Books by Frauke Sachse
The “Vocabulario en lengua 4iche otlatecas” is one of the most important colonial K’iche’ diction... more The “Vocabulario en lengua 4iche otlatecas” is one of the most important colonial K’iche’ dictionaries from Guatemala. It lists about 2200 K’iche’ head entries and includes detailed lexical, grammatical and cultural information on this Highland Mayan language.
With the present edition the eighteenth-century manuscript in the Ibero-American Institute in Berlin is made available for the first time to researchers in various fields including Amerindian language research, missionary linguistics, and Mesoamerican studies.
The introductory chapter provides a comprehensive description of the manuscript and analyses the relation of the text to other missionary sources on colonial K’iche’ lexicography. It furthermore defines editorial principles and conventions and gives examples for the linguistic and cultural contents of the source. Besides a faithful transcription of the manuscript text, the edition includes a reference dictionary with resorted entries based on the official orthography of K’iche’ that is used in Guatemala today.
The Theologia Indorum by Dominican friar Domingo de Vico was the first Christian theology written... more The Theologia Indorum by Dominican friar Domingo de Vico was the first Christian theology written in the Americas. Made available in English translation for the first time, Americas' First Theologies presents a selection of exemplary sections from the Theologia Indorum that illustrate Friar Vico's doctrine of god, cosmogony, moral anthropology, understanding of natural law and biblical history, and constructive engagement with pre-Hispanic Maya religion. Rather than merely condemn the Maya religion, Vico appropriated local terms and images from Maya mythology and rituals that he thought could convey Christianity. His attempt at translating, if not reconfiguring, Christianity for a Maya readership required his mastery of not only numerous Mayan languages but also the highly poetic ceremonial rhetoric of many indigenous Mesoamerican peoples.
This book also includes translations of two other pastoral texts (parts of a songbook and a catechism) and eight early documents by K’iche’ and Kaqchikel Maya authors. These texts, written in Highland Mayan languages both by fellow Dominicans and by Highland Maya elites demonstrate the wider influence of Vico’s ethnographic approach shared by a particular school of Dominicans. Altogether, The Americas’ First Theologies provides a rich documentary case example of the translation, reception, and reaction to Christian thought in the indigenous Americas.
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-americas-first-theologies-9780190678302?cc=us&lang=en&
El presente volumen comprende una edición de la Relación de la genealogía y del Origen de los mex... more El presente volumen comprende una edición de la Relación de la genealogía y del Origen de los mexicanos, dos fuentes de la década de 1530 que en primer lugar documentan la ascendencia de Isabel Motezuma y su derecho como hija legítima y heredera de su padre en el interés de su esposo, Juan Cano, pero se suelen usar para estudiar la temprana historia mexicana, indígena así como colonial.
Para facilitar el uso etnohistórico de estas fuentes, se presenta una transcripción individual de cada texto en base a los manuscritos originales así como también una versión sinóptica y crítica.
El análisis que precede estas ediciones se centra en aspectos de metodología y construcción textual: trata de la estructuración e interrelación de los textos; toca las interrogantes del marco temporal de su creación; discute su autoria, intención y motivación así como también la perspectiva historiográfica.
En base a este estudio queda claro que se trata de dos textos individuales que no se pueden amalgamar en una entidad. En base a este resultado, los aportes de los autores tienen el objetivo de marcar nuevos derroteros para la investigación etnohistórica de las dos fuentes y sus posibles interpretaciones.
LOT dissertation series; 254, 2010
This dissertation presents a comprehensive description of Xinka based on the missionary grammar "... more This dissertation presents a comprehensive description of Xinka based on the missionary grammar "Arte de la lengua szinca" that was written by the priest Manuel Maldonado de Matos around 1773. Xinka is an isolate family of today mostly extinct, closely related languages in southeastern Guatemala. The "Arte de la lengua szinca" is the earliest source on Xinka grammar that is otherwise not well documented or described. The analysis of the late colonial grammar draws on comparative data, including (a) primary data that were documented by the author with the last Xinka-speakers in Guazacapán, Santa Rosa, Guatemala between 2000-03, and (b) further secondary linguistic data of Xinkan languages from the towns of Guazacapán, Chiquimulilla, Yupiltepeque, Jumaytepeque, Sinacantán and Jutiapa. The text addresses the methodological implications of describing colonial Xinka grammar based on such a heterogeneous corpus of diachronic and regionally diverse data. Besides the linguistic description, the dissertation contains information about the cultural context of the language as well as about the colonial document and the corpus of linguistic data. The appendix includes a concordance of the linguistic data from the colonial grammar and a dictionary of the lexical entries.
