Recent Work on the Borgia Group Codices

Edward B. Sisson

Current Anthropology, Vol. 24, No. 5. (Dec., 1983), pp. 653-656.

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SHORTER CONTRIBUTIONS Group. Her analysis of the ways in which day signs are depicted
suggests that the FejCrvary-Mayer and the Laud form one sty-
listic group and the Borgia, the Cospi, and the ritual section
of the Porfirio Diaz a second. The Vaticanus B.occupies a
Recent Work on the position intermediate between the two. These results are sim-
ilar to those of previous studies with the exception that the
Borgia Group Codices1 Porfirio Diaz is grouped with the Borgia and the Cospi. Boone
also examined the ratio of total body height to head height in
by EDWARDB. SISSON these manuscripts, and once again the FejCrvary-Mayer (3.65:1)
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of clusters with the Laud (3.69:l) while the Porfirio Diaz (3.29:l)
Mississippi, University, Miss. 38677, U . S . A . 2 III 83 clusters with the Borgia (3.17:l) and the Cospi (3.03:l). The
Vaticanus B (4.11:l) belongs to neither cluster. The ratios in
During the summer of 1982, the Pre-Columbian Studies Pro-
the FejCrvary-Mayer and the Laud overlap those of such Mixtec
gram at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D . C . , sponsored a
historical manuscripts as the Vindobonensis (3.84:l) and the
summer research seminar on the codices of the Borgia Group.
Zouche-Nuttall (3.61:1).
Participants in the seminar included Ferdinand Anders, Carlos
Bruce Byland has suggested that the difference in the ratio
Arostegui, Elizabeth Boone, John Carlson, Maarten Jansen,
of body height to head height may reflect the relative size of
H . B. Nicholson, Edward Sisson, and Peter van der Loo.2 A
the manuscripts rather than stylistic similarities. If heads and
two-day conference on the Borgia Group in early August brought
headdresses carry many of the diagnostic iconographic ele-
an additional 15 scholars to Dumbarton Oaks.3 After briefly
ments, the artist may not have been free to reduce the size of
reviewing the history of Borgia Group studies, I shall sum-
the head a t will. Faced with a reduced area in which to work,
marize some of the conclusions of the seminar and the confer-
the artist may have responded by reducing the size of the torso
ence. A collection of essays presenting more detailed results of
and legs, which tend to carry less information. This would
the seminar is planned by Dumbarton Oaks.
automatically have reduced the body-to-head ratio. Although
The core members of the Borgia Group are five pre-colum-
this possibility can and should be examined further, the fact
bian deerskin screenfolds with polychrome figures, scenes, and
that the Vaticanus B, with its small, cramped figures, has the
calendrical glyphs on a white ground of lime sizing. Codex
largest body-to-head ratio would seem to indicate that the ratio
Borgia and Vaticanus B or 3773 are in the Vatican Library in
does not simply reflect the size of the manuscript.
Rome; Codex Cospi is in the Biblioteca Universitaria in Bo-
Many of those present a t the August conference applauded
logna; the Codex Laud is in the Bodleian Library a t Oxford;
Boone's attempt to quantify her comparisons. They felt that
and the Codex FejCrvary-Mayer is in the Merseyside County
an assessment of stylistic variation within the Borgia Group
Museum in Liverpool. Nothing is known of the history of the
manuscripts using quantitative methods is needed, qualitative
codices prior to their appearance in Europe. Seler (1887) first
assessments tending to be dependent on individual judgment
defined the Borgia Group on the basis of similarities in style
and impossible for others to duplicate.
and content, and his commentaries (on the Codex Fejervary-
Nicholson and I spent the summer reviewing the various
Mayer in 1901-2 and on the Codex Vaticanus B in 1902-3) on
arguments for the origin of the manuscripts. Nicholson con-
the members of the group, culminating with that on the Codex
centrated on the evidence in the historical sources and on a
Borgia published between 1904 and 1909, have been the basis
comparison of figures and scenes in the manuscripts, especially
for all subsequent research. The other classic study of the group
the Borgia and the Cospi, with figures and scenes on tipo cddice
is Nowotny's (1961) Tlacuilolli. Some authorities have sug-
(codex-style) ceramics. I concentrated on a comparison of the
gested that the Fonds Mexicains 20 and the Codex Porfirio
contents and style of the manuscripts with such archaeological
Diaz be added to the core group on the basis of similarities in
specimens as murals, effigy censers, and the codex-style ce-
content. The Fonds Mexicains 20 is a single page of deerskin
ramics. I also compared objects depicted in the manuscripts
and almost certainly has a Mixteca Alta origin. It is now in
with similar objects known archaeologically, ethnographically,
the Bibliothhque Nationale in Paris. The Porfirio Diaz is a
or in codices of established origin. I shall present only a very
deerskin screenfold with both historical and ritual sections.
