Comparative Vocabularies': Hemispheric Philology, Indigeneity, and Settler Colonialism in the Longue-Duree

Lindsay Van Tine, in “Comparative Vocabularies,” brings Early Americanist work on indigenous literacies into dialogue with studies of Mesoamerican and colonial Spanish inscription, bridging the linguistic and disciplinary... [ view full abstract ]

Lindsay Van Tine, in “Comparative Vocabularies,” brings Early Americanist work on indigenous literacies into dialogue with studies of Mesoamerican and colonial Spanish inscription, bridging the linguistic and disciplinary divides that often split the study of North American indigeneity along national lines. This paper explores the hemispheric dimension of inscriptions generated through state-sponsored indigenous language collection projects at mid-century, taking as its point of departure a single material artifact. In an 1863 Smithsonian-issued “Comparative Vocabulary” booklet designed to facilitate native language collecting by state agents, the Mayan philologist Hermann Carl Berendt entered vocabulary gleaned not from contemporary informants in the field, but from a copy of Molina’s 1571 Spanish-Nahuatl dictionary, extensively annotated in a number of hands. The Smithsonian booklets themselves embody the relation of philology and the state: midcentury linguistic collecting efforts were often carried out by Indian agents or surveyors, and they gave rise to theories about language and culture that ultimately informed policy decisions about Indian removal. As a material artifact, the booklet embodies the layering of temporality, geography, language, and empire that characterizes the U.S. state’s settler colonial practices at midcentury.