Gordon Whittaker's newest book is a linguistic study of Central Mexican Nahuatl writing, from the pre-Columbian era through colonial times. It is interactive and includes short exercises at the end of most chapters. His work is informed by history, culture, and art, along with linguistic references to other languages from around the world.
Whittaker focuses each chapter on various aspects of Nahuatl writing and culture. The first chapter tells the history of the Mexica, who he calls Aztecs, in Mesoamerica. Chapter 2 is a technical introduction to Nahuatl grammar. The third chapter discusses the grammatical categorizations and functions of Nahuatl words and glyphs. Chapter 4 discusses the history of phonetic writing in Nahuatl, using precolonial and colonial evidence. The fifth chapter is an in-depth analysis of Mexica rulers and toponyms in Nahuatl glyphic writing. Chapter 6 is a fascinating exploration of Nahuatl in Teotihuacan that focuses on writing in two important structures. In the seventh chapter, Whittaker explains how Nahuatl writing assimilated and co-existed for decades after the Spanish invasion. The final chapter gives readers direction for further research on Nahuas.
Whittaker believes that scholars of Nahuatl have been limited by their specialties (art history, philology, and others). He argues that Nahuatl writing is not “writing without words.” This is significant, because numerous art historians, anthropologists, and more have relied on the imagery in precolonial manuscripts as writing itself. In fact, the very word “iconography” means to write with images. According to Whittaker, iconography can be interpreted by the reader, whereas writing is exactly the choice of words the author intended (23). He states, “An Aztec scribe was well aware that paintings, which did not represent words (although they could obviously be described with them in various ways), were not the same thing as machiyōtl, or signs, which were linked to precise readings—specific words and names in the Nahuatl language” (11). Making this differentiation disrupts previous research on Nahuatl writing, since Whittaker places the act of writing back into the hands of the tlacuilo (Nahua scribe).
Regardless of his distinction between writing and iconography, Whittaker takes the reader through visual analyses of numerous colonial manuscripts in his book. This is curious, considering that he makes the claim that writing is different from iconography, but then relies heavily on iconography as writing throughout the book. He also gives modern interpretations for various Nahuatl words, thus mimicking some of the colonial shortcomings of Spaniards.
Chapter 7 is informative for colonial Nahua studies. Whittaker equates Nahuatl scribes’ assimilation of other precolonial Mesoamerican languages and cultural contexts to how colonial scribes addressed Spanish after the invasion. To demonstrate, he examines colonial surnames and titles from famous mid sixteenth-century colonial manuscripts. At the end of this chapter, Whittaker reaches a fascinating conclusion: that the death of Nahuatl scribes who were trained in a precolonial Mesoamerican manner led to the end of glyphic writing, not Spanish textual supremacy. This digresses from the dominant narrative that the European penchant for text and the introduction of the printing press eliminated Nahuatl glyphic use. Perhaps this is yet another component to the numerous colonial changes to Nahua existence.
Something that researchers may find difficult about this book's format is the lack of citations. It is not until his final chapter that Whittaker gives extensive topical lists of further readings. The chapter includes the most prolific scholars of Mesoamerican studies in the last three centuries, along with important facsimiles and studies of colonial manuscripts. It is a useful and integrated collection of sources that can be helpful for research and teaching alike.
Overall, Whittaker's book is a major contribution to the study of Nahuatl. His emphasis on linguistics adds a new dimension to previous studies of colonial textual documents or solely iconographic ones. Fundamentally, his attention to the agency and advanced skills of the Nahuatl tlacuilo is an important addition to the canon of global languages and writing.
