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'Inga Clendinnen's vivid study Aztecs begins and ends with the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, the glistening lake city which rose like a dream to the Spaniards who first saw it … It takes us deep into the heart of Mexican or Aztec society.' The Times Literary Supplement
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In 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 mannnered violence of their ritual killings. 'Inga Clendinnen's vivid study Aztecs begins and ends with the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, the glistening lake city which rose like a dream to the Spaniards who first saw it … It takes us deep into the heart of Mexican or Aztec society.' The Times Literary Supplement '… a fascinating, thought-provoking book.Aztecs offers a gripping account of an alien society and thus enlarges our apprehension of the sheer diversity of human culture.' London Review of Books 'This is an outstanding book, as rich in its reconstruction of social details as in its lucid analyses of the 'interior architecture' of the Aztec world.' The Times Higher Education Supplement
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When early in November of 1519 Cortes and his Spaniards struggled through a snowy pass in the pineclad mountains, past the elegant cones of the twin volcanoes Popocatepetl, 'Smoking Mountain', and Iztaccihuatl, 'White Woman', and made their descent into the wide shallow bowl of the Valley of Mexico, they entered a landscape unlike any they had encountered in the New World. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
When early in November of 1519 Cortes and his Spaniards struggled through a snowy pass in the pineclad mountains, past the elegant cones of the twin volcanoes Popocatepetl, 'Smoking Mountain', and Iztaccihuatl, 'White Woman', and made their descent into the wide shallow bowl of the Valley of Mexico, they entered a landscape unlike any they had encountered in the New World. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
One of the best qualities of this book is a universal appeal. I read it for the first time before I had really begun to take an interest in the Mexica civilisation, and then for a second time perhaps a year after that, and I found it an interesting and invaluable source of information on both occasions.
The structure of the book into chapters that deal with a particular occupation (providing that you would consider 'victim' an occupation) allows for the reader to examine each role that the book deals with in context, although as a separate subject. The actual content of each chapter is not broken up with illustrations - although sprinkled rather liberally with footnotes - but the work is extremely readable and has a fluent and coherent style.
The rituals are described with both a statistical, scientific method and a more creative style that attempts to reconstruct the scene by empathising with the participants.
This book is one of the best collected sources of information on the subject, and despite the wide variety of topics, one of the most detailed. It is a worthwhile purchase for anyone with curiosity in the subject.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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8 reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
A definitive study
26 July 2002
Format:Paperback
Inga Clendinnen has written a definitive guide to the Aztecs that attempts to view this somewhat enigmatic peoples in a manner that doesn't attempt to classify the ritualistic society that emerged from the Mexica Empire, but rather understand the roles of each social strata within the microcosm. There is an inevitable tendency to look at the religious perspective, focusing acutely on the human sacrifice and also on the Spanish conquest but the author shifts away (whilst having an opinion on the role of the victim) from these well-trodden paths to discussing the greater mores and individual experiences of the society.
There is an extremely interesting chapter discussing the roles of wives, in particular the ascribing of fertility and maternal aspects and the circumscribing of any 'political' role. This, in turn, leads to a further discussion on the role of the mother and the 'growing' eidetism that permeates cultural perception.
The text concludes with a brief chapter on the final destruction of Tenochitlan rounding off a work that brilliantly analyses Aztec ceremony and the individual's place within this society at the end of an Empire.
There is an extremely interesting chapter discussing the roles of wives, in particular the ascribing of fertility and maternal aspects and the circumscribing of any 'political' role. This, in turn, leads to a further discussion on the role of the mother and the 'growing' eidetism that permeates cultural perception.
The text concludes with a brief chapter on the final destruction of Tenochitlan rounding off a work that brilliantly analyses Aztec ceremony and the individual's place within this society at the end of an Empire.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
To understand the Aztec Civilization
1 Jun 2000
Format:Hardcover
A lot of books are available about Precolumbian civilizations, especially mesoamerican; Aztecs and Mayas are the most learned of all. BUT, we read always the same informations for a long time. Inga CLENDINNEN gives us "An Interpretation" : what kind of civilization has rizen on the plateau of Mexico-Tenochtitlan ? How to explain Aztecs's power in a region where so many people had developped cities and values such as Olmecs (in TEOTIHUACAN) or Toltecs (in TULA) ? We discover first the City and its meaning. Then, we enter the mentality of the peoples who entertain LIFE by their Death (the Victims), their Work (Warriors, Priests, Merchant) or their personal place in the society (Males, Wives, Mothers). Third, we enter the Sacred and we begin to understand how the Rituals may consolidate the society with the Fear of others... before being the plea of a revolt of vassal populations. AZTECS were strong by their military organization but weak by their believes : an entire world fearing the sun could not been able to born another day, organizing war to provide their temples with victims to their Gods, such a world had to find its limits. When the Spaniards came with their "magic"... Aztecs resist, but only two years. The Death of the Empire is to find in its structures self. The same, with other contexts, explains the fall of the Ancient Indian Worlds, facing the Spaniards, the French or the Englishmen. Understanding how to be strong meant to become weak, for Native Americans old civilizations, may permit the Renaissance of New Indian worlds; but here, I go beyond the Interpretation of the Author. The Book tells us how to enter in Aztecs Civilization Construction, as we visit an Architecture, a Mecanism... Thanks to Inga CLENDINNEN for this initiation (please, excuse the bad english of a natural french writer).
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Simple title, complex insights.
29 Jun 2008
Format:Paperback
There is really no other book quite like this on the subject. To get into it, you should have already read a book about everyday Aztec life (Soustelle or Bray for example), and have a basic knowledge of the Aztec gods, who Montezuma II was, and about the Spanish conquest. If you now know the basic facts, Clendinnen's book will make the ancient city of Mexico come to life. She doesn't explain so much what the Aztecs did and said, but why. Human sacrifice, ceremonial cannibalism, a macabre pantheon- these alien aesthetics are given a human face. We begin to see the local young warrior carrying the same small-time glamor around his neighborhood as a high school quarterback. Refreshingly, as much ink is spilled over women and children as men. Certain insights of hers are unforgettable (e.g., unlike British boarding schools, Aztecs had no use for the gentlemanly loser, winning was all.) Her writing is above a high school level, but is generally clear and direct. If you know who Tezcatlipoca and Malinche are, you will love this book. If not, come back to it when you do, to take it to the next level.
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