Life-Giver

The Pre-Hispanic Nahua Concept of “Father” Through Colonial Written Sources

Datos Bibliográficos

ID6034367
AutoresJulia Madajczak (0000-0002-6309-2243, University of Warsaw, autor de correspondencia)
Año2017
Volumen28
Número2
Páginas371-381
Fecha de publicación2017-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAncient Mesoamerica (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0956-5361 • E-ISSN: 1469-1787
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0956536117000086
OpenAlexW2736030115
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas26

This paper explores the ancient Nahua concept of “father,” employing early Colonial sources written in both Nahuatl and Spanish. A careful contextual analysis of the occurrences of various Nahuatl terms for “father” or “parent” leads to the conclusion that the principal criterion for creating their metaphorical extensions differed considerably from parallel Spanish criterion. While the latter referred to the power relationship (“father” is the one who governs), the former was based on the concept of exchange (“father” is the one who gives). This principle has implications for studying many aspects of Nahua culture in which the terms for “father” appear: gender and social roles, political hierarchy, pre-Hispanic religion, or evangelization. The difference in the construction of such basic concepts in Nahuatl and Spanish leads to methodological considerations about studying sources that have arisen from the context of cultural contact

Archaeology · Colonialism · Ethnology · Genealogy · Hierarchy · Nahuatl · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Anthropology · Gender Studies · History · Latin American and Latino Studies · Latin American history and culture · Law · Politics and Society in Latin America