THE TAJIN TOTONAC PART 1 KELLY AND PALERM 



the impression that his sermon was understood by 

 the majority of the congregation. It appears most 

 unlikely that sufficient time had lapsed between 

 the Spanish Conquest — or, for that matter, be- 

 tween the conquest by the Triple Alliance — and 

 the dates of our relaciones geogrdficas to account 

 for such major inroads of Mexicano speech. 



Accordingly, it is necessary to seek more ancient 

 influences which might explain the essentially bi- 

 lingual character of Totonacapan. Clues are by 

 no means wanting. Legendary history indicates 

 that there were early Toltec contacts in northern 

 Totonacapan, long before the founding of Tula 

 ( Veytia 1 : 153-156) ; and there seem to have been 

 subsequent ones, following the destruction of that 

 great center (Ixtlilxochitl 1:89, 2:37). Cor- 

 roboration of Toltec influence is provided by the 

 archeological site of Teayo, north of Papantla, 

 which generally is conceded to have marked Toltec 

 resemblances (Garcia Payon, 1947, pp. 302-303). 

 Moreover, after the fall of Tula, there seems to 

 have been considerable tribal dislocation ; Totona- 

 capan was touched by at least one wave of pre- 

 sumably Nahuatized invaders, the Olmeca-Zaca- 

 teca (pp. 16-17), and by the Teochichimecs, who 

 perhaps fall in the same linguistic category 

 (p. 19). 



These traditions of early penetration are sug- 

 gestive, but there are more precise records of close 

 contact in time of famine. In the fifteenth and 

 sixteenth centuries, 13 there were at least two great 

 periods of want in the Valley of Mexico. During 

 the first, in the days of the elder Moctezuma, the 

 Totonac took advantage of the situation to acquire 

 slaves from the Valley in great number (Duran 

 1:248-249; Torquemada 1:158; Ixtlilxochitl 

 2:206; Chimalpahin, pp. 116-117). Apart from 

 this slave element, 14 there seem to have been migra- 

 tions of considerable importance; entire families 

 moved from the Valley of Mexico to Totonacapan, 



"One source (Codice Chimalpopoca, p. 13) reports prolonged 

 famines at earlier dates, allegedly in the tenth and eleventh cen- 

 turies, during Toltec dominance. There is no specific mention 

 of Totonacapan, but it is not impossible that the fertility of the 

 coast attracted the Toltec then, as it did the Mexicans in later 

 times. 



" ". . . les anciens Mexicains se vendirent, et . . . deux par- 

 ties, dit-on, se donnSrent en servitude. C'est pour cela que les 

 Totonaque principalmente vinrent acheter des Mexicains . . ." 

 (Chimalpahin, pp. 116-117). 



where they established permanent residence and 

 "where they remained until today" (Duran 

 1 : 248) . 15 The second period of famine took place 

 in 1505, and appears to have been roughly paral- 

 lel, 16 although there are no records of outright mi- 

 gration. 



In our opinion, these successive influences, re- 

 inforced by the late Mexican conquest, and further 

 reinforced by the Spanish use of Mexicano as a 

 lingua franca, are sufficient to explain the bilin- 

 gual character of Totonacapan in the sixteenth 

 century. 



SIXTEENTH-CENTURY POPULATION 



The following discussion of the population of 

 Totonacapan during the sixteenth century is 

 based on sources which date from approximately 

 1550 to 1610. Nevertheless, for 16 pueblos, we 

 have included estimates of the number of inhab- 

 itants in 1519, so as to have a rough basis for 

 comparison. In both cases, the discussion is con- 

 fined to pueblos which are said definitely to be 

 Totonac, either wholly or in part, according to 

 various records between the years 1519 and 1623. 

 As in the preceding section, basic source material 

 is given in full in table 14, of Appendix A, and 

 the explanation which accompanies the table in- 

 cludes a discussion both of sources and of our 

 manner of calculating population. 



Attention already has been called to the curious 

 distribution of Totonac speech in the sixteenth 

 century, with one zone of concentration in the 

 northwest and another in the southeast. Since 

 these two areas present rather distinct aspects, 

 from the viewpoint of population, they will be 

 treated separately. 



SOUTHERN TOTONACAPAN 



The cluster of Totonac pueblos to the southeast 

 was the first to feel the impact of Spanish conquest 

 and colonization, and early records are relatively 



10 Tile same author (1 : 249) adds : ". . . y asl se hallan oy en 

 dia en aquella tierra barrios de mexicanos, chalcas, tezcucanos, 

 xuchimilcas, tepanecas . . ." 



16 ". . . solamente hubo mafz en lo que Hainan Totona- 

 capan . . . y allf acudieron a proveerse y remediarse los que 

 pudieron" (Mendieta 2 : 16). 



