Tlacochitta, Seeing Things while Asleep: Utterances and Reflections on the Dream Practices of the Nahua
The article examines the conceptions and practices concerning dreams of the Nahua of pre-Hispanic and contemporary Mexico. For the Mexica, the study is based on the historical testimonies of chroniclers and evangelizers, as well as the linguistic repertoires and Nahuatl texts written during the earl...
| Autor: | |
|---|---|
| Formato: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2022 |
| País: | México |
| Recursos: | UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL AUTÓNOMA DE MÉXICO |
| Repositorio: | Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl |
| Idioma: | español |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ojs.pkp.sfu.ca:article/77991 |
| Acesso em linha: | https://nahuatl.historicas.unam.mx/index.php/ecn/article/view/77991 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palavra-chave: | dream diagnosis divination shamanism Nahua sueños diagnóstico divinación chamanismo nahuas |
| Resumo: | The article examines the conceptions and practices concerning dreams of the Nahua of pre-Hispanic and contemporary Mexico. For the Mexica, the study is based on the historical testimonies of chroniclers and evangelizers, as well as the linguistic repertoires and Nahuatl texts written during the early colonial period. As for the contemporary Nahua, the author presents and analyzes the ethnographic data he has collected in the municipality of Cuetzalan (Puebla), highlighting the relationship between the different spiritual components and the dream activity, the role of dreams in the professional “call” of ritual specialists, their ability to exercise active control over dreaming, as well as the threats that dreams can imply for the integrity of the person. For the Nahua, dreaming is a domain in which the boundary between the human and extra-human world becomes porous, which allows access to forms of knowledge and agency precluded in the waking state. Finally, dreaming is a highly socialized experience, in which traditional models provide cognitive and operational tools with which to confer meaning to critical existential experiences and identify responses that often prove effective. |
|---|