‘What first inspired you to study ancient Mexico/Mesoamerica?’ (1)

John Bierhorst
’The answer is simple: the Cantares Mexicanos, a most fascinating manuscript. It all began in the late 1960s, when I visited Mexico with my wife Jane - and we went to the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City. There, high on the walls, were passages of poetry - translated from Nahuatl into Spanish -including this one:-
¿Sólo así he de irme?
¿Como las flores que perecieron?
¿Nada quedará en mi nombre?
¿Nada de mi fama en la tierra?
¡Al menos flores, al menos cantos! - Cantos de Huexotzinco
(My translation from the Nahuatl: “I’m to pass away like a ruined flower. My fame will be nothing, my renown here on earth will be nothing. There may be flowers, there may be songs.”)
’I asked at the Museum’s gift shop for a copy of this “Cantos de Huexotzinco,” got a shrug - and that was the beginning. Eventually I discovered there are no “Cantos de Huexotzinco” - and the passage, instead, is from Cantares Mexicanos (song 17, stanza 14).
’By the late 1970s I was writing a dictionary of Aztec poetic usage and preparing the first complete edition of the Cantares Mexicanos. From then on I was committed to Mexican studies.’

The poem mentioned by John Bierhorst, Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City; Bierhorst on the steps of a pyramid at Teotihuacan in 1968

Elizabeth Graham
’Complete accident. I wound up in Belize and fell in love with the country, and the Maya were part of the country’s past.’

Jennifer Mathews
’My great grandfather started traveling in Mexico in the early 1900s and when my father was a young boy, he would travel with him. When I was old enough, my dad began taking me to Mexico and I fell in love with the people, the language, the food, and beautiful landscape. When I went to graduate school to get a Ph.D. in Anthropology, I had an opportunity to live and work in the Yucatan Peninsula of southern Mexico to study the ancient Maya. 25+ years later, I am still studying and working there.’

Elizabeth Graham and David Pendergast excavating at Lamanai, Belize. Prof Graham has been Director of the Lamanai Archaeology Project since 1997

Ross Hassig
’I started out in grad school interested in Northern Plains Indian societies and legal anthropology, but I soon learned there was little to study today on that topic and so I shifted to the pueblos of the American southwest. But again, the data were thin. So I kept shifting south to central Mexico. I was also heavily influenced in graduate school by one of my professors who specialized in regional analysis, which gave me an interest in broad spaces and long time spans. We had to write a paper for that seminar, which I did, but a friend was having trouble with his, so I suggested some ideas that he ultimately didn’t use, but it encouraged me to think about the Tarascan empire in MIchoacan Mexico. My interest was in how they integrated all the towns around the extensive Lake Patzcuaro into a single unit. But when I told one of my doctoral committee members about it, I admitted there was not much information available, but I suggested that if it proved inadequate, I could compare it to the Aztecs who also built on an extensive lake system. He then told me to forget the Tarascans becasue nobody cared, and to do the Aztecs because everybody cared. Then, after I finished my Ph.D., if I was still interested in the Tarascans, I could go back and do them. It was one of the best pieces of advice I got in grad school. I did my dissertation on the political-economy of the Aztecs and have never looked back. The deeper I go into the various aspects of their society, the more interesting I find them. So far, I have written books on their politics, economics, social organization, calendar, warfare, the Spanish conquest, and papers on a variety of topics. The only major area I have yet to study about them is their religion, but I am collecting ideas and plan to do that too.’

Map showing Tarascan and Aztec states - from Ancientpages.com

‘It was not easy, then, for a Frenchman to develop historical studies in the USA, but French scholars were already involved in anthropological and archaeological researches in Mexico, where prehispanic civilizations had left numerous remains. I was also lucky, because Jacques Soustelle was a friend of my father, and I had read several of his books. So I switched rapidly from history to archaeology, from the USA to Mexico, and found myself lucky to be recruited as student by the French Archaeological Mission in Mexico. I never regretted it, even if I remain interested in History.
It is difficult to assert that my school studies determined my job, but they certainly influenced my choices.’

Jacques Soustelle on the cover of Time Magazine, 1959

‘However, what is so fascinating about Mexico is that it is a wonderful very diverse and welcoming country, albeit also with many problems. Its biocultural diversity is high and one always learns something new about people, plants (also mushrooms and animals) and how people use them. Research on Mexican medicinal plants has then strengthened my enthusiasm for research and for trying to develop ways to help Mexican (indigenous) people to cope with the many challenges. So it is never about one aspect which drives one to engage with Mexico, but all the diversity.
’The historic Aztecs were one of many American cultures, and today’s challenges in Mexico are multiple, In the area of health the fast rise of chronic diseases like diabetes is just one example, and science is all about bringing together people with different backgrounds in order to help to answer the burning questions of today. And these are not Mexican problems but often just one facet of the global challenges we face in world struggling with climate change and – despite of some progress – huge socio-economic challenges. Lastly, I hope my research has helped to raise awareness about the biocultural diversity of Mexico and has provided a scientific basis for better healthcare. This struggle continues – la lucha continua.’

