The Concept of "Religion" in Mesoamerican Languages. Pharo, L. K. Numen, 54(1):28–70, 2007. ![The Concept of "Religion" in Mesoamerican Languages [link]](https://bibbase.org/img/filetypes/link.svg "link")
Paper doi abstract bibtex Abstract The article examines whether the indigenous languages in the cultural region called Mesoamerica comprise words corresponding to the European concept of "religion." In spite of the fact that the highly advanced phonetic (i.e. logosyllabic) writing systems are capable of expressing and recognising abstract representations in the languages, extant pre-Columbian Mesoamerican inscriptions do not contain words which can be rendered as "religion." Attention has therefore been directed to the descriptions of indigenous languages made by Spanish ethnographer-missionaries in the 16th and 18th centuries. Six indigenous lexemes translated as "religion" in colonial dictionaries, are analysed. It is, however, argued that the native terms for "religion" were in reality constructed by the Spanish ethnographer-missionaries in order to promote evangelisation and the conversion of the indigenous people. Nevertheless, it is not ineffective to operate with "religion" as an etic notion when analysing Mesoamerican cultures. A theory is put forward suggesting that a linguistic/philological examination of a given language offers a strategy for defining "religion" as a cultural analytical category according to Max Weber's notion of "ideal type."
@article{pharo_concept_2007,
title = {The {Concept} of "{Religion}" in {Mesoamerican} {Languages}},
volume = {54},
issn = {0029-5973, 1568-5276},
url = {https://brill.com/view/journals/nu/54/1/article-p28_2.xml},
doi = {10.1163/156852707X171370},
abstract = {Abstract
The article examines whether the indigenous languages in the cultural region called Mesoamerica comprise words corresponding to the European concept of "religion." In spite of the fact that the highly advanced phonetic (i.e. logosyllabic) writing systems are capable of expressing and recognising abstract representations in the languages, extant pre-Columbian Mesoamerican inscriptions do not contain words which can be rendered as "religion." Attention has therefore been directed to the descriptions of indigenous languages made by Spanish ethnographer-missionaries in the 16th and 18th centuries. Six indigenous lexemes translated as "religion" in colonial dictionaries, are analysed. It is, however, argued that the native terms for "religion" were in reality constructed by the Spanish ethnographer-missionaries in order to promote evangelisation and the conversion of the indigenous people. Nevertheless, it is not ineffective to operate with "religion" as an etic notion when analysing Mesoamerican cultures. A theory is put forward suggesting that a linguistic/philological examination of a given language offers a strategy for defining "religion" as a cultural analytical category according to Max Weber's notion of "ideal type."},
number = {1},
urldate = {2021-06-28},
journal = {Numen},
author = {Pharo, Lars Kirkhusmo},
year = {2007},
keywords = {Publications that cite words or parts of texts in Colonial Valley Zapotec},
pages = {28--70},
}
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