Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-lvtdw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-15T19:09:57.481Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

WRITING IN SPACE: GLOTTOGRAPHIC AND SEMASIOGRAPHIC NOTATION AT TEOTIHUACAN

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2011

Pierre Robert Colas
Pierre Robert Colas
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The study of writing has in many cases devoted attention to the detection of forms of writing. It has also tended to distinguish these from forms of non-writing by relying on the western notion that true writing must represent language. This study departs from former work and applies an integrational theory of writing to the notational system of Teotihuacan in central Mexico, observing the distinction between glottographic (language-based) and semasiographic (idea-based) writing. The article suggests that scribes at Teotihuacan employed the graphic space of speech scrolls to differentiate consciously between glottographic and semasiographic writing. The analysis behind the study reveals an important difference, too, between the infixes and affixes of speech scrolls, whereby infixes always represented semasiographic writing; in contrast, affixes could consist of both glottographic and semasiographic writing. An integrational theory of writing that focuses on graphic space as a distinguishing feature of different writing systems can show how scribes of ancient Teotihuacan established and followed subtle distinctions within their notational system, in a manner unknown in western writing.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , Spring 2011 , pp. 13 - 25
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Angulo, Jorge 1996 Teotihuacán: Aspectos de la cultura a través de su expresión pictórica. In La pintura mural prehispánica en México, Vol. 2, edited by de la Fuente, Beatriz, pp. 65–187. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Barthel, Thomas 1982 Veritable “Texts” in Teotihuacan Art? The Masterkey 56:4–11.Google Scholar
Barthel, Thomas 1987 Deciphering Teotihuacan Writing. Indiana 11:9–18.Google Scholar
Bauer, Gerhard 1995 Name Studies: Overview, History, Directions, Institutions. In Namenforschung. Ein internationales Handbuch zur Onomastik, Vol. 2, edited by Eichler, Ernst, Gerold, Hilty, Loffer, Heinrich, Steger, Hugo, and Zgusta, Ladislav, pp. 1616–1621. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin.Google Scholar
Berrin, Kathleen (editor) 1988 Feathered Serpents and Flowering Trees. The Fine Arts Museum, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Berrin, Kathleen and Pasztory, Esther 1994 Teotihuacan: Art from the City of Gods. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Boone, Elizabeth Hill 1994 Introduction: Writing and Recording Knowledge. In Writing Without Words, edited by Boone, Elizabeth Hill and Mignolo, Walter D., pp. 3–26. Duke University Press, Durham.Google Scholar
Braswell, Geoffrey 2003a Introduction: Reinterpreting Early Classic Interaction. In The Maya and Teotihuacan: Reinterpreting Early Classic Interaction, edited by Braswell, Geoffrey, pp. 1–45. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Braswell, Geoffrey 2003b Understanding Early Classic Interaction between Kaminaljyu and Central Mexico. In The Maya and Teotihuacan: Reinterpreting Early Classic Interaction, edited by Braswell, Geoffrey, pp. 105–142. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Browder, Jennifer 2005 Place of the High Painted Walls: The Tepantitla Murals and the Teotihuacan Writing System. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside.Google Scholar
Cabrera Castro, Rubén 1996a Amanalco. Barrio de las pinturas saqueadas Techinantitla y Tlalcuilapaxco. In La pintura mural prehispánica en México, Vol. 1, edited by de la Fuente, Beatriz, pp. 131–139. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Cabrera Castro, Rubén 1996b Atetelco. In La pintura mural prehispánica en México, Vol. 1, edited by de la Fuente, Beatriz, pp. 203–259. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Cabrera Castro, Rubén 1996c Teopancaxco. Casa barrios o del alfarero. In La pintura mural prehispánica en México, Vol. 1, edited by de la Fuente, Beatriz, pp. 157–161. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Cabrera Castro, Rubén 1996d Caracteres glíficos teotihuacanos en un piso de La Ventilla. In La pintura mural prehispánica en México, Vol. 2, edited by de la Fuente, Beatriz, pp. 401–431. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Cabrera Castro, Rubén 1996e Zona 11, Gran Conjunto. In La pintura mural prehispánica en México, Vol. 1, edited by de la Fuente, Beatriz, pp. 19–26. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Carrasco, David 1990 Religions of Mesoamerica. Prospect Heights, Illinois.Google Scholar
Coe, Michael D. 1992 Breaking the Maya Code. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Colas, Pierre Robert 2004 Sinn und Bedeutung klassischer Maya Personennamen. Acta Mesoamericana 15, Saurwein Verlag, Markt Schwaben.Google Scholar
Coulmas, Florian 1996 Encyclopedia of Writing Systems. Blackwell, Malden.Google Scholar
Cowgill, George L. 1992 Teotihuacan Glyphs and Imagery in the Light of Some Early Colonial Texts. In Art, Ideology, and the City of Teotihuacan, edited by Berlo, Janet Catherine, pp. 231–246. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
