Los pasos desde el tahli al semanawak : Los topónimos nahuas del sotavento veracruzano en el siglo XVI como elementos evocadores del paisaje cultural

Abstract

This paper deals with a corpus of six Nahuatl place names from southern Veracruz and the relationship that their meanings have with their environment. Starting from the concept of landscape, proposed by the cultural geography of Paul Claval and Joan Nogué, the nominals of some Nahua peoples that can be traced in documents from the 16th and 18th centuries are analyzed. The text is divided into five parts: first, an introduction where the concept of landscape and its relationship with the study of toponymy is explained; second, a brief literature review on research related to toponymy; third, section of explanation of the origin of the languages and the particularities of the geographical space in relation to its inhabitants; fourth, the presentation of nominals and their analysis; and fifth, a general conclusion where a balance of everything exposed will be made. The ultimate goal will be to show the role of nominals as evocative of the lowland landscape. With this, the paper contributes to a better understanding of the sociohistorical dynamics that human beings engage in with their environment and, in particular, how southern Veracruz has in its toponymy some qualities related to the natural, sociohistorical, and religious environment.