Detailed project information

Title :  The lords of Quauhquecholan : indigenous historiography of a Nahua cacicazgo.
Applicant : Prof. dr. W.F.H. Adelaar
Research institute : Universiteit Leiden
Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL)
Vergelijkende Taalwetenschappen
Team members : Dr. F.G.L. Asselbergs
Location : Universiteit Leiden
Duration : 07/01/2000 tot 07/01/2004
Finance : Eur 139.310
Subsidy :  Individual Projects
(subsidy/programme has been discontinued and information is no longer available)
 
Summary
Southwest Puebla was, and still is, a region of cultural transition between the Nahuas of the Central Highlands and the Mixtecs of the southern state of Oaxaca. Whereas pictorial documents of the surrounding areas have been studied (f.e. Codex Mendoza, Codex Nuttall), insufficient light has been shed on the study of the indigenous historiography of this intermediate area.

The objective of this project is to gain an insight into the late postclassic (1200-1521) and early colonial (1521-1560) history of the Nahuatl (Aztec) speaking population of the southwestern part of the state of Puebla, Mexico on the basis of the local pictorial manuscripts. Next to inscriptions in stone, these documents are the only prehispanic historical sources, and they contain crucial information about the socio-political, economical and religious organization of that time.

The project will focus on three pictorial documents from this region in particular, all composed by the nobility of the Nahua cacicazgo (polity or "city-state") Quauhquecholan: the Lienzo de Quauhquecholan, the Genealogía de Quauhquecholan-Macuilxochitepec, and the Mapa circular de Quauhquecholan. The manuscripts will be interpreted in their historical context by studying a variety of sources, and by relating them to one another and to other contemporary pictorial documents from the same region. The researcher will look at how these documents fit into the local political dynamics of the late postclassic and early colonial period, what they add to the existing history of the area, and what they tell us about the historical awareness and changing ideologies of the indigenous elite.

Products

Articles

  • D. Carrasco (2001). Tlaxcala, Lienzo de. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures. pp. 233-234
  • Dr. F.G.L. Asselbergs, A.J.A. Utrilla, G. Lovell (2002). La conquista de Guatemala: nuevas perspectivas del Lienzo de Quauhquecholan en Puebla, Mexico. Mesoamérica. pp. 1-53

Proefschriften

  • Dr. F.G.L. Asselbergs (2004). Conquered Conquistadors. The Lienzo de Quauhquechollan: A Nahua vision of the conquest of Guatemala. . Universiteit Leiden. promotiedatum 2-12-2004