Bernardino de Sahagún

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Bernardino de Sahagún (1499-1590) was a Franciscan missionary to the Aztec (Nahua) people of Mexico, best known as the author of the Florentine Codex, also known as Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España (General History of the Things of New Spain).

Unlike most missionaries of the period, he researched Náhua culture and Náhuatl linguistics and compiled Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España, an unparallelled work in Spanish and Náhuatl. Miguel León-Portilla has called Sahagún "the first anthropologist", because his methods included using native informants to elicit information on Aztec culture from the Aztecs' point of view.

He assembled three groups of Náhuatl tlatimines, or wise men, from different cities. He would ask questions, compare the answers of the three independent groups, and ask more questions to clarify the differences. All this was done in Náhuatl.

 

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