Traditional herbal medicines on sale in a Mexican market

Ben Leeming
’I was inspired to study Mesoamerican cultures more deeply when I took a graduate-level course in “Mesoamerican Civilizations” at Harvard University. It was taught by a very dynamic pair of instructors: historian of religions David Carrasco and archaeologist Bill Fash. Their enthusiasm for the subject lit a fire in me that led me to want to know more. When I had to write my masters’ thesis (essentially a very long research essay), I chose a topic from the history of colonial Mesoamerica which introduced me more thoroughly to the encounter of religions – Spanish and Aztec – during that fascinating early period. Along the way I had discovered that there was a vast number of documents written in the language of the Aztecs, Nahuatl, which pertained to the encounter of religions. Very few people could read these documents due to the language barrier, so began to teach the language to myself, eventually traveling to Mexico to learn more and after that entering a Ph.D. program. One piece of advice I’ve given to students before is that you should always sign up for the classes taught by the teachers or professors who are widely considered to give the best classes, regardless of whether you’re very interested in the subject or not. I am very pleased I decided to take Carrasco and Fash’s class so many years ago. It’s led me to great things since.’

William Fish and Davíd Carrasco; Ben Leeming

Chloe Sayer
’Everyone on the panel could give a different answer to this intriguing and thought-provoking question. My interest in Mexico has dominated my life, but the connection was made almost accidentally. Born in England, I chose to study languages at University and was keen to travel. Friends suggested that I could teach English in Mexico, so I took their advice.
’When I arrived in Mexico City in late October, Mexicans were preparing for ‘The Days of the Dead’. Street markets were full of flowers, sugar skulls and skeleton toys. I had never heard of this important festival, when Mexicans honour and commemorate their dead. I realised then how little I knew of Mexico and its people. As the months passed and became years, I was able to travel to villages in remote regions of Mexico and Guatemala. I met weavers and embroiderers, pot-makers and mask-carvers... I was made welcome during religious festivals, and often stayed in people’s homes. Scholarly books and museums were enormously influential: they offered the background knowledge that I lacked, and provided an intellectual key to Mexican culture. But human contact was more important still.

Chloë Sayer researching Mazahua textiles in the State of Mexico in the 1980s (Photo Mariana Yampolsky)

‘Today, five hundred years after the Spanish Conquest, roughly eighty per cent of all Mexicans live in modern Spanish-speaking towns and cities. In rural Mexico, however, textile and other craft skills reflect the identity of indigenous cultures. Official statistics put Mexico’s total indigenous population at approximately fifteen million. Of this number, over half speak an indigenous language. Although the majority are also fluent in Spanish, a substantial number (perhaps a tenth) are monolingual. According to the Mexican Government, sixty-eight indigenous languages survive. Some are spoken by a dwindling number of people. The Aztec language of Náhuatl, by contrast, is regularly used by 1,545,000 speakers over the age of five.
’This brings us, finally, to the question under consideration: “What first inspired me to study ancient Mexico?” My interest in the past was excited by my interest in Mexico’s indigenous present. My admiration for the achievements of contemporary cultures led me back in time. Craft skills and cultural attitudes, like language, have a long history. It is fascinating to analyse, and challenging to unpick, the cultural fusion that followed the Spanish Conquest. Techniques used by traditionally-minded weavers or potters can help us to visualise the working methods of their predecessors. Certain forms of garment or ways of patterning cloth are extremely ancient; some contemporary pottery vessels are close in style to Aztec or Maya examples. Other types of object, by contrast, show a more marked European influence.

Small girl by a decorative archway during a religious festival in Zoatecpan in the Puebla highlands. The indigenous language of Náhuatl is widely spoken throughout this region. (© Chloë Sayer, 1994)

‘Although the festival varies from region to region, it is always regarded as a time of reunion, remembrance and renewal. When festivities end on 2 November, families gather in cemeteries to say a fond farewell to loved ones. Because the cultural fusion has been so complete, it is difficult to determine which aspects of the festival were introduced from Christian Europe and which aspects had existed previously. Images of Christian saints have replaced the old gods, but celebrations convey a sense of timelessness. All human societies find a way to remember their dead, but no other country does this quite like Mexico.’

Miniature tableau of painted pottery and wood: a skeleton gazes at herself in the mirror, Height 8.5 cm., 1980s. Chloë Sayer Collection (© David Lavender)