Notice: This is the official website of the All Empires History Community (Reg. 10 Feb 2002)

  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Register Register  Login Login

What Is The True Name For Mesoamerica?

 Post Reply Post Reply
Author
Aryo View Drop Down
Immortal Guard
Immortal Guard


Joined: 11-Jun-2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 0
  Quote Aryo Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: What Is The True Name For Mesoamerica?
    Posted: 11-Jun-2007 at 20:08
The term "Mesoamerica" is very much of European origin. What is the true name of the Mesoamerica cultural sphere used by the Mesoamericans themselves? Is there any proto-mesoamerican language with a title a mesoamerican? What is the Mayan term for Mesoamerica? What do the Mayan people today call Mesoamerica (since Mayan today is still widely spoken in the Mayan region)?


Edited by Aryo - 11-Jun-2007 at 20:10
Back to Top
Guests View Drop Down
Guest
Guest
  Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11-Jun-2007 at 23:09
Actually Mesoamerica is an archaelogical term, rather than geographical or political. In fact, Mexico is geographically in North America, and Central America has always been called like that. Because is odd to always say Mexico+Central America, the archaeologists invented Mesoamerica.
 
The same is true for the Peruvian region that most of the times are called the Andes, a region larger than Peru.
 
Now, for ancient people having a name for Mesoamerica, I doubt it. They have a narrower geographical scope. Besides, Olmecs, Mayans, Toltecs, Aztecs and the hundred of other people of the region, all spoke lots of different languages and much more dialects.
 
Pinguin
 
 
 
Back to Top
edgewaters View Drop Down
Sultan
Sultan
Avatar
Snake in the Grass-Banned

Joined: 13-Mar-2006
Location: Canada
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2394
  Quote edgewaters Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13-Jun-2007 at 13:51
Mesoamerica is a modern blanket term to cover an area that the precolumbian inhabitants didn't recognize as being a single unit. As pinguin says, they had a narrower geographical scope, and with the myriad (many, many dozens just in the Mayan region alone) of languages, there were likely many different names for the same areas.

The Maya may or may not have had a name for their peninsular region, the Yucatan. It was divided into dozens of different city-states and cultures and languages so it is possible they knew no unitary name. The name "Yucatan" is Mayan; but it means "I don't understand you" and is a result of miscommunication and confusion on the part of the early European explorers.

The Aztec referred to the Valley of Mexico as the "heart of the one world". It signifies a concept similar to the notion of the "middle world" seen in some European cultures of the ancient world, or perhaps even something similar to the medieval notion of Jerusalem as the center of the world.

The Inca referred to their territory as Tawantin Suyu, the United Four Regions, corresponding to the four main districts or provinces of their empire.
Back to Top
Guests View Drop Down
Guest
Guest
  Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13-Jun-2007 at 14:56
Originally posted by edgewaters


The Maya may or may not have had a name for their peninsular region, the Yucatan.

They called it Uluumil Cutz Yetel Ceh, land of the deer and the turkey
Back to Top
Guests View Drop Down
Guest
Guest
  Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13-Jun-2007 at 17:01

Does the name "Yucatan" come "Uluumil Cutz Yetel Ceh" or it has another origin?

To me, it seems is just a bad spelling of the Mayan name.
Back to Top
Guests View Drop Down
Guest
Guest
  Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13-Jun-2007 at 20:46
As edgewaters said, it's probably derived from a Yucatec Maya phrase meaning 'I don't understand you'. I've also heard a theory that says it's derived from Nahuatl Yucatlan (forgot the meaning) but that appears less likely to me, since Yucatn was far outside the Aztec area of influence (and Nahuatl was not lingua franca in Yucatn either, like it was in for example Oaxaca and Jalisco).
Back to Top
Aryo View Drop Down
Immortal Guard
Immortal Guard


Joined: 11-Jun-2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 0
  Quote Aryo Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19-Jun-2007 at 23:50
This makes me wonder what the Mayan word for Earth is. Anyone know?


Edited by Aryo - 19-Jun-2007 at 23:54
Back to Top
Guests View Drop Down
Guest
Guest
  Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20-Jun-2007 at 18:21
Nobody has seen this wonderful glyphs, so I repeat the info here:
 
The Mayan word for earth, that also means land, is KAB. The sign is:
Glyph%20T526%20-%20KAB
 
 
To say "my land" you have to say "in kab", literarily "my land", and written as follows:
 
Glyph%20T116.526%20-%20IN%20KAB
 
You can find the dictionary on here:
 
 
Pinguin


Edited by pinguin - 22-Jun-2007 at 12:09
Back to Top
edgewaters View Drop Down
Sultan
Sultan
Avatar
Snake in the Grass-Banned

Joined: 13-Mar-2006
Location: Canada
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2394
  Quote edgewaters Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-Jun-2007 at 05:27
Originally posted by Mixcoatl

As edgewaters said, it's probably derived from a Yucatec Maya phrase meaning 'I don't understand you'. I've also heard a theory that says it's derived from Nahuatl Yucatlan (forgot the meaning) but that appears less likely to me, since Yucatn was far outside the Aztec area of influence (and Nahuatl was not lingua franca in Yucatn either, like it was in for example Oaxaca and Jalisco).


Well, it is possible, though. I can never figure out where exactly this encounter was supposed to have taken place; Diaz doesn't mention it and I've never read Cortes' account. But I figure there are two possibilities for the Nahuatl idea.

One, they could have been merchants on the coastal trade routes, coming from or going to the Gulf coast of Mexico proper - in that case, they probably spoke Nahuatl.

Second, if the encounter happened anywhere in the vicinity of Mayapan or Chichen Itza - it might have been a Toltec loan-word, if Chichen Itza really was a product of some sort of Toltec migration.

There's a few other Nahuatl words that might qualify. Yeccaqui, to understand. Yectenehua, to bless. Yeyectli, pretty or nice. Yuhquin, this way. Etc. Any of these might have come up during that kind of an encounter.

Still I think it's from the Mayans though, but who knows for sure.
Back to Top
Yaomitl View Drop Down
Knight
Knight
Avatar

Joined: 05-Jul-2007
Location: United Kingdom
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 85
  Quote Yaomitl Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06-Jul-2007 at 08:57
Hardly an answer I guess, but the Mexica term is popularly held to have been Anahuac meaning the The Land Between the Waters. This, I've seen it stated, refers to the land between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, although personally I'm not so sure. Anahuac seems to compound a-tl (water) with the suffix -nahuac which Frances Karttunen defines as near to, adjacent to, or within earshot - sounds more like the Valley of Mexico to me.
"For as long as the world shall endure, the honour and the glory of Mexico-Tenochtitlan must never be forgotten."
- Chimalpahin Quautlehuanitzin
<a href="http://www.theotherconquest.com
Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down

Bulletin Board Software by Web Wiz Forums® version 9.56a [Free Express Edition]
Copyright ©2001-2009 Web Wiz

This page was generated in 0.094 seconds.