brief review of this work here. Much of what Nicholson and
Hunt (1978) has recently demonstrated that the historical sec-
I did represents a reappraisal of the earlier efforts of colleagues.
tion of this manuscript refers to towns in the Cuicatec Cafiada
If this reappraisal differs from previous work, the difference
of north-central Oaxaca. The manuscript was used in a court
lies in its being more comprehensive. I t should be acknowl-
case involving Tepeucila in 1562 and was probably drafted
edged from the outset that the origins of the manuscripts may
around 1545. I t is now located in the library of the Museo
never be known in any more than a very general sense. The
Nacional de Antropologia in Mexico City. (For a more complete
manuscripts are easily transported from place to place; they
discussion of the history of research on the Borgia Group, see
are probably copies of copies; the artists may have been highly
Glass 1975.)
mobile; and this is a sample of five manuscripts from a corpus
During the summer seminar, Elizabeth Boone examined sty-
which may have numbered in the hundreds or thousands. These
listic variation within and between manuscripts of the Borgia
five manuscripts represent an unknown number of artistic
schools.
' O 1983 by The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Re- Seler (1963:103) pointed out the close similarities between
search, all rights reserved 0011-320418312405-0005$1.00.
Anders, Rierlingerstrasse 50, A-3400 Klosterneuburg, Austria;
the so-called xantiles, or god-effigy censers, of the Tehuacan
Arostegui, Dumbarton Oaks, 1703 32nd St., N.W., Washington, D.C. Valley and the gods as depicted in the Codex Borgia (see also
20007; Boone, Dumbarton Oaks; Carlson, Center for Archaeoastron- Chadwick and MacNeish 1967 and Ramsey 1975). This sim-
omy, University of Maryland, College Park, Md. 20742; Jansen, Huis ilarity is even more apparent now that we have a larger corpus
te Landelaan 168, Rijswijk 2283 SK, The Netherlands; Nicholson, of xantiles. The center of their distribution is the Tehuacan
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles,
Calif. 20024; Sisson, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Uni- Valley in southeastern Puebla; examples also occur in the ad-
versity of Mississippi, University, Miss. 38677; van der Loo, Lom- jacent Gulf Coastal lowlands a t such sites as Zempoala.
bokstraat 75A, 2315 E M Leiden, The Netherlands. Caso (1927) and Noguera (1927) pointed out the strong sty-
Patricia R. Anawalt, Elizabeth P. Benson, Bruce Byland, Chris- listic similarities between the figures depicted in the Tizatlan,
topher Couch, Virginia Ehrman-Dahlin, John Justeson, Eloise Qui- Tlaxcala, murals and figures in the Codex Borgia. Beyond these
Bones Keber, M a r k B . King, George Kubler, E d u a r d o Matos
Moctezuma, Donald Robertson, George E . Stuart, Nancy P. Troike, similarities in style, I see parallels in content with Borgia Sec-
Gordon R. Willey, Richard S. MacNeish. tion 18 (pp. 53 and 54) and with the corresponding pages in

Vol. 24 No. 5 . December 1983

the Cospi (pp. 9-11) and the Vaticanus B (pp. 80-84), the
sections in which Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli throws his atlatl dart
at Tezcatlipoca, Chalchiuhtlicue, and other deities. Nicholson
argues that the closest stylistic similarities are to be found
between the Codex Cospi and the Tizatlan murals. No other
published murals have scenes and figures directly comparable
to those of the Borgia Group manuscripts.
