"Mesoamerican Working Group Meeting," February 23, 2007
1. Mintzi Martínez, a graduate student in both Folklore and Anthropology, offered an informative update on projects of language and culture preservation among the P´uréhpecha, the people formerly known as "Tarascan." She spoke of an urge to preserve and revive the language and culture, evident in such trends as radio and television programming and a P´uréhpecha Web site, as well as serious obstacles to such projects due to a strong sense of local autonomy among the various P´uréhpecha settlements. As Mintzi revealed, people do not even agree as to whether it is a P´uréhpecha nación or comunidad, illustrating the gap between political agendas.
2. Quetzil Castañeda, visiting professor and instructor in Yucatec Maya, spoke to a project that has been with him for some time - to create a language resource that would offer helpful shortcuts to learners of Yucatec Maya. The provisional title is Ko'ox Dzikbal The Maya Language Field Book and Users Guide to Culture and Conversational Yucatec. He noted that existing materials are often outdated or targeted narrowly to Maya speakers. Quetzil addressed the confusion arising from different dialects and orthographies for a language that straddles international borders; as in many indigenous language settings, standards are difficult to realize, posing hazards for projects like his proposed user´s guide. In closing comments, he mentioned the promise of creating a video resource to accompany the field guide.
3. The third and final presentation was by Dan Suslak, Assistant Prof in Anthropology and Language Coordinator for the MLCP, who provided a statistical overview of native languages in Latin America (see appendices), and brought us up to date on two current dictionary projects in highland Oaxaca. One of these is ongoing work with Mixe, a flourishing Mesoamerican language; the other is a salvage operation with Ayapaneco, which is down to its last speaker. Dan mentioned the benefits of linkages with Mexican institutions such as INALI and CIESAS, which could be further explored as partnerships for ML&CP projects.
4. Our next Working Group Meeting will be April 6, 2007 and we have invited Diana Bocarejo of the University of Chicago to speak with us.
