[Aztlan] exact location of Aztlan]

[Joanna Sanchez]

I believe the suckle reference may connote a qualitative difference between 
modes of subsistence; as non-agricultural nomads, the Chichimeca 'suckle' 
directly from the earth mother as nursing body, most vividly illustrated by 
dependence on aguamiel in the arid lands; symbolic relation between Mayahuel 
and breastfeeding is relevant here.  The intervention of human labor in the 
production of food crops, both through tilling/planting and managing water 
resources, fundamentally changes the ancestral equation by transforming the 
relationship between agricultural peoples and the earth-mother; rectifying 
the 'violence' to her body is mentioned frequently as a goal of penitential 
bloodletting and agricultural/aqueous fertility ritual.
    This is not to say that the Chichimec did not practice incipient 
agriculture where/when possible (note continuum of farming modes among 
Pima), nor that they did not practice ritual propitiation.  It's a 
metaphorical way to differentiate between types of people.  Classification 
by modes of subsistence is known to be used in Mesoamerica.  The idea of 
Teochichimeca as "pure" recolector represents one end of the sustenance 
continuum- minimal intervention with natural process by human actors.
  But I would also wish to say that this does not necessarily mean the 'dog' 
etymology cannot ever be valid.  Notions of reference as a strictly 
delimiting activity, especially when it comes to esoteric terms (such as 
those used to mark identity), may not work the way we think it "should." 
Homophony and punning are commonplace, and promote a multivocality of signs 
with which we are sometimes uncomfortable with.  Communicative context must 
be considered when interpreting relative semantic values.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "micc2" <micc2 at cox.net>
To: <>
Sent: Sunday, July 29, 2007 11:07 AM
Subject: [Fwd: [Aztlan] exact location of Aztlan]


> In This case however, I believe that
>
> "those who suckle"
>
> signifies those that have just come from the ancestral motherland
> (Chicomoztoc, Aztlan, etc.)
>
> This would be why they would seen as childlike in their "barbarism" as
> seen from the eyes of the older city states of Anahuac; since they too
> acknowledged that their ancestors (Toltecs) came from the north
> centuries before.
>
>
> Mario Cuauhtlehcoc Aguilar
>


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


> _______________________________________________
> Aztlan mailing list
> Aztlan at lists.famsi.org
> http://www.famsi.org/mailman/listinfo/aztlan
>