PART 2:PART 2:

THE COLONIZATION OF THE COLONIZATION OF MEMORYMEMORY

Ch 3: Record Keeping w/o Letters / Writing Histories of People w/o History

• History, literature, colonization– Alphabetic literacy in common

• People w/o writing are w/o history

– Mexica writing was picto-ideographic• Debates over Mexica intelligence by colonizers

Ch 3, cont’d

• Also a genre issue– Western catgories were regional/territorial– Mexicas had own genres to preserve own

memories– Only certain genres signified by “history”

Ch 3, cont’d

• Writing of history/history of writing– Botturini’s/Varro’s/Vico’s universal ages

– Mexica ages

Ch 4: Genres as Social Practices

• Letter writing – Revolutionized communication across

space/time

• Historiography– Heavily dependent on

• Positionality of writer/locus of enunciation

• Restrictions of genre (which are regional/cultural)

Ch 4, cont’d

• Counter-example: Bernardino de Sahagún– Wrote from Mexico/had intensive contact w/ Mexicas

• Florentine Codex– Part history/part encyclopedia

» Books: 1-2 God and the angels, 3 The soul, 4-7 The body and its anatomy, diseases, etc., 8-9 Astrology, astronomy, time, 10-11 Matter, form, air, 12 Birds and insects, 13 Water and fishes, 14-15 Geography, 16 Geology, 17 Trees and Herbs, 18 Animals, 19 Colors, scents, flavors, liquors, 20 Weights and measures, numbers, sounds