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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Review: Aztecs: An Interpretation
User Review - GoodreadsThis book should have been called "Aztecs: an invention". The author exercises anthropology on what she admits is a picture of historical people that she had to make up herself, since the sources are ... Read full review
Review: Aztecs: An Interpretation
User Review - GoodreadsOne of the most interesting examinations and reflections on aztec society. Fascinating glimpse into a society that was much more than ritual sacrifice. Read full review
Common terms and phrases
action Aztec battle Bernardino de Sahagun blood body calpulli captives ceremonial chapter Chicomecoatl Cihuacoatl Codex Borbonicus Codice complex conquest Cortes Coyolxauhqui cultural dance daysign death deity Diego Duran display eagle earth empire face feast feathers featherworkers female festival fire flayed flesh Florentine Codex flowers formal girls given goddess gods heart Historia honour household Huaxtecs Huitzilopochtli human images imperial Indian individual ixiptlas jaguar killing stone living Lopez Austin lords maguey main temple precinct maize male marked merchants Mexica Miguel Leon-Portilla Moctezoma mother Nahua Nahuatl noble Nonetheless notion Nueva Espana Ochpaniztli offered painted Panquetzaliztli particular performance perhaps priestly priests pulque pyramid quetzal Quetzalcoatl regalia relationship representations ritual ruler sacred power sexual skin slaves social society song Spaniards Spanish Templo Mayor Tenochtitlan Tezcatlipoca thou tion Tlaloc Tlatelolco tlatoani Toci Toltec transformation tribute valley victims warrior house woman women Xipe Totec young
Popular passages
Page 17 - Iztapalapa, and when we saw so many cities and villages built in the water and other great towns on dry land and that straight and level Causeway...
Page 17 - And when we saw all those cities and villages built in the water, and other great towns on dry land, and that straight and level causeway leading to Mexico, we were astounded.
Page 125 - You are brave, why don't you smoke the pipe?" He wished me to die, that is why he desired me to smoke the pipe. He said, "You are of the right age to die; you are good-looking; and if you get killed your friends will cry. All your relatives will cut their hair, they will fast and mourn ; your bravery will be recognized ; and your friends will feel gratified.
Page xvi - The Ancient Masters were subtle, mysterious, profound, responsive. The depth of their knowledge is unfathomable. Because it is unfathomable, All we can do is describe their appearance. Watchful, like men crossing a winter stream. Alert, like men aware of danger. Courteous, like visiting guests. Yielding, like ice about to melt. Simple, like uncarved blocks of wood. -Lao TZU, Tao te Ching (Chapter 15) Hsi Wang Mu is also another name for the popular Chinese Goddess, Kuan Yin, the "Merciful Guardian"...
Page 39 - Honour and shame are the constant preoccupation of individuals in small scale, exclusive societies where face to face personal, as opposed to anonymous, relations are of paramount importance and where the social personality of the actor is as significant as his office.
Page 3 - It was delivered to the warrior who had taken him in battle, and by him, after being dressed, was served up in an entertainment to his friends. This was not the coarse repast of famished cannibals, but a banquet teeming with delicious beverages and delicate viands, prepared with art, and attended by both sexes, who, as we shall see hereafter, conducted themselves with all the decorum of civilized life.
Page 1 - Burke, when at the end of a penetrating discussion of these problems (9) he says "... there is no place for purely human boasts of grandeur, or for forgetting that men build their cultures by huddling together, nervously loquacious, at the edge of an abyss.
Page 224 - It is told that when yet all was in darkness, when yet no sun had shone and no dawn had broken — it is said — the gods gathered themselves together and took counsel among themselves there at Teotihuacan. They spoke; they said among themselves: "Come hither, O gods! Who will carry the burden? Who will take it upon himself to be the sun, to bring the dawn?
Page 153 - Thou wilt be in the heart of the home, thou wilt go nowhere, thou wilt nowhere become a wanderer, thou becomest the banked fire, the hearth stones. Here our Lord planteth thee, burieth thee. And thou wilt become fatigued, thou wilt become tired, thou art to provide water, to grind maize, to drudge; thou art to sweat by the ashes, by the hearth.
Bibliographic information
| Title | Aztecs: An Interpretation Canto (Cambridge University Press) Canto Series Canto paperback Knjižnica Canto |
| Author | Inga Clendinnen |
| Edition | illustrated, reprint |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press, 1995 |
| ISBN | 0521485851, 9780521485852 |
| Length | 398 pages |
| Subjects | › › History / Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies) History / Latin America / General History / Medieval History / Reference |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |