La enseñanza del sistema numeral totonaco en el siglo XVIII: "El Arte de lengua totonaca" de Joseph de Zambrano
The Teaching of the Totonac Numeral System in the Eighteenth-Century: Joseph de Zambrano’s Arte de lengua totonaca

Summary/Abstract: This article presents new contributions to the study of the Mesoamerican numeral and account systems in the missionary linguistics of New Spain. We analyze the fi rst description of the Totonac numeral system, found in Joseph de Zambrano’s grammatical treatise Arte de lengua totonaca (1752). Th is shows a diff erent and complex base-20 numeral system compared to the languages known and studied by Europeans at the time. Zambrano’s didactic work explains the expression of number and the commonalities and specifi cities of the use of several numeral classifi ers. In this respect, the decacentrism and Latincentrism that still guide this type of grammatical study in the eighteenth century is justifi ed as part of a linguistic tradition that considers the Graeco-Latin number as a model of arithmetic formulation. Taking this as a starting point, this work identifi es the bias consisting of explaining base-20 from a base-10 numerical system. Th is bias was justifi ed as an analogical resource that facilitated the learner’s understanding using familiar structures. Moreover, confronting the anomaly of the peculiar system – as seen from the European perspective –, the scholars of the time gave a new signifi cance to the existing descriptive language that eventually would allow them to understand and explain alternative forms of arithmetic expression.

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