Robertson (1963:156-57), comparing the codex-style ce-
ramics from Cholula, Puebla, published by Noguera (1954)
with the Borgia Group manuscripts, concluded that this pottery
"uses a style of painting almost identical to that of the manu-
scripts," a style with "a vocabulary of iconographic forms so
close to the manuscripts that a relationship is inescapable on
both formal and iconographic grounds." Though he judged the
resemblance to manuscript painting "unmistakable" (p. 159),
he questioned the utility of such comparisons, pointing out that
pottery from the Mixteca Alta also has design similarities with
the manuscripts of the Borgia Group. Nicholson and I do not
share Robertson's skepticism. We both feel that the codex-style
ceramics from Cholula and neighboring sites are pertinent to
the origin of the Borgia Group manuscripts. Bernal (1949), in
his report on Coixtlahuaca, suggested that the stylistic differ-
ence between the polychrome ceramics of the Mixteca Alta and
those of Cholula was comparable to that between the Mixtec
historical codices and the codices of the Borgia Group. Sub-
sequent archaeological fieldwork and trace-element analyses of
polychrome ceramics seem to support his suggestion (see Abas-
cal 1974 and Lind 1967). The murals a t Mitla, the carved bone
from Tomb 7 a t Monte Alban, the Mixtec historical manu-
scripts, and much of the fine polychrome from the Valley of
Oaxaca and the Mixteca Alta form one stylistic group. The
Codex Borgia, the Codex Cospi, and the codex-style ceramics
from the region including Tizatlan, Huejotzingo, Cholula, Te-
peaca, Cuauhtinchan, and Tepexi Viejo constitute a second
stylistic group.
H . B. Nicholson (1966) and Jeff Wilkerson (personal com-
munication) have pointed out that codex-style and other high-
land ceramics are quite common in central Veracruz. Wilkerson,
Byland, Jansen, and others have argued that the painting on
the ceramics was almost certainly not executed by the same
artists who painted manuscripts and that the scenes on the
ceramics were more likely copied from the manuscripts than
the reverse. As a consequence of these arguments, Wilkerson
and Nicholson would not rule out the Gulf Coast as the place
of origin for some members of the Borgia Group, specifically
the Laud and the FejCrvary-Mayer, and Jansen and Byland
would not rule out the Mixteca Alta.
Anawalt's (1981a, b ) analyses of Mesoamerican clothing styles
indicate that the clothing depicted in the manuscripts of the
Borgia Group is closer to that of the Mixtec historical manu-
scripts than it is to Aztec, Tlaxcalan, Tarascan, or Lowland
Maya clothing. There are, however, a number of important
differences which suggest to her that the Borgia Group manu-
scripts are not from the Mixteca Alta and are not Mixtec ritual
manuscripts. Anawalt believes that the Laud and the FejCr-
vary-Mayer are from the Gulf Coast of Veracruz and the Bor-
gia, the Cospi, and the Vaticanus B from the Puebla-Tlaxcala
area. At the August conference, Jansen and Arostegui seriously
questioned the validity of her comparing costume depicted in
religious ritual manuscripts such as those of the Borgia Group
with that depicted in predominantly historical manuscripts such
as the Mixtec historical codices.
Nicholson (1966) and Chadwick and MacNeish (1967) have
pointed out that the "eared" roofs which appear in the temple
ritual scenes of Borgia Section 13, in the world-direction scenes
of Borgia Section 15, and in the Codex Egerton from the Mix-
teca Baja (Smith 1973) are typical of the Popoloca of Puebla.
Since the Popoloca live in the sierra west of the Tehuacan
Valley, Chadwick and MacNeish have used this comparison to
bolster their argument for a Tehuacan origin for the Borgia.
A preliminary survey of the ethnographic literature reveals that
"eared" roofs are also typical of the Mazatec, who live in the
sierra east of the Tehuacan Valley, and of the Chocho, who
live in northern Oaxaca just south of the Popoloca in Puebla.
In the world-direction scenes of Borgia Section 15, only the
temples of the east and the west are shown with "eared" roofs.
Chocho, Popoloca, and Mazatec all belong to the Chochan
linguistic group, with a minimum of 25 centuries of internal
divergence (Swadesh 1967:94). The present distribution of these
languages is roughly from Coixtlahuaca and Huautla de Ji-
menez on the south to Tepexi Viejo and Tecamachalco on the
north. The Tehuacan Valley is located in the south-center of
this area of distribution.