Co-edited Books by Frauke Sachse
This volume offers an integrated and comparative approach to the Popol Vuh, analyzing its myths t... more This volume offers an integrated and comparative approach to the Popol Vuh, analyzing its myths to elucidate the ancient Maya past while using multiple lines of evidence to shed light on the text. Combining interpretations of the myths with analyses of archaeological, iconographic, epigraphic, ethnohistoric, ethnographic, and literary resources, this work demonstrates how Popol Vuh mythologies contribute to the analysis and interpretation of the ancient Maya past.
The chapters are grouped into four sections. The first section interprets the Highland Maya worldview through examination of the text, analyzing interdependence between deities and human beings as well as the textual and cosmological coherence of the Popol Vuh as a source. The second section analyzes the Precolumbian Maya archaeological record as it relates to the myths of the Popol Vuh, providing new interpretations of the use of space, architecture, burials, artifacts, and human remains found in Classic Maya caves. The third explores ancient Maya iconographic motifs, including those found in Classic Maya ceramic art; the nature of predatory birds; and the Hero Twins’ deeds in the Popol Vuh. The final chapters address mythological continuities and change, reexamining past methodological approaches using the Popol Vuh as a resource for the interpretation of Classic Maya iconography and ancient Maya religion and mythology, connecting the myths of the Popol Vuh to iconography from Preclassic Izapa, and demonstrating how narratives from the Popol Vuh can illuminate mythologies from other parts of Mesoamerica.
The Myths of the Popol Vuh in Cosmology, Art, and Ritual is the first volume to bring together multiple perspectives and original interpretations of the Popol Vuh myths. It will be of interest not only to Mesoamericanists but also to art historians, archaeologists, ethnohistorians, iconographers, linguists, anthropologists, and scholars working in ritual studies, the history of religion, historic and Precolumbian literature and historic linguistics.
Contributors: Jaime J. Awe, Karen Bassie-Sweet, Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos, Michael D. Coe, Iyaxel Cojtí Ren, Héctor Escobedo, Thomas H. Guderjan, Julia Guernsey, Christophe Helmke, Nicholas A. Hopkins, Barbara MacLeod, Jesper Nielsen, Colin Snider, Karl A. Taube
Mit den Beiträgen in dieser Gedenkschrift erinnern Kollegen und Freunde an das Forschen und Schaf... more Mit den Beiträgen in dieser Gedenkschrift erinnern Kollegen und Freunde an das Forschen und Schaffen von Pierre Robert Colas (1976-2008). Colas hatte an der Universität Hamburg Mesoamerikanistik studiert, am Institut für Altamerikanistik und Ethnologie der Universität Bonn in Altamerikanistik promoviert und war zuletzt Assistant Professor an der Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, als er am 26. August 2008 gemeinsam mit seiner Schwester von fremder Hand jäh aus dem Leben gerissen wurde. Der vorliegende Band reflektiert das Interessenspektrum von Colas und enthält Beiträge von wissenschaftlichen Kooperationspartnern, Wegbegleitern und Mentoren sowie eine englischsprachige Zusammenfassung seiner bisher nur auf Deutsch zugänglichen Dissertationsergebnisse.
