Mesoamerican Philology

A short note about the word 'cacao' in Mixtec with some comments on early references to 'chocolate'. Comment on discussion in Ancient Mesoamerica regarding the etymology of 'cacao'.

Swanton, Michael W., Alejandro de Ávila and Sebastián van Doesburg. 2010. Cacao and chocolate: a view from the Mixteca and beyond. Ancient Mesoamerica, 21: 432-37.

This article is a diachronic investigation of a form of social organization of the Chochon (Xru Ngiwa, Chocholtec), a Mesoamerican people. Speciically, it is a philological examination of one form of a customary community subdivision , usually called sindi in Chochon and barrio in colonial Spanish. Thanks to the discovery of a remarkable set of colonial writings in the Chochon language from Tamazulapan (Oaxaca, Mexico)—complemented by secondary documentation, interviews with elders, and toponymy—it has been possible to trace the sindi from precolonial times to the twentieth century. The ndings reveal multiple adaptive strategies used by the sindi across the centuries even within a relatively compact area. This article also illustrates a methodological approach in which a broad philo-logical perspective opens the door to additional, interdisciplinary types of contextualizing data that can enrich our readings of the textual documentation.

Doesburg, Sebastián van de & Michael W. Swanton. 2011. Mesoamerican philology as an interdisciplinary study: the Chochon (Xru Ngiwa) “barrios” of Tamazulapan (Oaxaca, Mexico). Ethnohistory, 58: 613-652.

Swanton, Michael W. y Sebastián van Doesburg. 2015. Observations on the glosses of the Lienzo of Tlapiltepec. In: The Lienzo of Tlapiltepec. A Painted History from the Northern Mixteca (A. Brownstone, ed): 85-87. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum & Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.