University of Alberta Shaping Nahua Ethnohistoiy by Lindsay C. Sidders A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Ails in History Department of History & Classics ©Lindsay C. Sidders Fall 2009 Edmonton, Alberta Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission. 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The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1+1 Canada Examining Committee David C. Johnson, History & Classics Christopher S. Mackay, History & Classics Ann cle Leon, Modem Languages & Cultural Studies Frances Swyripa, History & Classics For Mum and Dad, los viejos. Abstract In spite of their purpose to convert and assimilate the indigenous Nahuas, the cultural studies initiated and completed by missionaries of sixteenth-century New Spain shed a great deal of light on pre-conquest and colonial Nahua culture. Religious individuals created detailed records, or ethnographies, of their understandings of the Nahua Other; this work has contributed significantly to scholarly conceptions of Nahua culture in the post-conquest periods. This thesis examines the ethnographic style and contribution of Toribio de Benevente Motolinia, Diego Duran, Geronimo de Mendieta, Andres de Olmos and Alonso de Molina and contrasts it with the work of Bernardino de Sahagun. Sahagun's work is celebrated for its distinct methodological approach and depth of analysis. Further, it is argued that there is an important continuity that exists between the ethnographies undertaken by sixteenth-century missionaries—Sahagun, in particular—and the ethno-studies created in the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty- first centuries. These ethno-studies represented a wide range of disciplinary perspectives which introduced new tools of investigating Nahua culture and foreshadowed the preeminence of the ethnohistorical method. Acknowledgements This journey has been long but could have been much longer if it had not been for the support, love and patience of friends, family and my professors. My thanks can never fully articulate my gratitude. Alex MeGuckm taught me to write and continually gives me the confidence to do it well. His pep-talks kept me going when the walls were falling down. My first encounter with colonial Mexico was in HIST 241 with Dr. David C. Johnson in 2003; since then he has become my Woodrow Borah, always offering a keen insight and a new stoiy to tell. He has been, and continues to be, my motivator, my critic, my editor, my confidant and my friend. Dr. Christopher S. Mackay learned colonial Nahuatl and took the time to teach it to me! hi the process, teaching me to understand the value of linguistics, philology and grammar in the discipline of history. Dr. Ann de Leon, Dr. Michael Polushin, Dr. Susan L. Smith, Dr. John Langdon, Dr. Robert Irwin, Dr. David R. Marples and Serge Cipko have shown me what it looks like to be a dedicated teacher and mentor and I hope to one day follow in their footsteps. Thank you to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the University of Alberta's Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research (FGSR) for providing financial support and peace of mind. Big thanks to Lydia and the office staff of Histoiy & Classics for their hard work and attention to the 'small' things. Thanks to the Graduate Chairs of 2006-2009 for their support. For arnericanos, 10-hour work days, an orange couch, Cranium and HCGSA 2008/2009,1 thank Meaghan, Katie, Fred, Brian, Dalton, Ashlee and Frances. Here's to the good, the bad and the ugly... My Mum and Dad have provided unconditional love and mountains of groceries to get me to this point, and I appreciate it eveiyday. Courtney and Brittany put up with too many historical rants/debates around the kitchen table; thank you, I love you and I'm sorry! Big thanks to Stephen, Megan, Nickol and Maiyanne for always pushing me to do my veiy best! And thanks to my oldest pal, Mark, who I have always counted on and who can always count on me. Finally, to Jesse Jonah Jonathan who signed on for the long haul, despite my unusual fascination with pyramids, human sacrifice and Quetzalcoatl. I love you. Table of Contents Introduction Chapter One The Cronistas and Linguists of Sixteenth-Century New Spain Chapter Two Fray Bernardino de Sahagun: Ethnography as Education Chapter Three The Vitality of Ethnohistory Figiire I Figure II Conclusion Works Cited 1 Introduction In a royal cedula dated April 22, 1577, Philip II of Spain commanded that the viceroy of New Spain prohibit "any person to write things having to do with the superstitions and the way of life of the natives, in any language", and to "proceed with much care and diligence to seize those books, witlKnit any original or copy remaining".1 This order, and others like it, provide historians of sixteenth-century New Spain with important clues to the systems of Spanish imperialism employed in the New World and the disconnect between those who dictated and those who implemented such systems. This thesis will focus on the latter, more specifically, the executors of the Catholic faith and their use of ethnography to aid the process of indigenous conversion in sixteenth-century Central Mexico. In medieval Spain the fused identity of Church and State meant that the territories and populations acquired through foreign conquest were won on behalf of both Castile and Rome, and integrated into European civilization by both soldiers and friars. 2 Although conquistadors such as Heman Cortes, Bemal Diaz del Castillo and Juan Ponce de Leon, left early accounts of their triumphs and defeats during and after the conquest, it has been largely the accounts of the religious that scholars have relied The original in Spanish is as follows: ".. .con mucho cuidado y diligencia procureis haber estos libros.. .y estareis advertido de no consentir que por ninguna inanera persona alguna escriba cosas que toquen a supresticiones y inanera de vivir que estos iudios tenian, en ninguua lengua. porque asi conviene al servicio de Dios nuesiro Seilor y nuestro. Fecho en Madrid a 22 de Abril de 1577. —Yo EL REY". Archivo General de Indicts—Patronato Real, 1. 2, Mimttas de Reales Cedvlas, ramo 79, contained in Nueva Coleccion de Documenios para la Historic! de Mexico: Cartas de ReJigiosos de Nueva Espana, 1539-1594, Vol. I, ed. Joaquin Garcia Icazbalceta (Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1971), 267. 2 Although I hesitate to use terms of periodizatiou during this process, the term "medieval" when applied to Spain invokes connotations of chivalry, non-secularism and militarism, which I believe contribute to an appropriate understanding of Spanish culture and the Spanish people dining this time. For further comment on the problems surrounding terms of periodizatiou, see James A. Parr, "A Modest Proposal: That We Use Alternatives to Borrowing (Renaissance, Baroque, Golden Age) and Leveling (Early Modern) in Periodization," Hispania 84 (Sept., 2001): 406-416. 2 on to investigate early colonial native experiences. As the guardians of Catholicism, the Franciscan, Dominican and Augustinian orders encountered and documented the many obstacles that made the understanding of indigenous cultural, religious and political concepts a precarious endeavour. Most Spaniards who came to the New World in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth-centuries had lived the majority of their lives in political turbulence on the Iberian Peninsula; the militarist values of la reconquista and the intellectual values of humcmismo lived side-by-side and exerted great influence on individuals of different classes and vocations.