Papers by Frauke Sachse
Estudios Indiana, 2017
El “Vocabulario en lengua 4iche otlatecas” es uno de los más importantes diccionarios del k’iche’... more El “Vocabulario en lengua 4iche otlatecas” es uno de los más importantes diccionarios del k’iche’ de la época colonial de Guatemala. El diccionario contiene aproximadamente 2200 entradas principales e incluye información detallada en cuanto al léxico, la gramática y la cultura acerca de esa lengua maya. La presente edición hace accesible por primera vez el manuscrito del siglo XVIII que se encuentra hoy en el Instituto Ibero-Americano en Berlín, para que investigadores de las lenguas amerindias, de la lingüística misionera o de los estudios mesoamericanos entre otros puedan aprovechar de ello. El estudio introductorio incluye una descripción detallada del manuscrito y analiza la relación entre el texto y otras fuentes misioneras lexicográficas del k’iche’ colonial. Además explica los criterios y convenciones para la edición y da ejemplos de los contenidos lingüísticos y culturales de esa fuente. La edición comprende una transcripción fiel del manuscrito y un diccionario de referencia con las entradas reorganizadas en base de la ortografía oficial del k’iche’ actual
This paper summarises the results of a workshop that was held at the Department for the Anthropol... more This paper summarises the results of a workshop that was held at the Department for the Anthropology of the Americas of the University of Bonn between 4-6 September 2014. The workshop was a joint initiative of the research project Textdatenbank und Wörterbuch des Klassischen Maya (TWKM = Text Database and Dictionary of Classic Mayan) and the research group developing the software application Tool for Systematic Annotation of Colonial K'iche' (TSACK) and aimed at discussing and defining standardised conventions for the linguistic description and glossing of Mayan language forms under XML. Grammatical descriptions of Mayan languages exhibit a plethora of descriptive standards. Produced by different linguists of different backgrounds with different research objectives, they reflect the diverse theoretical orientations of the linguistic discipline, ranging from formal descriptions of the structural or generative type to prescriptive grammars for the use in language teaching. Fun...
Missionary dictionaries from Highland Guatemala are valuable resources on pre-contact culture and... more Missionary dictionaries from Highland Guatemala are valuable resources on pre-contact culture and religion and the formation of Christian discourse in the Mayan languages. One of the lexical compilations considered to be particularly rich in information on Highland Maya culture is a Kaqchikel-K’iche’-Spanish dictionary that has traditionally been attributed to the famous early 17th-century Dominican friar Domingo de Vico. This article reconstructs the textual genesis of this trilingual dictionary and re-examines its authorship. Analyzing hitherto unnoticed intertextualities with other unedited Kaqchikel dictionary sources, it is shown that the process of compilation was multistaged and the K’iche’ entries were only integrated in the late 17th century. Textual evidence indicates that the dictionary is more likely of Franciscan than of Dominican origin. The article provides insights into missionary lexicographic practices and shows that mendicant authors copied from each other and mod...
El "otro" héroe en la historia de América Latina: Estudios sobre la producción social de memoria al margen del discurso oficial en América Latina; A. Gunsenheimer, E.N. Cruz & C. Pallan Gayól (eds.), 2020
Missionary Linguistic Studies from Mesoamerica to Patagonia, 2020
Colonial dictionaries in the Highland Maya language K’iche’ exhibit certain formal characteristic... more Colonial dictionaries in the Highland Maya language K’iche’ exhibit certain formal characteristics which hamper their systematic analysis. Lexical entries often correlate multiple Spanish and K’iche’ translations and K’iche’ lemmata are frequently given as complex forms in unstandardised orthographies. This chapter provides an overview of K’iche’ missionary lexicography and discusses the methodological implications of turning colonial vocabularies into usable reference dictionaries and searchable digital corpora.
Translating Wor(l)ds: Christianity Across Cultural Boundaries, 2019
Highland Guatemala is a unique place for studying the translation of
Christianity into the indige... more Highland Guatemala is a unique place for studying the translation of
Christianity into the indigenous languages of the Americas. The linguistic
conversion was not a homogeneous process, because friars of the Dominican and the Franciscan mendicant orders interacted in the field of the mission following different theological trajectories and creating a multivocality of Christian discourses.
By analysing the various renderings of the name of God and the Trinity
in the Highland Mayan language K’iche’, I show that the mendicants often
understood the nature of the indigenous conceptualisations of divinities,
but chose to respond with different translation strategies. It was in particular the Dominican missionaries who appropriated names of pre-contact divinities from Highland Maya religious discourse. The Dominican strategy proved successful inasmuch as K’iche’ authors can be shown to have taken up the missionaries’ interpretation of primeval monotheism in their own narratives and texts. Moreover, I will show that missionary text sources can provide valuable clues about pre-contact indigenous ontologies.
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Books by Frauke Sachse
With the present edition the eighteenth-century manuscript in the Ibero-American Institute in Berlin is made available for the first time to researchers in various fields including Amerindian language research, missionary linguistics, and Mesoamerican studies.
