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 2
... human blood or wear- ing the dripping skins of their captives ran through the streets, to be ceremoniously welcomed into the dwellings; the flesh of their victims seethed in domestic cooking pots; human thighbones , scraped and dried ...
... human blood or wear- ing the dripping skins of their captives ran through the streets, to be ceremoniously welcomed into the dwellings; the flesh of their victims seethed in domestic cooking pots; human thighbones , scraped and dried ...
Page 3
An Interpretation Inga Clendinnen. human thighbones , scraped and dried , were set up in the courtyards of the ... human blood . It was that intolerable paradox which led some of the first missionaries to the view that one of ...
An Interpretation Inga Clendinnen. human thighbones , scraped and dried , were set up in the courtyards of the ... human blood . It was that intolerable paradox which led some of the first missionaries to the view that one of ...
Page 4
... human sacrifice as a device to enrich a protein - poor diet ; human sacri- fice as the invention of a sinister and cynical élite , a sort of amphetamines - for - the - people account ; human sacri- fice as technology , the Mexica ...
... human sacrifice as a device to enrich a protein - poor diet ; human sacri- fice as the invention of a sinister and cynical élite , a sort of amphetamines - for - the - people account ; human sacri- fice as technology , the Mexica ...
Page 25
... human backs , more were moved by canoe , giving Tenochtitlan a crucial advantage in supply over its neighbours . It also enjoyed the advantage of cleanliness , despite the density of settlement : small latrines built out over moored ...
... human backs , more were moved by canoe , giving Tenochtitlan a crucial advantage in supply over its neighbours . It also enjoyed the advantage of cleanliness , despite the density of settlement : small latrines built out over moored ...
Page 31
... human heart in the painted books they carried with them . Scattered around the eagle were the bones and precious feathers of many bright birds , as brilliant and various as those which had once abounded in Tollan . Seeing the tattered ...
... human heart in the painted books they carried with them . Scattered around the eagle were the bones and precious feathers of many bright birds , as brilliant and various as those which had once abounded in Tollan . Seeing the tattered ...
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