Aztecs: An InterpretationIn 1521, the city of Tenochtitlan, magnificent centre 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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Page 1
... empire ' which sprawled across much of mod- ern Mexico , to the people of the magnificent lake city who were its masters . It is the people of the city in their last unthreatened years who are the subjects of this study . While the ...
... empire ' which sprawled across much of mod- ern Mexico , to the people of the magnificent lake city who were its masters . It is the people of the city in their last unthreatened years who are the subjects of this study . While the ...
Page 15
... empire . – The chapters which follow will of necessity be essays tentative , discursive explorations - in the strict sense of the word . Questing for a past and unfamiliar sensibility opens the immediate temptation to tame shadowy and ...
... empire . – The chapters which follow will of necessity be essays tentative , discursive explorations - in the strict sense of the word . Questing for a past and unfamiliar sensibility opens the immediate temptation to tame shadowy and ...
Page 27
... empire the calpullis remained the crucial administrative units for the organization for war, internal tribute, and labour obligations to temple and city, and for the redistribution of some fraction of externally derived wealth. They ...
... empire the calpullis remained the crucial administrative units for the organization for war, internal tribute, and labour obligations to temple and city, and for the redistribution of some fraction of externally derived wealth. They ...
Page 28
... empire of the Toltecs at Tula, or 'Tollan', as the old stor- ies named it, which had guarded the northern marches against the tough nomads of the steppes. There are intim- ations of frosts and famines presaging that fall, and the Mexica ...
... empire of the Toltecs at Tula, or 'Tollan', as the old stor- ies named it, which had guarded the northern marches against the tough nomads of the steppes. There are intim- ations of frosts and famines presaging that fall, and the Mexica ...
Page 32
... empire which controlled the tropical riches of the Gulf Coast and stretched to the Pacific. To the northwest the Tarascan Indians of present-day Michoacan defied all attacks, but to the south Tehuantepec was theirs, and Mexica merchants ...
... empire which controlled the tropical riches of the Gulf Coast and stretched to the Pacific. To the northwest the Tarascan Indians of present-day Michoacan defied all attacks, but to the south Tehuantepec was theirs, and Mexica merchants ...
Contents
| 19 | |
Local Perspectives | 63 |
Victims | 121 |
Warriors Priests and Merchants | 156 |
The Masculine Self Discovered | 200 |
Wives | 216 |
Mothers | 246 |
The Female Being Revealed | 292 |
Aesthetics | 301 |
The World Transformed the World | 333 |
Defeat | 375 |
Select Bibliography | 511 |
Index | 545 |
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Common terms and phrases
action Aztec battle Bernardino de Sahagún blood body Borbonicus calpulli Cantares Mexicanos captives ceremonial chapter conquest Cortés cultural dance death deity Diego Durán display eagle earth edited empire feast feathers female festival fire flayed flesh Florentine Codex flowers formal girls goddess gods heart Historia honour household Huitzilopochtli human Ibid images imperial Indian ixiptlas jaguar Johanna Broda León-Portilla living López Austin lords maguey maize male merchants Mesoamerican metaphor Mexica Mexico City Miguel León-Portilla Moctezoma mother Nahua Nahuatl noble Nonetheless notion Nueva España Ochpaniztli offered one’s painted Panquetzaliztli performance perhaps Press priestly priests pulque pyramid quetzal Quetzalcoatl Quiñones Keber regalia representations rior ritual ruler sacred power Sahag´un’s sexual skin slaves social society song Spaniards Spanish Templo Mayor Tenochtitlan Texcoco Tezcatlipoca thou tion Tlaloc Tlatelolco tlatoani Toci Toltec translation tribute valley victims warrior house woman women Xipe Totec young