PHDDE PROSPECTUS

FOR
SPANISH/LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES

          The Prospectus should be a précis that raises a series of questions, and should suggest how the
dissertation may be structured around topics and chapters. It should be a concise, 10-15 page statement of
the problems, methods and organization of the dissertation, accompanied by a bibliography selected from
the three lists.
         More specifically, the Prospectus should address the following issues:

1)    Specific Issues to be explored: Outline the issues to be explored. State the significance of those
issues. Specify the relationship of your research to other research in the field and identify the gaps that the
proposed thesis is intended to fill by relating the specific aims of the thesis to previous work in the field.
Briefly describe the most significant previous work in relation to the issues you are going to explore.
2)    Approach, Methods, Techniques: Describe the special aims of your thesis and the theoretical
perspectives from which you will address the issues you are supposed to investigate, the existing but
unsolved questions, or the questions you yourself will be asking. State why the proposed methodology is
particularly appropriate for your investigation.
3)    Basic texts selected according to parts or chapters of the dissertation: briefly outline which basic
texts or documents you will be studying.
4)    Limitations/Pitfalls: Indicate the potential or possible limitations and pitfalls to the approaches and
methods you are proposing as well as the difficulties presented by the issues you propose to investigate.
5)    Thesis timetable; travel (if needed): Indicate how your time will be organized to complete the different
stages of your thesis research and writing.  If your thesis requires you to conduct research outside of Duke
University, provide details and justification. Indicate whether you have competence in the foreign languages
needed for using the primary and secondary material that  will be used in the project.
 Every culture has raised the question about its surroundings, environment, and

landscape. In other words, no matter the location and time, different cultures have

elaborated a conception of how they understand what we call space with similarities and

differences. Over time, these cultures have modified their conceptions as different social,

historical and philosophical situations have changed. In this project, we will be concerned

about the transformation of this concept among one of the amazing cultures of the

Americas, the Nahuas. As our observation on this concept focuses on the period of the

XV and XVI centuries, we will attempt to answer the following question using the maps

created by indigenous mapmakers for the XVI century Relaciones Geográficas of New

Spain: how indigenous people of the Mexican Central Valley conceived space after the

Spanish arrival? To construct a theory of how post-Columbian Nahuas understood space

is a difficult enterprise, as we must acknowledge that their conceptualization is

influenced by two cultures with two different propositions on the concept. On the one

hand, the Spanish machinery struggled to dominate every aspect of Nahua life: from the

religious practices to their social structure. On the other, since Nahua conception of space

was intrinsically part of their previous world-view, Spanish’s interference probably

impacted their notions of space.

While for the purpose of this project I use the concept of space and search for its

conceptualization among the Nahuas after the conquest, I most acknowledge that the very

concept of space is loaded with a spatial and temporal specificity. In other words, the

Western notion of space could not be the same on other cultures that did not have the

influence of the Greeks, Christianity, Islam and Judaism. At the same time, the very idea

of space in Western culture has suffered several transformations and alternatives in their

2
history. Furthermore, as we search for the notion of colonial Nahua space, it is important

to acknowledge that their idea could be completely different, similar or vary in some

degree to their European contemporary or ours. However, as we seek the notion of space

among colonial Nahuas, we are already establishing a parameter of comparison and

acknowledging that we are searching for something similar to our notion of space, not

their actual and complete conceptualization. For us, space is a boundless, three-

dimensional extent in which objects and events occur and have relative position and

direction. For methodological purposes, in order to establish an entrance of comparison,

although available to any modification in colonial Nahua perspective, we will seek for

their conceptualization and understanding of the extent in which objects and events occur;

thus, this will be our transversal notion of space.

As we deal with the concept of space among colonial Nahuas through their maps

of the Relaciones Geográficas, we need to be aware of two main influences in their

conceptualization that could appear. On the one hand, previous ideas of space from pre-

colonial Nahua world-view could be a major influence in their perception. Thus, it is

necessary to define how space was conceived among the ancient Nahuas and how it was

related with everyday life. As we study this conception, we must take attention to the

conceptual difference and the scope of their notion of space compared to us as we select a

pluritopic hermeneutical approach on the concept. Moreover, most of our present

knowledge of ancient Nahua idea of space is taken from the informants of Bernardino de

Sahagún, the mestizo chronicles of Ixtlilxochitl and Tezozomoc among others, as well as

many pictographic manuscripts belong to a time after the Spanish arrival. Thus, our pre-

colonial concepts of space among the Nahuas are, actually, references from post-colonial

3
sources that open difficulties in our analysis as already European notions of space could

have influenced these sources. Although it is possible to use some of the pre-Columbian

codices to examine their “pure” notion of space, and therefore to analyze a “non Western

polluted” source of Nahua space, the scholar’s investigations on this documents are still

influenced and rely heavily on post-Columbian commentaries. Since we cannot escape

from the analysis of pre-colonial Nahua reality without colonial sources, it is necessary to

understand this limitation.

On the other hand, the idea of space Europeans brought to the Americas could

also be a major influence in colonial Nahua conception of space. From the Colegio of

Tlatelolco to the regular visit of priests to the communities, from the new disposition of

territories and a new configuration of the city, European conception of space attempted to

be felt in every place of American life. Thus, it is necessary to assess until what point

European conception of space influenced colonial Nahua conception. However,

European notion of space is also contingent depending on the historical point we take it.

Since their conceptualization follows a trend from the Greeks to today, it is easier to track

the path in the historical evolution of the notion of space; thus, we need to be aware that

Spaniard notions on space is different to ours. Moreover, it is also our challenge to

question how European notions of space were transmitted to Nahua communities.

As our analysis focuses on the idea of space among colonial Nahuas, our inquires

direct to the corpus where we can find this conception. For the purpose of this project, we

consider that the most suitable source to comprehend a notion of space among colonial

Nahuas is through an analysis of the maps made by the former tlacuilos for the

Relaciones Geográficas. The drawing of their towns was probably an interesting

4
enterprise for the tlacuilos as the representation of their space did not have to meet the

standards of former codices or amoxtli but a new idea for them: the European map. In

other words, as the tlacuilo worked the paper, his or her imagination had to reflect on

how to arrange the former manner of representation of spatial reality to accommodate the

requirements of Spanish representation of space. However, why are there divergences

between both representations? We assume that the differences are rooted in the particular

understanding of space in these cultures. Thus, representations of space through the

depiction of a town or territory are driven by these conceptualizations of space, and they

enclose, in every trace on the paper, thinking of their surrounding. We are invited, then,

to explore the possibility grasping conceptual considerations not from words but from

images.

among Spaniards could differ from ours as more than 500 years has passed and

new episteme have conformed different approaches on space. Thus, as we explore

Third, it is necessary to establish a corpus from where we think it is possible to see any

transformation on the Nahua notion of space. For the purpose of this project, I intended

5
to use the maps made by the tlacuilos, the former storytellers, during the execution of the

questionnaires of the Relaciones Geográficas of New Spain.

in what extent did the Spanish arrival affected what the Nahuas understood as space?