to include an additional evaluation to alert readers to this important book.

La mujer azteca. By Mara J. Rodrguez-Shadow. 4a. ed. México, D.F.: Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, 2000. 276pp.

“mira que [las enseñanzas] las tomes y las guardes en tu corazón y las
escribas en tus entrañas” – Fray Bernardino de Sahagn

Entiendo perfectamente porqué este texto ha alcanzado la cuarta
edición; su lectura atrapa al lector/a desde el principio por el estilo ameno de
su relato, la abundante bibliografa, la variedad de los temas que comprende y el orden
de la narración. Estructurada en siete captulos, conclusiones y bibliografa, la
obra abarca una amplitud de cuestiones relativas a la situación de las mujeres
en la sociedad azteca; se ocupa de las posturas teóricas de diversos
investigadores del México prehispánico, amén de apoyarse. En los
códices indgenas y en los cronistas españoles que plasmaron la
visión del mundo al que se enfrentaron. A lo largo del libro examina cómo
las prácticas sociales determinan la condición de las mujeres. Como hemos
hecho notar, el tratamiento de los temas que cubre es exhaustivo ya que hace un
ejercicio en el que abarca la problemática femenina en casi todos los aspectos
que le conciernen, logrando una profundidad en el análisis.

El texto inicia con la discusión de las dos posiciones que los estudiosos han
sostenido acerca del papel de las mujeres en la sociedad mexica, por un lado, que las
mujeres ocupaban un lugar prominente y por el otro quienes argumentan que estaban
socialmente subordinadas. La autora distingue entre las obras analticas y los meros
estudios descriptivos. No obstante la seriedad del estudio, el libro es muy sencillo,
disfrutable, sugerente e interesante.

Comprender la situación de subordinación femenina en México y
buscar sus races entre los mexicas es el objetivo primario del libro. Hacerlo a partir
de las fuentes historiográficas tradicionales, mediante una lectura distinta, es
lo que nos presenta Mara J. Rodrguez. Esta lectura se sustenta en una metodologa
feminista en donde la perspectiva de género subraya la importancia de examinar a
las mujeres, as como a los hombres, en relación al género opuesto
más que de forma aislada y sobre todo permite comprender las relaciones de
género que se entablan en todos los niveles de la organización social, a
través de una explicación del contexto en el que se producen, enmarcando
dichas relaciones dentro de los acontecimientos económicos, polticos, sociales e
ideológicos.

La autora parte de la premisa de que al ser, la azteca, una sociedad militarizada,
los valores masculinos eran los que prevalecan, (vale la pena mencionar que la
situación no ha cambiado) de ah que se estimulara la agresividad y la
beligerancia, atribuciones de género que no compartan las mujeres (p. 80). Esta
sociedad impregnada de representaciones guerreras propició que las actividades
consideradas más importantes: el gobierno, la guerra, la caza, el sacerdocio y
el comercio estuvieran en manos de los hombres, lo que implicaba la marginación
femenina y el reparto desigual de los trabajos y los puestos de autoridad, prestigio y
poder (pp. 99, 251). Ello haca que las mujeres fueran consideradas botn de guerra,
trofeo al valor masculino. Es as que, Mara de Jess a lo largo del texto va estudiando
cómo se impona el dominio masculino y cómo éste “mantuvo un
estrecho control sobre las mujeres, que incluso sobrepasaba los marcos de
diferenciación clasista” (181). No obstante, hay que apuntar que las mujeres
desarrollaron estrategias de resistencia frente a la dominación y en algunos
casos se rebelaron mientras que en otros su resistencia fue pasiva.

La intención del libro es visibilizar lo invisible, pero también
“buscar las caractersticas especiales que adopta un régimen social especfico en
un periodo histórico dado” (18). La autora evidencia una extraordinaria
capacidad de sntesis al presentar las caractersticas, comportamiento y actitudes que
asuman las mujeres en la sociedad azteca, observando y contrastando minuciosamente las
versiones de sus fuentes. De ah que transitemos a través del ciclo de vida de
las mujeres, tomando en cuenta sus diferencias por clase social; nos acerquemos a
conocer que eran las madres las encargadas de trasmitir a sus hijas, sus conocimientos
dentro de los estrechos márgenes del hogar y cómo la educación era
diferenciada entre niños y niñas. También pone de manifiesto la
función marginal que las mujeres ocupaban dentro de los ritos religiosos, as
como la participación diferencial en el proceso productivo y en la estructura
ocupacional. Pero llega más lejos, hurga en códices y crónicas
para averiguar lo que no es tan evidente, lo que no se menciona, la sexualidad, su
control, la agresión o sea la violación, la prostitución, el
adulterio y el aborto. Resalta no sólo el quehacer femenino sino también
el tiempo de las mujeres alejado de los ciclos polticos a partir de la inclusión
de problemáticas como el trabajo doméstico, la maternidad o la crianza de
los niños.

La autora al igual que las mujeres mexicas sabe hilar fino y lo demuestra al situar
la opresión femenina en el tiempo, discute lo que se ha dicho acerca de la
opresión de dónde proviene y cuáes han sido las causas de su
aparición. “La opresión femenina es un fenómeno que ha antecedido
a la aparición de las sociedades clasistas y que ha persistido a través
de los tiempos adoptando diversas formas y grados distintos” (p.249). De ah que observe
minuciosamente las desiguales relaciones de poder que se entablaron entre hombres y
mujeres.

La lectura de La mujer azteca ayuda a entender comportamientos, estereotipos y
preconcepciones que han sobrevivido al tiempo, y que aun perviven, lo que muestra la
lentitud con que se transforman las prácticas cotidianas y ordinarias. Por lo
tanto sea bienvenida esta cuarta edición y espero que sigan muchas
más.

Ana Lau J.
Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Xochimilco
 

Illustrations in this issue

The fine illustrations found throughout this issue are from Stuart D. Scott and
Michael S. Foster, “The Prehistory of Mexico’s Northwest Coast: A View from the
Marismas Nacionales of Sinaloa and Nayarit,” pp. 107-135; and Michael S. Foster, “The
Archaeology of Durango,” pp. 197-219. In Greater Mesoamerica: The Archaeology of West
and Northwest Mexico. Edited by Michael S. Foster and Shirley Gorenstein. Salt Lake
City: University of Utah Press, 2000. xvi+307 Pp. ISBN 0-87480-656-9.

Leave a comment