Classical Nahuatl or Language of the Aztecs: Historical Appropriation and the Enduring Legacies of (Neo)Colonialism

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Misinformation and Misrepresentation Part 2: Reconsidering “Human Sacrifice,” Religion, Slavery, Modernity, and Other European-Derived Concepts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Nahuatl, often referred to as the “Aztec language,” is one of the languages most widely identified, both in the academy and in public awareness, with prehispanic cultures. In archaeological and historical research, it often receives the name “Classical Nahuatl” and is conceived of as the most original form of the language that was used immediately following the Spanish conquest, and was supposedly almost identical to the language of the “Aztecs.” This term, coined through a European lens and inspired by Classical antiquity (with Latin as a model for the first descriptions and grammars of Indigenous languages), assumes the existence of a homogenous reference model, a paradigm that has strongly influenced history, anthropology, and archaeology. Assigned to the studies of “antiquities” and petrified as an idealized, imaginary, and fictional historical form, Classical Nahuatl was appropriated by the academy and separated from contemporary speakers. Like Latin, Classical Nahuatl is in fact assumed to be a dead language—despite the fact that some 1.5 million people today struggle with the discrimination and challenges associated with keeping their language alive. This paradigm, internalized by Mexican state ideology, attests to an unbridgeable gap between the glorious precolumbian civilizations and the impoverished contemporary Indigenous people.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Misinformation and Misrepresentation Part 2: Reconsidering “Human Sacrifice,” Religion, Slavery, Modernity, and Other European-Derived Concepts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40015.0