Correspondence Analysis and West Mexico Archaeology: Ceramics from the Long-Glassow Collection

1: Archaeology and Ethnohistory of Etzatlán and Its Region

17 Chapter One Archaeology and Ethnohistory of Etzatlán and Its Region By Phil C. Weigand vvvObviously, Etzatlán was not founded by the Spanish. The welldeveloped settlement, and settlement system, that the Europeans and their indigenous auxiliaries (Tlaxcaltecas, Aztecas, and Purépechas) encountered was already at least seven hundred years old and perhaps was founded even before the time of Christ. The huge building complex that the Spanish designed for Etzatlán is a direct indicator of the settlement’s importance within the western sections of ancient Mesoamerica. Francisco Cortéz de San Buenaventura, one of the earliest Spanish who systematically explored parts of western Mexico, had heard of Etzatlán’s importance during his entrada in Colima (Tello 1968). Thus, Etzatlán’s significance within the regional political and economic system was assumed to be a fact by the Spanish, even before they arrived at the site in person. Reflecting interests quite natural for contemporary towns such as Etzatlán, many people have speculated about what the toponym actually means. The following exercise in etymology is meant to offer, in addition, an analysis of the linguistic information that we currently have on the region. By far the most popular, and certainly the most lyrical, translation for Etzatlán is “Lugar de Garzas.” This lyrical character of a toponym is seen at quite a number of sites throughout Mexico . Another regional example is Xuchitepec, current-day Magdalena Chapter one / 18 (Jalisco), though this name does not appear in the primary sources that discuss the area at the time of the Spanish conquest. The ancient name for Magdalena included the name or title Guaxicar, often rendered as “Guaxacate,” and given in Nahuatl as “Guaxacatlán” (Weigand and García de Weigand 1996, 1997; see figs. 1-1 and 1-2). By Tello’s (1968) time (the mid-seventeenth century), the toponym Xuchitepec had appeared. However, toponyms—such as Xuchitepec (Mount of Flowers) and Lugar de Garzas (which appeared for the first time during the nineteenth century)—more often reflect the romanticism of the past few centuries rather than indigenous realities of the pre-Hispanic period. Certainly there is nothing wrong with lyrical translations and romantic nomenclature for towns such as Etzatlán, as long as these interpretations are understood for what they are. While certainly no one disputes that in Nahuatl the suffix -tlán means “lugar de” (or “place of”), there is far less agreement about what the prefix etza- might mean. All suggested meanings for etza- are taken from the Nahuatl-Spanish dictionaries, very often with little respect for the phonemic and morphological organization of Nahuatl. Very frequently words are divided and subdivided in ways that do not make sense in Nahuatl and thus are impossible to accept. Using such loose linguistic criteria in interpreting etza-, we can arrive at literally dozens of equally acceptable possible meanings. Using Simeon’s (1977) dictionary of the Nahuatl language, for example, we can postulate, with equal probability, as garzas such words as intestines, tartamudo, pasta de frijoles , terreno plantada de frijoles, papilla, el sexto mes del año, costra de sarna, jaspe, tromba, esclavo, robalo, el 18° mes del año, blanco, sandalias de los nobles, and sangre, among many other possible candidates. In considering this exercise in etymology, however, we should make use of the cardinal rule of linguistic studies: the simplest and most economical explanation is also the most likely. And in seeking possible meanings for etza-, we must note another very important linguistic and historical fact: that the toponym Etzatlán is Nahuatl. Nahuatl, as a language , arrived in this section of Jalisco along with the Spanish. It was not one of the native languages of this region, nor even closely related to them. Nahuatl was more closely related to the Caxcan language (see following) and some dialects in Colima and southernmost Jalisco (Valiñas 1994). Despite the use of the terms naguatatos (or nahualato) and lengua de Mexico in Guzmán v. Cortéz (Coría 1937; see following), Phil C. Weigand / 19 the indigenous populations of the Etzatlán area, as well as all their immediate neighbors, were not Nahuatl speakers. Terms like naguatatos referred to a general awareness that the speakers of this area were within what we today call the Uto-Aztecan language family (of which Nahuatl is also a member), but they did not mean “Nahuatl” (Baus de Czitróm 1982...