A presence-absence seriation of types of thatched roofs de-
picted in the Borgia Group manuscripts results in the following
sequence: Cospi, Borgia, Laud, FejCrvary-Mayer, Vaticanus
B. When compared with the Mixtec historical manuscripts,
the Vaticanus B shares the greatest number of thatched-roof
types, followed by the Laud and the FejCrvary-Mayer. The
Borgia and the Cospi are least like the Mixtec manuscripts.
This is essentially consistent with the seriation by the ratio of
body height to head height reported by Boone. Vaticanus B ,
Laud, and FejCrvary-Mayer are the most like the Mixtec his-
torical codices and Cospi and Borgia the least.
Chadwick and MacNeish (1967) have also pointed out that
many of the ceramic vessels depicted in the Codex Borgia are
similar in both form and decoration to ceramics from the Te-
huacan Valley during the Venta Salada phase. However, many
of the Tehuacan Valley vessels they illustrate also occur in
adjacent areas of Puebla, Oaxaca, and Veracruz.
If the vessels in the Codex Borgia that Chadwick and
MacNeish identify as Teotitlan Incised are indeed Teotitlan
Incised, then they have a very good case for a Tehuacan Valley
provenience for the Borgia. Archaeologically, Teotitlan Incised
is by far most common within the Tehuacan Valley. Small
amounts occur in the Cuicatec Catiada to the south and at
Tepexi Viejo to the north. A few pieces may even occur a t
Cholula and on the Gulf Coast. Apparently, the type does not
occur in the Mixteca Alta.
Unfortunately, the "typical" Teotitlan Incised designs which
occur on vessels in the Borgia also occur on earspools, blankets,
and even the skin of individuals. I think they may be an in-
dication of the preciousness of the offerings contained in the
vessels rather than a reflection of an incised design on the vessel
surface. The green color of these vessels is consistent with this
interpretation. While of course the designs could be both of
these, there is a second problem with the identification of the
Borgia vessels as Teotitlan Incised. The vessel supports de-
picted in the codex only rarely occur on Teotitlan Incised; they
are more typical of Coxcatlan Brushed and Coxcatlan Gray.
The absence of a well-developed polychrome tradition in the
Tehuacan Valley must make one question how any such elab-
orately painted manuscripts as those of the Borgia Group could
have derived from that region. At their best, local polychromes
are drab. Fine polychromes do occur in the Tehuacan Valley
during the Postclassic, and some of them bear scenes and fig-
ures remarkably similar to those in the Codex Borgia, but all
these fine polychromes are imports from elsewhere. As Jansen,
Byland, Arostegui, and others have pointed out, however, there
does not seem to be a strongly developed polychrome tradition
in the Mixteca Alta either, and we certainly have pictorial
manuscripts there.
A comparison of vessel forms depicted in the manuscripts
of the Borgia Group with those in the Mixtec historical manu-
scripts reveals considerable overlap. Some of the differences,
such as the frequent occurrence of large stationary censers in
the Borgia Group manuscripts and their almost complete ab-
sence in the Mixtec historical manuscripts, may reflect the
difference in the purposes of the manuscripts-ritual versus
primarily historical. Other differences probably reflect a dif-
CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY
ference in origin. For example, in both groups necked jars with
tripod feet occur. In the Mixtec historical manuscripts, how-
ever, these jars are more common and display the long, splayed
feet typical of specimens known archaeologically from the Mix-
teca Alta and the Valley of Oaxaca.
Nicholson's comparison of codex-style vessels from the Cho-
lula-Tizatlan-Tepeaca-Cuauhtinchan area with scenes in the
Borgia and the Cospi has already been mentioned. Further,
Lind (1967) has shown that sets of motifs distinguish Postclassic
polychromes from the Cholula area, the Mixteca Alta and Val-
ley of Oaxaca, and the Chinantla. The work of Lind and Nich-
olson, combined with the trace-element analyses of Abascal
(1974) and those performed for Ignacio Bernal (personal com-
munication; Schavelzon 1980), seems to indicate that poly-
chromes from Oaxaca and from the Puebla-Tlaxcala basin are
distinct stylistically and compositionally. As Robertson pointed
out in the article cited above, the Borgia Group is almost
identical to the Cholula ceramics on "formal and iconographic
grounds."
