Tlamatini (plural tlamatinime) is a Nahuatl language word meaning "someone who knows something", generally translated as "wise man". The word is analyzable as derived from the transitive verb mati "to know" with the prefix tla- indicating an unspecified inanimate object translatable by "something" and the derivational suffix -ni meaning "a person who is characterized by ...": hence tla-mati-ni "a person who is characterized by knowing something" or more to the point "a knower". [1]
The famous Nahuatl language translator and interpreter Miguel León-Portilla refers to the tlamatini as philosophers and they are the subject of his book Aztec Thought and Culture. [2] [3]
See also
Notes
- ^ James Maffie (2013). "To walk in balance: an encounter between contemporary Western science and conquest-era Nahua philosophy". In Sandra Harding; Robert Figueroa (eds.). Science and Other Cultures: Issues in Philosophies of Science and Technology (pbk ed.). Routledge. pp. 73–74. ISBN 978-1134727322.
- ^ Portilla, Miguel León (1963). Use of "Tlamatini" in Aztec Thought and Culture: A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind - Miguel León-Portilla. ISBN 9780806122953. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
- ^ Miguel León-Portilla (1990). Aztec Thought and Culture: A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind (pbk, illustrated, reprint, revised ed.). University of Oklahoma Press. p. 120. ISBN 0806122951.
References
- Boone, Elizabeth Hill (1998). "Pictorial Documents and Visual Thinking in Postconquest Mexico" (PDF). In Elizabeth Hill Boone; Tom Cubbins (eds.). Native Traditions in the Postconquest World, A Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks 2nd through 4th October 1992. Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. pp. 149–199. ISBN 0-88402-239-0. OCLC 34354931., Internet Archive copy.
- León-Portilla, Miguel (1963). Aztec Thought and Culture: A Study of the Ancient Náhuatl Mind. Civilization of the American Indian series, #67. Translated by Jack Emory Davis. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. OCLC 181727.