Aztecs: An InterpretationIn 1521, the city of Tenochtitlan, magnificent center of the Aztec empire, fell to the Spaniards and their Indian allies. Inga Clendinnen's account of the Aztecs recreates the culture of that city in its last unthreatened years. It provides a vividly dramatic analysis of Aztec ceremony as performance art, binding the key experiences and concerns of social existence in the late imperial city to the mannered violence of their ritual killings. |
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Aztecs: an interpretation
User Review - Not Available - Book VerdictBreakthroughs in historical topics most often come from discoveries of new texts or archaeological finds. Not so in this case. Here, rereading existing indigenous and Spanish documents (particularly ... Read full review
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action appears Aztec battle blood body called calpulli captives carried ceremonial chapter claim close commoners cultural dance death deity dependence display distinctive Durán early earth example experience face feast feathers female festival figure fire flesh Florentine Codex flowers force formal four girls given giving gods hands head heart Historia honour Huitzilopochtli human images Indian indicated individual killing least living lords maize male marked matter meaning merchants Mexica Moctezoma mother Nahuatl nature notion offered once painted particular performance perhaps physical play possible presented priests relationship remained representations represented ritual ruler sacred Sahagún seen sexual skin slaves social society song Spanish stone taken temple Tenochtitlan Tezcatlipoca things tion tribute understanding usually victims warrior woman women young