On the basis of the data on provenience just summarized, I
suggest that the Borgia Group manuscripts were produced
somewhere in the area circumscribed by an ellipse with its
major axis from Tizatlan in the north to Tepeucila in the south
and its minor axis from Acatlan, Oaxaca, on the west to Cor-
doba, Veracruz, on the east. This encompasses areas of Na-
huatl, Popoloca, Chocho, Mazatec, Mixtec, Cuicatec, and Otomi
speech. More specifically, I suggest that the Cospi is from the
Nahuatl-speaking Cholula-Huejotzingo-Tizatlan area, the
Borgia from the predominantly Nahuatl-speaking Tepeaca-Te-
camachalco-Cuauhtinchan area or from the Tehuacan Valley,
where Nahuatl, Popoloca, Mixtec(?),and Mazatec(?)were spo-
ken, the Laud and the FejCrvary-Mayer from the southern
Tehuacan Valley or the Cuicatec-speaking CaBada, and the
Vaticanus B from a Popoloca- or Mixtec-speaking area some-
where west of the major axis in the direction of Acatlan.
Nicholson, Anawalt, Wilkerson, and Thomas Barthel would
disagree with my attribution of a highland origin to the Laud
and the FejCrvary-Mayer; they believe that these documents
come from the Gulf Coast. Barthel (personal communication)
will shortly publish an analysis of Borgia Section 11, p. 2 7 ,
which he believes supports a Tehuacan Valley origin for that
codex. Finally, Jansen, Arostegui, Troike, and Byland have
assembled a list of parallels in content between the Borgia
Group and the Mixtec historical manuscripts."ointing to the
great stylistic variation within these Mixtec codices and the
small sample that survives, they question the utility of stylistic
comparisons and argue that it is still too early to rule out a
Mixteca Alta provenience for any of the Borgia Group manu-
scripts. Jansen has also argued that, if we did have surviving
ritual and divinatory almanacs from the Mixteca Alta, they
should look like the manuscripts of the Borgia Group. I would
agree with Jansen on this point without conceding a Mixteca
Alta origin for the Borgia Group. The implication of this po-
sition is obvious given Seler's great success in using Nahuatl
sources to interpret the iconography of the Borgia Group. The
Mixtec kingdoms of the Mixteca Alta and Baja shared most
of their gods, rituals, and beliefs with the Nahuatl-speakers to
the north.
' Parallels include (a)A - 0 year signs in Borgia pp. 2 7 , 28, 49, 50,
5 1, and 52; (b) nuhu figure associated with a drinking scene in Vaticanus
B p. 72 and Vindobonensis p. 25; ( c )nuhu figures (?) as spirits of plants
in Borgia p. 30 and Vindobonensis p. 37; ( d ) nuhu figures (?) in Borgia
p. 38; (e) ghyosayo (4 snake 7 snake) in Borgia p. 25, Vaticanus B p.
70, Vindobonensis p. 5, Nuttall p. 37, and the Relacio'n Geogrbfica de
Tilantongo; (f)the opossum-maguey-pulque association in Vaticanus
B p. 31, Vindobonensis p. 20, Nuttall p. 3; (g) the bundle ritual of
Borgia pp. 35-38, Nuttall p. 42, and Vindobonensis pp. 15, 17, 18,
19, 21, 22, 25; ( h ) the "heaven temple" in Borgia pp. 34 and 37 and
Egerton pp. 6 and 15; ( i )the association of South and death in Borgia
p. 52, Cospi p. 13, and the Fonds Mexicains 20; ( j ) Quetzalcoatl in
Vaticanus B pp. 21 and 34, Borgia p. 51, FejCrvary-Mayer p. 24, and
Vindobonensis p. 47.
