A historiographical review of the study of registration system used by the Nahuas

Abstract

In this article, we reflect about the current state of the studies of Mesoamerican’s graphic communication systems, and specifically the Nahua system. From a summary of the most important proposals along the last two centuries, we reflect about which have had some continuity and which have been discarded. Based on it, we can see that many researchers continue discussing about aspects that were already presented more than a century ago and they still using very similar arguments. In addition, we will show that most of the studies have been focused primarily on the glottographic part of the system. Meanwhile, the semasiographic content had been relegated, although various works begin to show in the last decades the importance of the interrelation between both parts of the register. In brief, it is possible that we are at a turning point in research and, by this reason it is necessary a historiographic reflection.