DeFrancis, John 1989 Visible Speech: The Diverse Oneness of Writing Systems. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diringer, David 1962 Writing. Frederick A. Praeger, New York.Google Scholar
Evans, Susan Toby, and Berlo, Janet Catherine 1992 Teotihuacan: An Introduction. In Art, Ideology, and the City of Teotihuacan, edited by Berlo, Janet Catherine, pp. 1–27. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Flannery, Kent, and Marcus, Joyce (editors) 2003 The Cloud People: Divergent Evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec Civilizations. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Freidel, David, Schele, Linda, and Parker, Joy 1993 Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman's Path. William Morrow, New York.Google Scholar
Fuente, Beatriz de la 1996a Zona 2: Conjunto de los jaguares. In La pintura mural prehispánica en México, Vol. 1, edited by de la Fuente, Beatriz, pp. 115–123. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Fuente, Beatriz de la 1996b Tetitla. In La pintura mural prehispánica en México, Vol. 1, edited by de la Fuente, Beatriz, pp. 259–312. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Fuente, Beatriz de la 1996c Tepantitla. In La pintura mural prehispánica en México, Vol. 1, edited by de la Fuente, Beatriz, pp. 139–157. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
García Moll, Roberto 1996 Fundación Amparo/Museo Amparo. In La pintura mural prehispánica en México, Vol. 2, edited by de la Fuente, Beatriz, pp. 435–441. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Gelb, Ignace 1963 A Study of Writing. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Grube, Nikolai 1998 Speaking through Stones: A Quotative Particle in Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions. In 50 Years Americanist Studies at the University of Bonn. Bonner Amerikanistische Studien, edited by Sáenz, Sabine Dedenbach-Salazar, Hoffmann, Carmen Arellano, König, Eva, and Prümers, Heiko, pp. 543–558. Saurwein Verlag, Markt Schwaben.Google Scholar
Harris, Roy 1995 Signs of Writing. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Haenn, Nora, and Wilk, Richard R. (editors) 2006 The Environment in Anthropology. A Reader in Ecology, Culture, and Sustainable Living. New York University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Headrick, Annabeth 2007 The Teotihuacan Trinity: The Sociopolitical Structure of an Ancient Mesoamerican City. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Heyden, Doris 1975 An Interpretation of the Cave Underneath the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan, Mexico. American Antiquity 40:131–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Houston, Stephen, and Stuart, David 1996 Of Gods, Glyphs and Kings: Divinity and Rulership among the Classic Mayas. Antiquity 70:289–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Houston, Stephen, and Taube, Karl 2000 An Archaeology of the Senses: Perception and Cultural Expression in Ancient Mesoamerica. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 10:261–294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Houston, Stephen, Stuart, David, and Taube, Karl 2006 The Memory of Bones. Body, Being, and Experience among the Classic Maya. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Karttunen, Frances 1983 An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Kidder, Alfred, Jennings, Jesse D., and Shook, Edwin 1946 Excavations at Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication No. 561, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Kubler, George 1967 The Iconography of the Art of Teotihuacan. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC.Google Scholar
Langley, James 1986 Symbolic Notation of Teotihuacan: Elements of Writing in a Mesoamerican Culture of the Classic Period. BAR International Series 313, British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Langley, James 1991 The Forms and Usage of Notation at Teotihuacan. Ancient Mesoamerica 2:285–298.Google Scholar
Langley, James 1992 Teotihuacan Sign Clusters: Emblem or Articulation? In Art, Ideology, and the City of Teotihuacan, edited by Berlo, Janet Catherine, pp. 247–280. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Langley, James 1994 Symbols, Signs, and Writing Systems. In Teotihuacan: Art from the City of the Gods, edited by Berrin, Kathleen and Pasztory, Esther, pp. 128–139. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Lombardo de Ruiz, Sonia 1996 El estilo teotihuacano en la pintura mural. In La pintura mural prehispánica en México, Vol. 2, edited by de la Fuente, Beatriz, pp. 3–65. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
López Austin, Alfredo, Luján, Leonardo López, and Sugiyama, Saburo 1991 The Temple of Quetzalcoatl at Teotihuacan. Ancient Mesoamerica 2:93–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marcus, Joyce 1992 Mesoamerican Writing Systems: Propaganda, Myth, and History in Four Ancient Civilizations. Princeton University Press, Princeton.Google Scholar
