Cultural Aspects of Place Names: New Mexico

Abstract

Abstract

Place names are assigned to phenomena which may outlast the culture which named them, and in that persistence through time the names become artifact remains of social patterns not otherwise visible. In northern New Mexico where Native American. Spanish and Anglo cultures have been in contact over the past 400 years, 13,879 place names were collected and an exploratory analysis was made of their cultural origins. In one sub-region it was possible to perceive how one culture named places already named by another: Spanish tended to impose new terms, whereas Anglo tended more to alter pre-existing names. When existing place names were corrupted by another culture, Anglo tended to combine an Anglo word with one from the other culture; Spanish tended more toward transliteration. Native American practices differed from Spanish and Anglo. The findings suggest differences in cultural modes of symbolization. Insights about modes of symbolization in naming places may be transferable to other symbolizing situations, — the perceptions of social dominance, for example Further study is needed.