Abstract

OLKO, Justyna. The "other" and ethnic stereotypes in Nahua World. Estud. cult. náhuatl [online]. 2012, vol.44, pp.165-198. ISSN 0071-1675.

For the Nahuas the ability of communication was one of the basic criteria of barbarism and limits of "humanity" projected from an entirely ethnocentric perspective. "Barbarian" and "inhuman" traits, along witth ethnonyms, served to construct negative models of members of the society. This paper shows that ethnic stereotypes registered in the colonial period in their huge part originated in preconquest times, but were extended and subject to different modifications in response to European ideas and contemporary phenomena.

Keywords : Nahuatl terminology; ethnic stereotypes; ethnonyms; ethnocentrism; strangers; barbarians; humanity; postconquest transformations.

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