Hiking with Dr. Spores

Ronald M. Spores is an American academic anthropologist, archaeologist and ethnohistorian, whose research career has centered on the pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica. He is Professor Emeritus of anthropology at Vanderbilt University's College of Arts and Science, where he has been a faculty member for over four decades. Spores is most renowned for his scholarship conducted on the cultural history of the Oaxacan region in southwestern Mexico. In particular, he is considered a leading authority on the Mixtec culture, with many contributions towards investigating its archaeological sites, ethnohistorical documents, political economies, and ethnohistory in both the pre-Columbian and Colonial eras. He is currently Director of the Proyecto Arqueológico de la Ciudad Yucundaa Pueblo Viejo de Teposcolula, Oaxaca, sponsored by the Fundación Alfredo Harp Helu, the National Geographic Society, and INAH (2004–2010)

This is whom I hiked with today at Monte Alban and Mitla. People have populated this area continuously for thousands of years. The time zones are divided like this; PreClassic, 1800 BCE-100 CE. Classic 100 CE to 90 CE. And Post Classic 900CE to 1519. You all know Cortes came in 1519. Which means up until then it is called Pre-Columbian or Pre-Hispanic. Then it’s called “Colonial”. Mexico won its Independence in 1821.

Cortes came to this area of Mexico in 1519 against orders and was almost charged with mutiny. He hooked up with La Malinche, his future mistress and mother of his child Martín. Malinche knew both the (Aztec) Nahuatl language and Maya, thus enabling Hernán Cortés to communicate in both. She became a very valuable interpreter and counselor. Through her help, Cortés learned from the Tabascans about the wealthy Aztec Empire and its riches.

This brings me to our professor Dr. Michael Swanton. He has been studying the languages in this area. How many language groupings are in Europe? Answer: 3. How many language groupings in N. America? Answer: 70. How many language groupings in S. America? Answer: An astonishing 118!

So lucky Cortes had a mistress who also is bi-lingual. Dr. Swanton notes that often people blame the Spanish for ruining the indigenous language, however, the Spanish created the first Zapotec grammar in 1578. The first English grammar was not until 1586. In 1593 they made a Mixtec grammar book. The first printed book in the New World was in Nahuatl.

Dr. Swanton has been interviewing speakers of the old languages, as many of the old timers don’t speak Spanish. We’ve been to towns where they only speak the old languages. One of the oldest, Ixcatec, has only 9 speakers left. Mazotec is tonal; you can whistle someone’s name. But here’s the best-the Mixtec pronouns…he, she, it, animals, saints, children, and then this all changes according to if a woman is speaking of a woman or a woman is speaking of a man, or a man is speaking of a man or a man is speaking of a woman.

In our final week here we are going to see the film “An Inconvenient Truth” with the people who made the film, and the people who made the documentary of making the film and it’s been dubbed into Triki, one of the indigenous languages.

I did quite a few sketches today, climbed huge gigantic steps up and down the ceremonial platforms (why did they make the stones so large? It would have been easier to make them smaller. Dr. Spores pointed out that walking up big steps makes you feel big, and when you have slave labor who cares?) then we ate a great lunch, and went to Mitla. There are some spots I hadn’t been to since I was 16, when my mom took me here with my grandmother Lillian. I named my daughter Lillian and we are continuing the tradition of visiting old historic places.