Thesis abstract

This dissertation contributes to the understanding of the Aztec concept of time, a central aspect of the great pre-Columbian civilization of Mesoamerica. The notion of a “calendar” in the Western sense did not exist in the Aztec world. Nevertheless, the Aztecs (Nahuas) used a system of regularities for measuring time that can be interpreted as such. The thesis of this work is that the tōnalpōhualli (260-day count) and the xiuhpōhualli (365-day count) functioned together and should be regarded as a single calendar. The aim is to present the essential cosmological questions that arose from the discovery of recurring patterns in nature, the philosophical reflections they provoked, and the ways in which the Nahua recognized them. The focus lies on the Florentine Codex, compiled by Bernardino de Sahagún (1500–1590) with the support of his Indigenous students. It is bilingual, Nahuatl on the right and Spanish on the left. Sahagún designed questionnaires and sent his students to collect the answers of wise elders. The authentic ideas of the Aztecs were shaped not only by a European perspective but also by the acculturation of his Indigenous students and the challenges of translation and semantics. To shed light on this problem, this dissertation draws on Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language—according to which the meaning of a word lies in its use—on Schleiermacher’s hermeneutic circle, and, more broadly, on the principle of charity. With this foundation, every passage in which the word cāhuitl (“time”) appears in the Florentine Codex is analyzed. In the final part, the concept of time in Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia, which served as a structural model for the Florentine Codex, is compared with the Aztec conception of time that emerge from the analysis. These investigations make it possible to trace European influences and to identify Indigenous elements. Both cultures recognize cyclicality and linearity, but their interpretations differ. The Romans viewed time as a linear progression of repeating cycles, while the Aztecs saw it as unrepeatable, finite segments that culminated in a larger-scale cyclicality.