Nahua Colonial Discourse and the Appropriation of the (European) Other / Le Discours colonial des Nahuas et l'appropriation de l'Autre (européen) - article ; n°1 ; vol.77, pg 15-35

Jorge Klordealva

Description

Archives des sciences sociales des religions - Année 1992 - Volume 77 - Numéro 1 - Pages 15-35
21 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Archives-des-sciences-sociales-des-religions
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1992
• Nombre de lectures: 34
• Langue: Español
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Jorge Klor De Alva
Nahua Colonial Discourse and the Appropriation of the
(European) Other / Le Discours colonial des Nahuas et
l'appropriation de l'Autre (européen)
In: Archives des sciences sociales des religions. N. 77, 1992. pp. 15-35.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Klor De Alva Jorge. Nahua Colonial Discourse and the Appropriation of the (European) Other / Le Discours colonial des Nahuas
et l'appropriation de l'Autre (européen). In: Archives des sciences sociales des religions. N. 77, 1992. pp. 15-35.
doi : 10.3406/assr.1992.1513
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/assr_0335-5985_1992_num_77_1_1513Arch de Sc soc des Rel. 1992 77 janvier-mars) 15-35
Jorge KLOR DE ALVA
NAHUA COLONIAL DISCOURSE AND THE
APPROPRIATION OF THE EUROPEAN OTHER
Interrogar una otra vez los textos los acontecimiento las preguntas las
respuestas los conportamientos descritos es sin duda una de las misiones del
historiador de las representaciones de las mentalidades Eso es lo que hace
el autor detectando retomando los dices que directa indirectamente hacen
posible comprender qué pensaban qué sent an qué cre an los nahuas frente
al discurso frente la acci de los misioneros El contexto interétnico las
visiones del mundo las conceptciones ético-morales se yuxtaponen se
supeponen se afronta se ignoran Oficial aparentemente es el vencido quien
tiene que doblegarse pero las estrategias de sobrevivencia forman parte tam
bién de las modalidades de resistencia Es lo que el autor quiere demostrar
mo los nahuas recuperan lo europeo lo incorporan aparentemente pero s-
tu ndole en el interior de une sistema en el que las categor as de percepci
de lo real es diferente ocupan funciones que no tienen nada que ver con las
que les hab an sido asignadas en el sistema que las produjo
Questionner les textes les événements les réponses les comportements
décrits est sans aucun doute une des missions de historien des représenta
tions et des mentalités est ce que fait auteur détectant et reprenant les
indices qui directement ou indirectement rendent possible la compréhension
de ce que pensaient sentaient croyaient les Nahuas face au discours et
action des missionaires Le contexte interethnique les visions du monde les
conceptions éthico-morales se juxtaposent se superposent affrontent ig
norent est le vaincu qui doit se soumettre mais les stratégies de survie font
également partie des modalités de résistance est ce que auteur veut mon
trer comment les Nahuas récupèrent ce qui européen incorporent ap
paremment mais en le situant intérieur un système dans lequel les
catégories de perception de la réalité sont différentes et occupent des fonctions
qui ont rien voir avec celles qui leur avaient été attribuées au sein du
système qui les avait produites
15 DE SCIENCES SOCIALES DES RELIGIONS ARCHIVES
Introduction What is Colonial Discourse
By colonial discourse mean the ways of talking writing painting
and communicating that permitted ideas to pass from one discourse or
bounded register of signs codes and meanings to another in order to
authorize and make possible the ends of colonial control and the strategies
of resistance and accommodation to it
As in any colonial or hierarchized multiethnic situation in New Spain
all social encounters between ethnic groups had the potential of being poli
ticized and ignorance of the appropriate rules of engagement invited confusion
or threatened disaster Consequently an awareness of the formulas needed to
translate the desires or commands was critical to survival As subjects
shaping their destiny under colonial rule the Nahuas devised sociopolitical
maneuvers that were embedded in native ideational systems that served for
better and for worse to reinterpret colonial society in ways familiar to them
These systems were expressed not only in the straightforward presentation of
interests as found in the relevant documents but also in the criteria implicit
in their discursive practices that enforced rules for ordering reality and as
sessing truth claims These discursive constituents of Nahua consciousness
are everywhere in evidence in their translations of Spanish demands in the
ploys with which they fended off the threatening effects of the linguistic hier