The introductory chapter provides a comprehensive description of the manuscript and analyses the relation of the text to other missionary sources on colonial K’iche’ lexicography. It furthermore defines editorial principles and conventions and gives examples for the linguistic and cultural contents of the source. Besides a faithful transcription of the manuscript text, the edition includes a reference dictionary with resorted entries based on the official orthography of K’iche’ that is used in Guatemala today.
This book also includes translations of two other pastoral texts (parts of a songbook and a catechism) and eight early documents by K’iche’ and Kaqchikel Maya authors. These texts, written in Highland Mayan languages both by fellow Dominicans and by Highland Maya elites demonstrate the wider influence of Vico’s ethnographic approach shared by a particular school of Dominicans. Altogether, The Americas’ First Theologies provides a rich documentary case example of the translation, reception, and reaction to Christian thought in the indigenous Americas.
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-americas-first-theologies-9780190678302?cc=us&lang=en&
Para facilitar el uso etnohistórico de estas fuentes, se presenta una transcripción individual de cada texto en base a los manuscritos originales así como también una versión sinóptica y crítica.
El análisis que precede estas ediciones se centra en aspectos de metodología y construcción textual: trata de la estructuración e interrelación de los textos; toca las interrogantes del marco temporal de su creación; discute su autoria, intención y motivación así como también la perspectiva historiográfica.
En base a este estudio queda claro que se trata de dos textos individuales que no se pueden amalgamar en una entidad. En base a este resultado, los aportes de los autores tienen el objetivo de marcar nuevos derroteros para la investigación etnohistórica de las dos fuentes y sus posibles interpretaciones.
Co-edited Books by Frauke Sachse
The chapters are grouped into four sections. The first section interprets the Highland Maya worldview through examination of the text, analyzing interdependence between deities and human beings as well as the textual and cosmological coherence of the Popol Vuh as a source. The second section analyzes the Precolumbian Maya archaeological record as it relates to the myths of the Popol Vuh, providing new interpretations of the use of space, architecture, burials, artifacts, and human remains found in Classic Maya caves. The third explores ancient Maya iconographic motifs, including those found in Classic Maya ceramic art; the nature of predatory birds; and the Hero Twins’ deeds in the Popol Vuh. The final chapters address mythological continuities and change, reexamining past methodological approaches using the Popol Vuh as a resource for the interpretation of Classic Maya iconography and ancient Maya religion and mythology, connecting the myths of the Popol Vuh to iconography from Preclassic Izapa, and demonstrating how narratives from the Popol Vuh can illuminate mythologies from other parts of Mesoamerica.
The Myths of the Popol Vuh in Cosmology, Art, and Ritual is the first volume to bring together multiple perspectives and original interpretations of the Popol Vuh myths. It will be of interest not only to Mesoamericanists but also to art historians, archaeologists, ethnohistorians, iconographers, linguists, anthropologists, and scholars working in ritual studies, the history of religion, historic and Precolumbian literature and historic linguistics.
Contributors: Jaime J. Awe, Karen Bassie-Sweet, Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos, Michael D. Coe, Iyaxel Cojtí Ren, Héctor Escobedo, Thomas H. Guderjan, Julia Guernsey, Christophe Helmke, Nicholas A. Hopkins, Barbara MacLeod, Jesper Nielsen, Colin Snider, Karl A. Taube
Papers by Frauke Sachse
Christianity into the indigenous languages of the Americas. The linguistic
conversion was not a homogeneous process, because friars of the Dominican and the Franciscan mendicant orders interacted in the field of the mission following different theological trajectories and creating a multivocality of Christian discourses.
By analysing the various renderings of the name of God and the Trinity
in the Highland Mayan language K’iche’, I show that the mendicants often
understood the nature of the indigenous conceptualisations of divinities,
but chose to respond with different translation strategies. It was in particular the Dominican missionaries who appropriated names of pre-contact divinities from Highland Maya religious discourse. The Dominican strategy proved successful inasmuch as K’iche’ authors can be shown to have taken up the missionaries’ interpretation of primeval monotheism in their own narratives and texts. Moreover, I will show that missionary text sources can provide valuable clues about pre-contact indigenous ontologies.
With the present edition the eighteenth-century manuscript in the Ibero-American Institute in Berlin is made available for the first time to researchers in various fields including Amerindian language research, missionary linguistics, and Mesoamerican studies.
