Scripta Ethnologica ISSN: 1669-0990 [email protected] Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas Argentina Webb, David The nahua annal'. Genre from the sixteenth and seventeenth century (Mexico) Scripta Ethnologica, vol. XXVII, 2005, pp. 9-23 Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas Buenos Aires, Argentina Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=14811516001 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative SCRIPTA ETHNOLOGICA, Vol. XXVII, Bs. As., pp. 9-23 THE NAHUA ANNAL’. GENRE FROM THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURY (MEXICO) David Webb* Summary: In this paper the author explores the transition from the pictorial and semasiographic Nahua writing systems to alphabet prose in the Nahua annals during the XVI and XVII centuries. He traces these changes throghout the Codex Mexicanus, the Codex Aubin and the Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca. The transition to the alphabetic script was necessary to compete with the graphic systems of the Spaniards. The tlacuilo (writers) were aware of the European bias towards the pictographic representation and slowly integrated the Nahuatl alphabetic script. However, the pictorial mode persisted as a counter discourse, underscoring indigenous influence and ethnic pride during the colonial period. Key words: Nauha codex, pictorial systems, alphabetic writings, XVI- XVII centuries, Mexico Introduction Although the annals were produced before the arrival of the Spaniards, all of the extant The Nahuas of Central Mexico employed annals date from the colonial period. The a complex system of pictorial, reason being that many Nahua altepetl re- semasiographic narrative strategies before the recorded their histories in order to legitimate arrival of the Spaniards.1 The genres include claims to territory and their rights among genealogies, cartographic histories, other altepetl, using both pictorial and migrations, divinatory texts and the annals. alphabetic ways of writing. This article The Nahuas employed the term icuiloa, focuses specifically on the annals’ genre and meaning both to write and to paint, since no the transition from pictorial to Nahuatl distinction was made between the two artistic alphabetic graphic systems. To better styles. The preconquest, pictorial annals were understand the alphabetic annals of called xiuhpohualli (year-writing) or Chimalpahin and Zapata y Mendoza, I altepetlacuilolli (altepetl writing). This form believe it is indispensable to overview the of writing focuses on important events from transition from a pictorial to an alphabetic each calendar year and was the most effective ways of writing. To illustrate this transition, means of relating an altepetl’s history. The I will briefly allude to three annals that best writer was a tlacuilo2 (a native scribe) who demonstrate the transition from pictograms wrote or painted usually in tlilli in tlapalli to alphabetic prose and better theorize why (in the black and the red). Topics recorded the semasiographic system ultimately ceded were generally those of interest to the altepetl, to transliterated Nahuatl prose. By doing so, especially meteorological events, military we will understand that the definition of battles as well as public spectacles and writing is distinct to the European standards religious festivals. of the evolution of literacy. *University of Hawai’I, Mânoa and Seabury Hall. E-mail: [email protected] 10 DAVID WEBB Mignolo asserts that scholars have of the Spanish and Nahua writing traditions traditionally possessed a narrow view of was crucial in the evolution of the definitions of literacy and for this reason, postconquest annals. Although the majority many of the indigenous writings of the of the preconquest codices were destroyed Americas have been neglected or not been during the Conquest and its aftermath, many completely accepted as literature because sixteenth-century annals employ preconquest many texts do not adhere to the traditional graphic methods. This writing tradition did definitions of literacy by recording speech. not adhere strictly to the definition of literacy He states the following regarding this in the European/Mediterranean sense. Only misconception: the earlier Maya had a system that “…whereas in Walter Ong’s conception, approximated the reproduction of sounds and writing is limited to alphabetic or syllabic syllables recreating whole sentences. For systems. For its part, book is a concept united reasons that are not clear, the Nahuas did not with writing only in the conceptualization of continue with the Mayan phonetic writing a culture in which writing is understood in tradition. Instead, they employed the restricted sense defined by Diringer and conventionalized signs representing images Ong” (Mignolo, 1995). such as the sun, mountains, and water so that In light of this redefinition of the book, a reader who did not speak Nahuatl could this article illustrates how various Nahua readily understand the images. In many cases, communities did indeed possess a legitimate especially with the annals, scribes would means of writing and literacy. In theses texts, write or paint mnemonic hints capable of oral the various tlacuilo attempted to inscribe and interpretation by other scribes trained in this reinscribe their identities as a colonized form of expression. Only minor attempts culture. By studying this evolution from were made at the syllabification or the pictures to prose, we will be better equipped reproduction of spoken Nahuatl. For this to understand the development and evolution reason, many scholars have discounted these of the annals. texts as true forms of writing because they I contend that the transition to the do not precisely adhere to the theories of alphabetic script was necessary to compete Walter Ong, who bases his evolution of with the graphic systems of the Spaniards literacy on the European writing traditions while still using Nahuatl as the main source that strive to emulate speech. of communication. This method allowed The first mode of writing is through individual native communities to posture as pictogram glyph, which is a form of direct a disenfranchised minority under Spanish expression.3 The glyph is usually a one-to- colonial institutions. one representation, so a pictogram of a stone represents a stone. The second type of expression is an ideogram or logogram, Pictorial writing typically consisting of two or more elements combined to communicate the subject matter. The study of the pictorial annals are out An example is the depiction of the altepetl, of the scope of this study but what is which uses the two elements, atl-water, and quintessential is the notion that the interaction tepetl-mountain (the two essential THE NAHUA ANNAL’. GENRE FROM THE SIXTEENTH AND (...) 11 components for a preconquest community) Mexicanus begin in leaf sixteen, which to convey the idea of the native city-state. A illustrates the departure of the Mexica in the third and less frequently used technique is year One Flint (1668). This event has been the phonetic glyph to convey meaning. An depicted in other manuscripts but the Codex example is the altepetl, Çoquitzinco, “little Mexicanus stands apart from other colonial mud place.” The word “tzin(tli)” in Nahuatl annals in that are entirely in pictographic means buttocks, but its glyph is not used in form. The Mexicanus’year-glyphs are placed its semantic sense, rather is employed to horizontally, depicting their leader, reproduce the sound of the diminutive -tzin Huitzilopochtli, having just ascended the One (Lockhart, 1992: 328). The phonetic strategy Flint year-glyph followed by the Mexica was employed more frequently in the people. The Mexica were not initially a postconquest pictorial codices to pronounce dominant force at the outset and “began their Spanish names that could not be phonetically migration as a small and insignificant band reproduced in Nahuatl. of uncultured people” (Boone, 1994: 30). At this juncture, the Mexica were a small group of people following their leader, Residual preconquest modes of writing: Huitzilopochtli, during the initial stages of Codex Mexicanus their long and arduous journey to the Valley of Mexico. Huitzilopochtli is depicted in his Although the use of alphabetic text spread hummingbird apparel. The migration quickly throughout the preconquest Nahua continues in the Codex Mexicanus with the communities of Central Mexico, there are a first fifty years rendered pictographically. The few year-count histories that reveal little year One Rabbit, 1194, illustrates the European influence. One of these, the Codex legendary caves of Chicomoztoc with the Mexicanus, written in 1571 by an anonymous seven other Nahua tribes emerging from their tlacuilo (native scribe), supports the thesis mythological origin. In many native writings that the infiltration of the alphabet in the these places are not identified, but the Nahua annals was not consistent, illustrating Mexicanus shows clearly that the Mexica the persistence of pictograms in the begin their arduous journey from Aztlan and postconquest period (Lockhart, 1992: 330- distinguishes them from other Nahuatl- 331). The Mexicanus is a history of the speaking communities. As we will see in the beginnings of the Mexica people from their Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca,