The learned ones : Nahua intellectuals in postconquest Mexico / Kelly S. McDonough.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McDonough, Kelly S., 1970- author.

Series:

UPCC book collections on Project MUSE.

First peoples: new directions in indigenous studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nahuatl literature--History and criticism.

Nahuatl literature.

Nahuas--Intellectual life.

Nahuas.

Nahuas--Mexico--History.

Nahua philosophy.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (pages cm.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Tuczon, [Arizona] : The University of Arizona Press, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

""In The Learned Ones, Kelly S. McDonough gives sustained attention to the complex nature of Nahua intellectualism and writing from the colonial period through the present day. This collaborative ethnography shows the heterogeneity of Nahua knowledge and writing, as well as indigenous experiences in Mexico"--Provided by publisher"-- Provided by publisher.

"They were the healers, teachers, and writers, the "wise ones" of Nahuatl-speaking cultures in Mexico, remembered in painted codices and early colonial manuscripts of Mesoamerica as the guardians of knowledge. Yet they very often seem bound to an unrecoverable past, as stereotypes prevent some from linking the words "indigenous" and "intellectual" together. Not so, according to author Kelly S. McDonough, at least not for native speakers of Nahuatl, one of the most widely spoken and best-documented indigenous languages of the Americas. This book focuses on how Nahuas have been deeply engaged with the written word ever since the introduction of the Roman alphabet in the early sixteenth century. Dipping into distinct time periods of the past five hundred years, this broad perspective allows McDonough to show the heterogeneity of Nahua knowledge and writing as Nahuas took up the pen as agents of their own discourses and agendas. McDonough worked collaboratively with contemporary Nahua researchers and students, reconnecting the theorization of a population with the population itself. The Learned Ones describes the experience of reading historic text with native speakers today, some encountering Nahua intellectuals and their writing for the very first time. It intertwines the written word with oral traditions and embodied knowledge, aiming to retie the strand of alphabetic writing to the dynamic trajectory of Nahua intellectual work"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction. Ixtlamatinih: Nahua Intellectuals Writing Mexican Modernity

Chapter 1. Describing Nahuatl Language to Others in Early Colonial Mexico - Antonio del Rincón

Tlen naman 1. The IDIEZ Project

Chapter 2. Writing Tlaxcalan Memories that Matter - Don Juan Buenaventura Zapata y Mendoza

Tlen naman 2. Nonahuatlahtolnemilitzin (My Life in Nahuatl) - Refugio Nava Nava

Chapter 3. Defending Indigenous Citizens When "Indians No Longer Existed" - Faustino Galicia Chimalpopoca

Tlen naman 3. Tlapepetlaca (Lightning Strikes Again and Again) - Victoriano de la Cruz Cruz

Chapter 4. Knowing, Speaking, Teaching, and Writing - Doña Luz Jiménez

Tlen naman 4. Cihuatequiuh (Women's Work) - Sabina Cruz de la Cruz

Chapter 5. Performing the Recovery of Indigeneity - Ildefonso Maya Hernández

Conclusions and Beginnings: Reading and Writing Nahua Space

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-8165-9866-5

OCLC:

884552192