Customers
who bought this book think very highly of it. The author is
a renowned scholar of the period.
In
this updated edition of the classic THE BROKEN SPEARS, Leon-Portilla
has included accounts from native Aztec descendants across the
centuries. Those texts bear witness to the extraordinary vitality
of an oral tradition that preserves the viewpoints of the vanquished
instead of the victors.
There
are very close ties between this work and the author's life.
There was nothing else he could have written. His heart was
spilling over with it. Chroniclers would write of the Peru campaigns,
campaigns against Turkey, Flanders or Italy, of strangers fighting
strangers. Díaz del Castillo wrote about his life and about
the land where he placed it at risk countless times. That is
what makes his work unique, superior to the writings of historians
for the perfect spontaneity of his testimony. He is the unknown
soldier, the sweating troops bearing their arms and spoils,
walking alongside the chief's mount; through him, they were
given a voice, immortality.
This
book is a vivid and comprehensive account of the Aztecs, the
best-known people of pre-Columbian America. It examines their
origins, civilization, and the distinctive realms of their
religion, science and thought. It describes the conquest of
their empire by the Spanish, and their present-day survival
in Central Mexico. It makes use of the results of the latest
excavations, of all available historical documentation, and
of the author's first-hand knowledge of Aztec sites and artifacts.
A
fascinating history of food and the contribution made to world
foods by the Indians of the Americas. Tomatoes, potatoes,
corn and much more were introduced to the world from these
continents.
Michael
D. Coe's Mexico has long been recognized as the most readable
and authoritative introduction to the region's ancient civilizations.
This companion to his best-selling The Maya has now been completely
revised and expanded for the fifth edition by Professor Coe
and Rex Koontz. A new chapter covers the Classic period collapse
and its aftermath, including the exploration of newly discovered
cities. The history of the northern frontier of ancient Mexico
receives a completely new treatment, with revised accounts
of shaft tombs, the turquoise trade, and ancient Mexico's
relation with the peoples of the Southwest United States.
The artistry of the Toltec is revealed through a recently
discovered shell and turquoise warrior costume, and what we
know of the enigmatic relationship between Toltec Tula and
Chichén Itzá is brought up to date. New interpretations
of the symbolism of Teotihuacan and information on the great
Mexican capital's relationship with the Maya are included,
and there is additional material on Aztec village life on
the eve of the Conquest. A section on touring Mexico has been
added, which will make this book even more valuable as a companion
on any visit to the rich archaeological wonders of Mexico.
Based
on their enormously complex calendars that recorded cycles of
many kinds, the Aztecs and other ancient Mesoamerican civilizations
are generally believed to have had a cyclical, rather than linear,
conception of time and history. This boldly revisionist book
challenges that understanding. Ross Hassig offers convincing
evidence that for the Aztecs time was predominantly linear,
that it was manipulated by the state as a means of controlling
a dispersed tribute empire, and that the Conquest cut off state
control and severed the unity of the calendar, leaving only
the lesser cycles. From these, he asserts, we have inadequately
reconstructed the pre-Columbian calendar and so misunderstood
the Aztec conception of time and history.
Hassig first presents the traditional explanation
of the Aztec calendrical system and its ideological functions
and then marshals contrary evidence to argue that the Aztec
elite deliberately used calendars and timekeeping to achieve
practical political ends. He further traces how the Conquest
played out in the temporal realm as Spanish conceptions of
time partially displaced the Aztec ones. His findings promise
to revolutionize our understanding of how the Aztecs and other
Mesoamerican societies conceived of time and history.
The
ballgames of Mesoamerica were the world's first team sports.
Competitive games of the Old World, such as the ancient Olympic
games, stressed individual excellence rather than team participation.
The Olmec, Mesoamerica's first great civilization, began playing
rubber ballgames around 1800 BC on Mexico's Gulf Coast. While
the games varied from region to region, they became firmly established
as one of the defining features of Mesoamerican life, until
their eventual prohibition by the Spanish in the sixteenth century.
The games, which combined elements of modern basketball, football,
and soccer, were great public spectacles in which art played
a central role. They were the source of endless inspiration
for Mesoamerican artists, who created miniature ballcourts packed
with players and spectators, elaborately attired figurines of
ballplayers, and an array of athletic equipment whose beauty
and symbolic meaning provided more than physical protection
from the rigors of the sport. The Sport of Life and Death is
published on the occasion of an exhibition organized by the
Mint Museum of Art. Drawing upon collections in the United States
and Mexico, it is the most comprehensive work ever on the ancient
ballgame, with essays contributed by the world's foremost authorities
on Mesoamerican art and culture. We learn that the marvelous
qualities of rubber, extracted from native American plants,
led to the development of the games; that Olmec and Maya rulers
played the ballgame as part of their ceremonial duties; that
ballcourts were dynamic public spaces where great pageants were
enacted; and that elaborate rituals of human sacrifice often
concluded a great game.
The
myths and beliefs of the great pre-Columbian civilizations of
Mesoamerica have baffled and fascinated outsiders ever since
the Spanish Conquest. Yet, until now, no single-volume introduction
has existed to act as a guide to this labyrinthine symbolic
world. The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya is
the first-ever English-language dictionary of Mesoamerican mythology
and religion. Nearly 300 entries, from accession to yoke, describe
the main gods and symbols of the Olmecs, Zapotecs, Maya, Teotihuacanos,
Mixtecs, Toltecs, and Aztecs. Topics range from jaguar and jester
gods to reptile eye and rubber, from creation accounts and sacred
places to ritual practices such as bloodletting, confession,
dance, and pilgrimage. In addition, two introductory essays
provide succinct accounts of Mesoamerican history and religion,
while a substantial bibliographical survey directs the reader
to original sources and recent discussions
During
the 1970s the Great Temple of the Aztecs was excavated in Mexico
City. This book briefly describes the excavation. However, the
main part of the book is about the rise of the Aztecs and their
influence in Mexico with the history of their conquest by the
Spanish under Cortes.
This
fascinating, richly illustrated book explores basic Precolumbian
beliefs among ancient Mesoamerican peoples about life and death,
body and soul. Drawing on linguistic, ethnographic, and iconographic
sources, McKeever Furst argues that the Mexica turned not to
mental or linguistic constructions for verifying ideas about
the soul but to what they experienced through the senses.
Examine
the fascinating and often controversial details of the daily
lives of the ancient Aztecs through this innovative study written
from the perspective of the history of religions. The Aztec
people come to life for students, teachers, and interested readers
through the exploration of the ceremonial character of their
social and symbolic imagination. Insights into the communities
they created, the games they played, the education they received,
the foods they harvested, and the songs they sang, as well as
the sacrificial rituals they performed, enable the reader to
gain a better understanding of this complicated culture.
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2000. Revised November 2002
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