Time, history, and belief in Aztec and Colonial Mexico / Ross Hassig.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hassig, Ross, 1945-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Aztec calendar.

Aztecs--History.

Aztecs.

Aztec cosmology.

Manuscripts, Nahuatl.

Time--Social aspects--Mexico.

Time.

Mexico--History--Spanish colony, 1540-1810.

Mexico.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (239 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Austin, TX : University of Texas Press, 2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

Preface

Acknowledgments

1 Time and the Interpretation of Other Cultures

2 Outside the Focus

3 Reinterpreting Aztec Perspectives

4 Why the Aztecs Manipulated Time

5 The Ripples of Time

6 The Colonial Transition

7 Time and Analysis

Appendix: Pronunciation Guide

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 193-209) and index.

ISBN:

9780292797956

0292797958

OCLC:

191936559

Publisher Number:

2027/heb03523 hdl