The introductory chapter provides a comprehensive description of the manuscript and analyses the relation of the text to other missionary sources on colonial K’iche’ lexicography. It furthermore defines editorial principles and conventions and gives examples for the linguistic and cultural contents of the source. Besides a faithful transcription of the manuscript text, the edition includes a reference dictionary with resorted entries based on the official orthography of K’iche’ that is used in Guatemala today.
This book also includes translations of two other pastoral texts (parts of a songbook and a catechism) and eight early documents by K’iche’ and Kaqchikel Maya authors. These texts, written in Highland Mayan languages both by fellow Dominicans and by Highland Maya elites demonstrate the wider influence of Vico’s ethnographic approach shared by a particular school of Dominicans. Altogether, The Americas’ First Theologies provides a rich documentary case example of the translation, reception, and reaction to Christian thought in the indigenous Americas.
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-americas-first-theologies-9780190678302?cc=us&lang=en&
Para facilitar el uso etnohistórico de estas fuentes, se presenta una transcripción individual de cada texto en base a los manuscritos originales así como también una versión sinóptica y crítica.
El análisis que precede estas ediciones se centra en aspectos de metodología y construcción textual: trata de la estructuración e interrelación de los textos; toca las interrogantes del marco temporal de su creación; discute su autoria, intención y motivación así como también la perspectiva historiográfica.
En base a este estudio queda claro que se trata de dos textos individuales que no se pueden amalgamar en una entidad. En base a este resultado, los aportes de los autores tienen el objetivo de marcar nuevos derroteros para la investigación etnohistórica de las dos fuentes y sus posibles interpretaciones.
The chapters are grouped into four sections. The first section interprets the Highland Maya worldview through examination of the text, analyzing interdependence between deities and human beings as well as the textual and cosmological coherence of the Popol Vuh as a source. The second section analyzes the Precolumbian Maya archaeological record as it relates to the myths of the Popol Vuh, providing new interpretations of the use of space, architecture, burials, artifacts, and human remains found in Classic Maya caves. The third explores ancient Maya iconographic motifs, including those found in Classic Maya ceramic art; the nature of predatory birds; and the Hero Twins’ deeds in the Popol Vuh. The final chapters address mythological continuities and change, reexamining past methodological approaches using the Popol Vuh as a resource for the interpretation of Classic Maya iconography and ancient Maya religion and mythology, connecting the myths of the Popol Vuh to iconography from Preclassic Izapa, and demonstrating how narratives from the Popol Vuh can illuminate mythologies from other parts of Mesoamerica.
The Myths of the Popol Vuh in Cosmology, Art, and Ritual is the first volume to bring together multiple perspectives and original interpretations of the Popol Vuh myths. It will be of interest not only to Mesoamericanists but also to art historians, archaeologists, ethnohistorians, iconographers, linguists, anthropologists, and scholars working in ritual studies, the history of religion, historic and Precolumbian literature and historic linguistics.
Contributors: Jaime J. Awe, Karen Bassie-Sweet, Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos, Michael D. Coe, Iyaxel Cojtí Ren, Héctor Escobedo, Thomas H. Guderjan, Julia Guernsey, Christophe Helmke, Nicholas A. Hopkins, Barbara MacLeod, Jesper Nielsen, Colin Snider, Karl A. Taube
Christianity into the indigenous languages of the Americas. The linguistic
conversion was not a homogeneous process, because friars of the Dominican and the Franciscan mendicant orders interacted in the field of the mission following different theological trajectories and creating a multivocality of Christian discourses.
By analysing the various renderings of the name of God and the Trinity
in the Highland Mayan language K’iche’, I show that the mendicants often
understood the nature of the indigenous conceptualisations of divinities,
but chose to respond with different translation strategies. It was in particular the Dominican missionaries who appropriated names of pre-contact divinities from Highland Maya religious discourse. The Dominican strategy proved successful inasmuch as K’iche’ authors can be shown to have taken up the missionaries’ interpretation of primeval monotheism in their own narratives and texts. Moreover, I will show that missionary text sources can provide valuable clues about pre-contact indigenous ontologies.
In: Words and Worlds Turned Around: Indigenous Christianities in Latin America. Edited by David Tavárez (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2017).
http://upcolorado.com/university-press-of-colorado/item/3225-words-and-worlds-turned-around