Observations on tseltal Maya toponyms

Abstract

The article studies a specific group of Mayan tseltal toponyms in the state of Chiapas, Mexico, based on an agrarian file from 1976. Along with their reconstruction, translation and linguistic analysis, these toponyms are also analyzed based on geographic aspects, historical and cultural content. Thanks to the wealth of information contained in the file, and based on the idea that toponyms operate as means used by communities to appropriate the spaces with which they identify, in the article is paid special attention in the concrete way in which these processes take place between the tseltales.