Vol. 24 - N o . 5 - December 1983
There was general agreement that the manuscripts are a
combination of ritual and divinatory almanacs and that the
best summary of their contents is contained in Nowotny's Tla-
cuilolli. Jansen concentrated his efforts on an analysis of Borgia
Section 23 (pp. 61-70), the 20 trecenas, and corresponding
trecenas in the Codex Vaticanus B , the Codex Telleriano-Re-
mensis, the Codex Vaticanus A, the Tonalamatl Aubin, the
Codex Borbonicus, and the Codex Tudela and in such prose
sources as Fray Bernardino de Sahagun and Fray Cervantes
de Salazar. The trecenas depict the 260 days of the tonalpo-
hualli in 20 sets of 13 days. Accompanying the day signs of
each trecena are the god(s) that govern the luck of these days.
Other figures appear as well. Jansen is focusing on how these
trecenas may have functioned as divinatory aids and feels
strongly that contemporary studies of Mesoamerican divination
and ethnohistoric accounts may provide important keys. It is
clear that considerable ambiguity must have been built into the
divinatory system. Interestingly, Eloise Quifiones Keber, who
is studying the trecenas of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis, warns
that the Spanish glosses identifying secondary figures in this
manuscript were added by a later hand and may not be as
reliable as the glosses identifying the primary figures. The later
commentator overidentifies; every figure is a deity.
Jansen also worked on Borgia Section 28, pp. 75 and 76,
and by comparing this section with a cognate section in the
Tudela (pp. 97 i f . ) was able to reconstruct the missing deities.
At the 1981 annual meeting of the American Society for
Ethnohistory in Colorado Springs, Peter van der Loo sum-
marized his ethnographic work on Tlapanec bundle rituals.
Following up on a suggestion by Nowotny, who had read Leon-
ard Schultze Jena's description of these rituals, he restudied
them in Guerrero in 1979-80 and published a convincing ar-
gument (1982) that large sections of the Cospi (pp. 21-31), the
FejCrvary-Mayer (pp. 5-22 and 43 ff.), and the Laud (pp. 3-
8, 25 and 26) are prescriptions for performing bundle rituals.
Most of the bar-and-dot numerals of these sections have nothing
to do with calendrics. During the seminar, van der Loo con-
tinued his search of the ethnographic and ethnohistoric liter-
ature for additional data pertinent to the interpretation of the
codices. Van der Loo, Jansen, and Anders are all convinced
that an examination of the existing literature and additional
ethnographic fieldwork are the most promising approaches to
a better understanding of the Borgia Group.
In addition to serving as an invaluable source of information
for the other participants, Ferdinand Anders prepared a set of
charts correlating the cognate sections in the manuscripts of
the Borgia Group and began a study of the marriage prog-
nostications in Borgia Section 22, pp. 58-60, and in the cognate
sections of the Vaticanus B (pp. 33-42) and the Laud (pp. 33-
38). Anders also continued his study of early colonial Testerian
manscripts, early catechisms, and demonstrated that some of
the symbols have a pre-Hispanic origin in both form and
meaning.
John Carlson worked on the much disputed Grolier Codex.
He was able to demonstrate that it is indeed a genuine Maya
codex and that the detached page which Michael Coe had
numbered 11 is actually the lower half of p. 10. Carlson plans
to apply the knowledge of Venus symbolism gained from his
study of the Grolier and other Maya sources to a study of Venus
symbolism in the manuscripts of the Borgia Group.
The participants in the seminar and the conference drew up
the following short list of recommendations for further study:
1. Undertake additional ethnographic fieldwork like that of
van der Loo on ritual and myth in contemporary Mesoamerican
Indian societies.
2 . Undertake additional archaeological studies of the Late
Postclassic in the Central Mexican highlands and in the poorly
known area of Veracruz from the Orizaba and C6rdoba area
south.
3. Compile and publish a photographic archive of "Mixteca-
Puebla-style" ceramics, especially the "codex-type."
4. Translate into Spanish (or English) Nowotny's Tlacuilolli
in order to make it more easily available to potential students.
5. publish ~ v Hunt's
a manuscript on Cuicatec myth and
ritual and their relations hi^ to the Borgia Grour, m a n u s c r i ~ t s .
6. Begin an inexpensive publication series to make more
easily accessible the wealth of early colonial ethnohistoric ac-
counts of ritual, myth, and calendrics.
7. Publish Eduard Seler's voluminous card files, which are
stored in Berlin.
