[Aztlan] French researchers

[Michael Smith]

I share Jerry Offner's dismay at the lack of attention to French research in Mesoamerican studies (including archaeology, not just Nahua codex work). I think much of the blame lies with the provinciality of the U.S. education system, from primary through PhD programs. English is sufficient, the U.S. is best, why worry about other countries? Many otherwise good U.S. Mesoamericanist researchers think that they can get most of what they need in English, with perhaps citing a few Mexican works in Spanish on their own regional specialty. But the Spanish Nahua scholars -- especially José Luis de Rojas and Juan José Batalla Rosado -- are also under-cited and under-appreciated by U.S. scholars. Indeed, these are two of the top Aztec specialists in the world, yet their work is too often ignored in favor of work of lesser quality that happens to be published in English.

Viola Koenig (German Mixtec codex expert, Berlin Museum) visited my Mesoamerican graduate seminar at Albany several years ago, and the U.S. students were amazed that Viola, and my German student Peter Kroefges, could both read German, English, Spanish, and French, and perhaps another language or two, along with some knowledge of Mesoamerican languages. How many U.S. scholars can say that? Certainly not me!

A few years ago I started to organize a small international group of Aztec specialists to try to promote interaction and spur collaborative scholarship. But I underestimated how much time I would lose in moving to Arizona and starting a new fieldwork program, so the effort never got off the ground. Its too bad we don't have a journal or organization that brings people together.

Mike

Michael E. Smith, Professor
School of Human Evolution & Social Change
Arizona State University
www.public.asu.edu/~mesmith9
http://publishingarchaeology.blogspot.com
http://calixtlahuaca.blogspot.com