archy that resulted from the colonial experience in their self-serving expres
sions of submission in their guarded assertions of claims and in their imaging
of the European other
Although much attention has recently been paid to colonial discourse
it is overwhelmingly focused on the Europeans use of language and other
symbolic systems to further their domination of non-whites e.g. Fabian
1986) while relatively little is being said about the roles of colonial discourse
as weapon to resist that domination or as tool by which the victims of
colonization could adapt themselves through their own conceptualizations
to the shifting social cultural and political conditions e.g. Rafael 1988
This brief essay part of longer study on the subject is meant to be con
tribution to the examination of these latter roles by focusing on the Nahuas
appropriation of the European other in the course of first encounter nar
ratives and of the voice through the adaptation of alphabetic literacy
to huatl) as tactics useful in their efforts to accommodate themselves to
the initiatives of the Spaniards and as vehicles for affirming their vision of
truth and sociopolitical reality
Nahua Moral and Political Discourses
In the XVth century European stories about first encounters between dis
tinct cultures were either imaginary or referred to events known only textually
primarily in the works of Classical authors In the wake of the voyages of
Columbus the tales underwent substantial modifications as soldiers sailors
missionaries and colonists began to describe actual and imagined meetings
with the natives of the Americas Though these early observers rarely read
each works see Gerbi 1978) the accounts that were widely dissem-
16 NAHUA COLONIAL DISCOURSE
inated ultimately renovated the obsolete canon for first encounter discourse
The new standards included constant characterization of the unexpected as
novel the highlighting of novelty as discovery and the converting of dis
covery into justification for the imposition of modes of behavior and belief
e.g. Cortes 1963:3-328 As consequence the narratives of this form of
colonial discourse were ultimately about discontinuities cracks between an
us and them that needed to be filled with the mortar of Christian faith
and set in the mold of Spanish polity
Parallel to this rhetorical tactic aimed at delegitimizing Indian ways and
beliefs in favor of European social and ideological control the Nahua com
munities articulated countemarrative of continuity suggest that this dis
cursive maneuver had as its goal in fact even if not always consciously
the domestication of European objects acts and ideas by hitching them to
indigenous ends practices and institutions also claim that although this
discursive strategy afforded many local and short term advantages in the long
run it proved to be counterproductive for the native communities as whole
Its weakness was due in part to the asymmetrical sociopolitical and cultural
effects that followed for each side from their respective discourses on ethics
and politics and from their differential conceptualizations of the Other make
this observation while taking as my point of departure some basic empirical
facts like widespread depopulation through plagues novel military and politi
cal tactics gunpowder and horses the utility of many European technical
political social religious and administrative practices and the advantages
recognized by the Nahuas of numerous Spanish crafts agricultural practices
and tools
In general believe Spanish moral and political discourses were charac
terized by moral absolutism permitting an unequivocal attack against
whatever could be defined as deviant with minor exceptions determi
nation to exclude the Other making it possible for the Europeans to respond
in common to real or imagined native opposition or mere differences through assumption that the integrity of one culture was founded on the
negation of all others and belief that Spaniards held the dominant cultural
and political position world-wide giving them sociocultural and political
edge over both the more narrowly drawn indigenous outlines of ethnic boun
daries and their more local assertions of hegemony or privilege
Nahua discourses on ethics and politics stood in sharp relief to this ag
gressive stance First much to the chagrin of the missionaries Sahagun 1950-
82 Introductory Volume 74-76) they had more tolerant and flexible rules
of conduct and approached religious beliefs less dogmatically e.g Duran
1967 237 Logically this led to marked tendency towards moral ambiguity
in the face of new ethical system and to search for politics of accom
modation in contrast to the Spaniards more single-minded sense of righteous
ness and exclusion see Burkhart 1989 Furthermore to the extent
pre