Florentine Codex - Ethnographic Methodologies

Ethnographic Methodologies

Bernardino was among the first to develop a bundle of strategies for gathering and validating knowledge of indigenous New World cultures. Much later, the scientific discipline of anthropology would later formalize these as ethnography (the scientific research strategy to document the beliefs, behavior, social roles and relationships, and worldview of another culture, but to explain these within the logic of that culture). Ethnography requires the practice of empathy with those very different from oneself, and the suspension of one’s own cultural beliefs in order to understand and explain the worldview of those living in another culture. Bernardino systematically gathered knowledge from a range of diverse informants who were recognized as having expert knowledge of Aztec culture. He gathered knowledge from a range of diverse informants who were recognized as having knowledge of cultural tradition. He did so in the native language of Nahuatl, but then compared the answers from different sources of information. He sought out different kinds of informants, including women (which was unusual). Some passages appear to be the transcription of spontaneous narration of religious beliefs, society or nature. Other parts clearly reflect a consistent set of questions presented to different people designed to elicit specific information. Some sections of text report Bernardino’s own narration of events or commentary. He developed a methodology with the following elements:

1. He used the native language of Nahuatl.
2. He dialogued with elders, cultural authorities publicly recognized as most knowledgeable.
3. He adapted himself to the ways in which Aztec culture recorded and transmitted knowledge.
4. He used the expertise of his former students.
5. He attempted to capture the totality or complete reality of Aztec culture on its own terms.
6. He structured his inquiry, using questionnaires, but was prepared to set this aside when more valuable information was shared through other means.
7. He attended to the diverse ways in which diverse meanings are transmitted through Nahuatl.
8. He undertook a comparative evaluation of information, drawing from multiple sources, in order to determine the degree of confidence with which he could hold that information.

These methodological innovations substantiate the claim Bernardino was the first anthropologist.

Most of the Florentine Codex is text, but its 2,000 pictures provide vivid images of 16th century New Spain. Some of these pictures directly support the text; others are thematically related; others are for decorative purposes. Some are colorful large, and consume most of a page; others are black and white sketches. The illustrations offer remarkable detail about life in New Spain, but they do not bear titles, and the relationship of some to the adjoining text is not always self-evident. They can be considered a “third column of language” in the manuscript. Several different artists’ hands have been identified, and many questions about their accuracy have been raised. The drawings convey a blend of Indigenous and European artistic elements and cultural influences.

Many passages of the texts in the Florentine Codex present descriptions of like items (e.g., gods, classes of people, animals) according to consistent patterns, and it appears that Bernardino deployed a series of questionnaires to structure his interviews. The following questions appear to have been used to gather information about the gods for book one:

1. What are the titles, the attributes, or the characteristics of the god?
2. What were his powers?
3. What ceremonies were performed in his honor?
4. What was his attire?

For book ten, a questionnaire may have been used gather information about the social organization of labor and workers, with questions such as:

1. What is the (merchant, artisan) called and why?
2. What particular gods did they venerate?
3. How were their gods attired?
4. How were they worshiped?
5. What do they produce?
6. How did each occupation work?

This book also described the other cultural groups in Mesoamerica.

Bernardino was particularly interested in Aztec medicine. This was not trivial, since many thousands of people died from plagues and diseases, including friars and students at the school. Sections of books ten and eleven describe human anatomy, disease, and medicinal plant remedies. Bernardino named more than a dozen Aztec “doctors” who dictated and edited these sections. The passage on human anatomy appears primarily intended to record vocabulary. A questionnaire such as the following may have been used:

1. What is the name of the plant (plant part)?
2. What does it look like?
3. What does it cure?
4. How is the medicine prepared?
5. How is it administered?
6. Where is it found?

The text in this section provides very detailed information about location, cultivation, and medical uses of plants and plant parts. The drawings in this section provide important visual information to supplement the text.

The eleventh book, “Earthly Things,” has the most text and approximately half of the drawings in the codex. Bernardino describes it as a “forest, garden, orchard of the Mexican language.” It describes the Aztec cultural understanding of the animals, birds, insects, fish and trees in Mesoamerica. Apparently Bernardino designed a questionnaire about animals such as the following:

1. What is the name of the animal?
2. What animals does it resemble?
3. Where does it live?
4. Why does it receive this name?
5. What does it look like?
6. What habits does it have?
7. What does it feed on?
8. How does it hunt?
9. What sounds does it make?

Plants and animals are described in association with their behavior and natural conditions or habitat. But then the responses of the Aztecs presented their information in a fashion that was consistent with their worldview. This led in some cases to contradictory and somewhat confusing presentations of information. There are also sections on minerals, mining, bridges, roads and food crops.

The Florentine Codex is one of the most remarkable social science research projects ever conducted. It is not unique as a chronicle of encountering the new world and its people, for there were others in this era. Bernardino's methods for gathering information from the perspective from within a foreign culture were highly unusual for this time. He reported the worldview of people of Mesoamerica as they understood it, and not exclusively from the European perspective. “The scope of the Historia's coverage of contact-period Central Mexico indigenous culture is remarkable, unmatched by any other sixteenth-century works that attempted to describe the native way of life.” Foremost in his own mind, Bernardino was a Franciscan missionary, but he may also rightfully claim the title as Father of American Ethnography.