Review (PDF) The World's Greatest Civilizations: The History And Culture Of The Aztec
*Includes over 20 pictures of Aztec art, ruins, and more. *Describes daily life for the Aztecs, including their infamous human sacrifice rituals. From the moment Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes first found and confronted them, the Aztecs have fascinated the world, and they continue to hold a unique place both culturally and in pop culture. Nearly 500 years after the Spanish conquered their mighty empire, the Aztecs are often remembered today for their major capital, Tenochtitlan, as well as being fierce conquerors of the Valley of Mexico who often engaged in human sacrifice rituals. Ironically, and unlike the Mayans, the Aztecs are not widely viewed or remembered with nuance, in part because their own leader burned extant Aztec writings and rewrote a mythologized history explaining his empire’s dominance less than a century before the Spanish arrived. Naturally, Cortes and other Spaniards depicted the Aztecs as savages greatly in need of conversion to Catholicism. While the Mayans are remembered for their astronomy, numeral system, and calendar, the Aztecs have primarily been remembered in a far narrower way, despite continuing to be a source of pride to Mexicans through the centuries. As a result, even though the Aztecs continue to interest people across the world centuries after their demise, it has fallen on archaeologists and historians to try to determine the actual history, culture, and lives of the Aztecs from the beginning to the end, relying on excavations, primary accounts, and more. The World’s Greatest Civilizations: The History and Culture of the Aztecs looks at this whole story, in an attempt to portray the Aztecs as they actually were. Along with pictures of Aztec art and ruins, this book describes the Aztecs’ lives, religion, art, cities, and empire, in an attempt to better understand the once dominant
Paperback: 30 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (October 4, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1492892556
ISBN-13: 978-1492892557
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.1 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 3.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #752,870 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #85 in Books > History > Ancient Civilizations > Aztec #1524 in Books > History > World > Civilization & Culture
This book focuses on a lot of the sensational aspects of Mexica culture. It is a good introduction and does list a lot of the standardly known facts--indications of cannibalism, the scope of the empire, the complexity of the architecture and agricultural practices. Still it lingers of the human sacrifice a bit much and repeats things that recent scholarship has made controversial. For example the claim that Aztecs claimed the king Montezuma II thought that Cortes was the plumed serpent God. Recent scholarship indicates that could have been a creole legend and not of native Mexica origin. Still it is a decent introduction.
I like that the author pointed out not only the most popular Aztec beliefs but also other accounts that were not as well know.
received in timely manner. Very narrow in scope, not very helpful. More like a cheat sheet than a text.
It had very few pages... But great content and photos...
A lot smaller than expected.
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