References Cited
ABASCAL,
RAFAEL.1 974. Analisis par activation de neutrones: Una
aportacion para la arqueologia moderna. Unpublished M.A. thesis,
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ANAWALT, P. R. 1981a. Indian clothing before Cortes: Mesoamerican
costumes from the codices. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
-. 1981b. Costume analysis and the provenience of the Borgia
Group of codices. American Antiquity 46:837-52.
BERNAL,IGNACIO.1949. Exploraciones en Coixtlahuaca. Revista
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CASO,ALFONSO.1927. Las ruinas de Tizatlbn, Tlaxcala. Revista
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CHADWICK, ROBERT, and R. S. MACNEISH. 1967 "Codex Borgia and
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GLASS,J. B. 1975. "A survey of Native Middle American pictorial
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HUNT,EVA.1978. The provenience and contents of the Porfirio Diaz
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LIND,M . D. 1967. Mixtec polychrome pottery: A comparison of the
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Chinantla. Unpublished M.A. thesis, Universidad de las Americas,
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NICHOLSON, H . B. 1966. "The problem of the provenience of the
Ethnologists Perturbed by
Their Success1
by JACQUESMEUNIER
Paris, France. 17 IV 83
Many nonspecialist readers look to the ethnological literature
for more than mere escapism and exoticism. What they want
most is a kind of decentering. In fact, this layman's conception
is consistent with one often expressed (in private) by ethnolo-
gists: that societies shed light on one another, and ethnology,
by contrast, is self-revealing.
Ethnology is a discursive science, a mixture of scientific and
personal experience, theory and praxis. What makes it original?
Its sensibility? Its object? Its methodology? The general public
is mostly interested in its object: the ethnologist deals with
small-scale and highly integrated societies, limited groups in
which the famous "fait social total" operates fully. He is de-
voted to tribes, isolates, the attics of humanity. Indeed, when
he studies large-scale societies does he not try to isolate "net-
works" or "clusters" of relations? Success for him lies in ex-
tracting from the little corners of the world he studies general
laws. This is why the average reader with an interest in eth-
nology is more interested in the parable of the book than in its
factual content or its methodology. He prefers "Dionysian" to
"Apollonian" writers. H e places the ethnologist, surveyor of
Translation 0 1983 by The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthro-
pological Research, all rights reserved 001 1-320412405-0006$1.00. This
article first appeared in French in Le Monde, April 17 and 1 8 , 1983,
pp. 11, 1 8 , and is translated here by permission of the publisher.
65 6
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reality and observer of man in society, on the same footing as
the novelist, champion of plausibility. Ethnology is conse-
quently endowed with a mission for which it is not necessarily
prepared: drawing the universal from the local.
"Hot" ethnology and "cold" ethnology: here is the dividing
line between specialized publications and what could be called-
for want of a better term-trade books. This explains the ev-
ident success of field notes, life histories, testimonies, philo-
sophical j o u r n e y s , a n d n a r r a t i v e ethnology in g e n e r a l .
Paradoxically, the divorce of scientific ethnology from its public
stems from its very success. Unconsciously, ethnologists fear
that if their work is widely recognized they will lose their hard-
earned identity. Ever in search of its disciplinary boundaries,
ethnology runs the risk of dilution through general acceptance.
This may explain why, as a discipline, ethnology has never
been healthier while, as an institution, it is in trouble. The
craft is a t its zenith, but the profession is declining all the
same-a sad situation.
The most glaring symptom of this malaise is the discourse
of ethnologists on themselves. To assess French ethnology today
is to assess assessments, reports, and lampoons (discreetly over-
looking vendettas and quarrels): to mention only the more ac-
cessible, Ou e n est l'ethnologie? by Andre Leroi-Gourhan
(Fayard, 1983[1955]); De l'angoisse a la me'thode, by Georges
Devereux (Flammarion, 1967); L a Paix blanche, by Robert
Jaulin (Le Seuil, 1970); the two issues of L e s Temps Modernes
devoted to anthropology and imperialism (1970-71); Ethno-
logic: L e deuxibme s o u f i e , by Michel Panoff (Payot, 1977); the
CNRS symposium Situation actuelle et avenir de l'anthropo-
logic e n France (1977); L6vi-Strauss's report in L e ~ i v r eblanc
de la recherche (1980); the symposium of the Association Fran-
CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY