Paper short abstract:

This paper presents the applicability of the Network Analysis (NA) to the study of pre-Hispanic Nahua gods to eliminate an artificial “Aztec pantheon,” imitating Ancient Greek and Roman models. It focuses on using GEPHI to “map” the complex webs of relationships between different gods.

Paper long abstract:

Since the sixteenth century, the polymorphous identities of the Nahua deities have puzzled, first, the friars who carried out their evangelization project and, later, researchers eager to understand the pre-Hispanic system of beliefs. Hundreds of terms designating proper and calendrical names, nicknames, or titles of gods have been identified in the sources. Some are exclusive to a single numen; others are shared within specific groups. As has recently been demonstrated, the fluid and dynamic nature of the Nahua gods precludes their forced molding into Western categories. Their identity was constantly reconfigured and coalesced at the moment of their evocation or projection onto a solid support. Consequently, any attempt to create a fixed “Aztec pantheon” has been doomed to failure. However, a complex configuration of Nahua divinae personae can be seen as network(s) of relations, and resorting to the tools of digital humanities is one possible way to better understand their dynamics. This paper will present a case study of the applicability of the Network Analysis (NA) method in Historical Sciences to the study of pre-Hispanic gods. It will allow for connecting the names and other identifying elements of the individual deities (nodes) and analyzing the network of ties to understand how a “god” was constituted and reconfigured. The results will be visualized through GEPHI to facilitate the “mapping” of the multidimensional web of relationships between the different gods.