Marcus, Joyce 2003 The Maya and Teotihuacan. In The Maya and Teotihuacan: Reinterpreting Early Classic Interaction, edited by Braswell, Geoffrey, pp. 337–357. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Martin, Simon, and Grube, Nikolai 2000 Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens: Deciphering the Dynasties of the Ancient Maya. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Miller, Arthur 1973 The Mural Painting of Teotihuacan. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Millon, Clara 1973 Painting, Writing, and Polity in Teotihuacan, Mexico. American Antiquity 38:294–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Millon, Clara 1988 A Reexamination of the Teotihuacan Tassel Headdress Insignia. In Feathered Serpents and Flowering Trees, edited by Berrin, Kathleen, pp. 114–134. The Fine Arts Museum, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Nicholson, Henry B. 1973 Phoneticism in the Late Pre-Hispanic Central Mexican Writing System. In Mesoamerican Writing Systems, edited by Benson, Elizabeth, pp. 1–46. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Paulinyi, Zoltán 2006 The “Great Goddess” of Teotihuacan: Fiction or Reality? Ancient Mesoamerica 17:1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pasztory, Esther 1976 The Murals of Tepantitla, Teotihuacan. Garland Publishing, New York.Google Scholar
Pasztory, Esther 1988 A Reinterpretation of Teotihuacan and its Painting Tradition. In Feathered Serpents and Flowering Trees, edited Kathleen Berrin, pp. 45–78. The Fine Arts Museum, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Pasztory, Esther 1992 Abstraction and the Rise of a Utopian State at Teotihuacan. In Art, Ideology, and the City of Teotihuacan, edited by Berlo, Janet Catherine, pp. 281–321. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Pasztory, Esther 1997 Teotihuacan: An Experiment in Living. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Prem, Hanns 1992 Aztec Writing. In Epigraphy, edited by Bricker, Victoria R., pp. 53–70. Supplement to the Handbook of Middle American Indians, Vol. 5, Bricker, Victoria R., general editor, University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Ruiz Gallut, María Elena, Trejo, Jesús Galindo, and Guitiérrez, Daniel Flores 1996 Implicaciones arqueoastronómicas de pórticos con felinos en Teotihuacan. In La pintura mural prehispánica en México, Vol. 2, edited by de la Fuente, Beatriz, pp. 343–361. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Sampson, Geoffrey 1985 Writing Systems: A Linguistic Introduction. Stanford University Press, Stanford.Google Scholar
de Saussure, Ferdinand 1955 [1920] Cours de Linguistique Générale. Payot, Paris.Google Scholar
Schmandt-Besserat, Denise 1996 How Writing Came About. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Sejourne, Laurette 1996 Arqueologia de Teotihuacan: La cerámica. Fondo de Cultura Económico, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Sharer, Robert J. 2004 External Interaction at Early Classic Copan. In Understanding Early Classic Copan, edited by Bell, Ellen, Canuto, Marcello, and Sharer, Robert, pp. 297–319. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Smith, Mary Elisabeth 1973a Picture Writing from Ancient Southern Mexico: Mixtec Place Signs and Maps. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Smith, Mary Elisabeth 1973b The Relationship between Mixtec Manuscript Painting and the Mixtec Language: A Study of Some Personal Names in Codices Muro and Sánchez Solís. In Mesoamerican Writing Systems, edited by Benson, Elizabeth, pp. 47–98. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC.Google Scholar
Spence, Michael 1992 Tlailotlacan: A Zapotec Enclave in Teotihuacan. In Art, Ideology, and the City of Teotihuacan, edited by Berlo, Janet Catherine, pp. 59–89. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Stuart, David 2000 The Arrival of Strangers: Teotihuacan and Tollan in Classic Maya History. In Mesoamerica's Classic Heritage: From Teotihuacan to the Aztecs, edited by Carrasco, David, Jones, Lindsay, and Sessions, Scott, pp. 465–513. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Sugiyama, Saburo 1992 Rulership, Warfare, and Human Sacrifice at the Cuidadela: An Iconographic Study of the Feathered Serpent Representations. In Art, Ideology, and the City of Teotihuacan, edited by Berlo, Janet Catherine, pp. 205–231. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Sugiyama, Saburo, and Castro, Rubén Cabrera 2003 Hallazgos recientes en la Pirámide de la Luna. Arqueología Mexicana XI(64):42–49.Google Scholar
Taube, Karl 2000 The Writing System of Ancient Teotihuacan. Ancient America 1. Center for Ancient American Studies, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Taube, Karl 2003 Tetitla and the Maya Presence at Teotihuacan. In The Maya and Teotihuacan: Reinterpreting Early Classic Interaction, edited by Braswell, Geoffrey, pp. 273–315. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Urcid, Javier 1992 Zapotec Hieroglyphic Writing. Vol. II. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven.Google Scholar
Urcid, Javier 2003 Las urnas del Barrio Zapoteca de Teotihuacan. Arqueología Mexicana XI(64):54–57.Google Scholar
Uriarte, María Teresa 1996 Tepantitla, el juego de pelota. In La pintura mural prehispánica en México, Vol. 2, edited by de la Fuente, Beatriz, pp. 227–291. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Vogt, Evon Z. 1969 Zinacantan: A Maya Community in the Highlands of Chiapas. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittaker, Gordon 1992 The Zapotec Writing System. In Epigraphy, edited by Bricker, Victoria R., pp. 5–20. Supplement to the Handbook of Middle American Indians, Vol. 5, Bricker, Victoria R., general editor, University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar