FAMSI © 2007: Jonathan D. Amith Nahuatl Cultural Encyclopedia: Botany and Zoology, Balsas River, Guerrero Research Year : 2004 Culture : Nahuatl Chronology : Colonial Location : Guerrero, México Site : Balsas River Valley Table of Contents Introduction Biological Inventory Textual Documentation: Audio and Transcription Collaborations Granting Agencies Scientific Institutions and Individual Academic Researchers Indigenous Communities, Associations, and Individuals Community Outreach Appendices List of Figures Sources Cited Submitted 03/07/2007 by: Jonathan D. Amith Director: México-North Program on Indigenous Languages Research Affiliate: Gettysburg College, Department of Sociology and Anthropology; Yale University; University of Chicago
[email protected] Introduction Although extensive documentation of Aztec natural history was produced in the colonial period (e.g., de la Cruz, 1940; Hernández, 1959; Sahagún, 1963) there has been virtually no comprehensive research on modern Nahuatl ethnobiology. Attempts (dating to the nineteenth century) to identify in scientific nomenclature the plants described in the aforementioned colonial sources have relied on library studies, not fieldwork. There exists no comprehensive study of modern Nahuatl ethnozoology to shed light on the prehispanic culture in this domain. This situation can be compared to Mayan studies, which has been pioneering and intensive and has contributed greatly to our understanding of this culture, both before and after conquest (see Alcorn, 1984, Berlin and Berlin, 1996; Berlin, Breedlove, and Raven, 1974; Breedlove and Laughlin, 1993; Hunn, 1977; Orellana, 1987; Roys, 1931; to name but the most well known). The present FAMSI award was to begin to fill this lagunae in primary data and, in addition, for the production of an electronic and written corpus of Nahuatl language materials on the natural history (botany and zoology) of the Balsas River Valley in central México.