[Aztlan] Homosexuality in Nahuatl

[Caroline Dodds]

Thanks to all who have replied on- and off-list about this issue. It seems 
that there isn't really a definitive answer at this stage! Just a few 
thoughts provoked by the on-list comments.

Thanks to Allen for offering comparative Mesoamerican models. They are very 
useful, and I have filed them away for the bigger work I hope to do on this 
later! I have to use them with great care at this stage, however, as one of 
the real problems with this field seems to be the tendency to presume that 
all of the Central American cultures shared attitudes to this issue prior to 
the conquest (something which, although possible, is distinctly 
problematic).

Thanks also to Dea for the thoughts on the Nahuatl, which are very much 
appreciated. As you say, it is very possible that a post-conquest 
interpretation has corrupted the interpretation, but as another very helpful 
colleague pointed out off-list, the text of the Florentine Codex states very 
clearly that the 'hermaphrodite' is a woman who has a 'penis' and 'testes' 
and 'body hair'. Kimball even goes so far as to translate the second 
sentence as 'She is a woman who has a foreskin, she has a penis.' But he 
remains determined that 'patlacheh' means 'homosexual woman'. These two seem 
incompatible. Kimball explains this as 'comparing the homosexual woman to a 
man and attributing male physical characteristics to her', but there seems 
little evidence for this. Molina certainly translates 'patlachuia' as 
'hacerlo una mujer a otra', but this seems far from conclusive. After all, 
it is as likely that the word could have been misinterpreted by Molina. It 
does not seem impossible that a culture as biologically aware as the Tenocha 
could not be aware of dual-sex individuals.

In looking into the linguistic basis of the term hoping to find a clue to 
the meaning, the trail I followed suggested that the term was possibly 
associated with patla, which means 'to change or exchange something' or 
patlachoa, 'to become flat' 'to collapse', 'to crush'. (Most likely the 
former, one would think.) In modern Nahuatl, patlache  has something of the 
sense of the words 'queer' or 'dyke' and is sometimes used by gay indigenous 
women to describe themselves, but none of these associations seemed 
conclusive.

Thanks once again for all past and future comments. I very much appreciate 
the diverse and thoughtful range of responses which my question has 
provoked.

Yours,
Caroline
-----
Dr. Caroline Dodds
Junior Research Fellow
Sidney Sussex College
Cambridge
CB2 3HU

ced44 at cam.ac.uk