Aztecs / R. H. Barlow [and fifteen others].

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Barlow, R. H., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Aztecs--Social life and customs.

Aztecs.

Antiquities.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

New Haven, Conn. : Human Relations Area Files, 2017.

Summary:

The principal focus of this collection of 28 documents is on the Mexica of the Valley of Mexico (the Tenochca, or inhabitants of Tenochtitlan in in particular) during the early sixteenth century, up to and including the Spanish Conquest of the Aztec empire, 1519-1521. However, most primary sources pertain to the middle-to-late sixteenth century, and are informant recollections and reconstructions of the pre-Conquest Aztec and associated Nahua-speaking peoples throughout central highland Mexico (especially the rival Tlaxcalans), and many sources cover historical events from the arrival of the Aztecs in the valley in the thirteenth century, the founding of Tenochtitlan in 1325, and/or the rapid expansion of the empire starting in the mid-fifteenth century. Principal among the primary sources is Fray Bernadino de Sahagún's General history of the things of New Spain or Florentine Codex (1950-1969), eleven volumes ([two of twelve original "books" combined]), considered by many to be the first ethnography, researched, written and illustrated from the mid-1540s to 1576 and therefore incorporating some Europeanized aspects. Its observations are frequently repeated in the remainder of the collection. Soustelle (1961) distills Sahagún and other historical sources into a single-volume reconstruction of pre-Hispanic Aztec culture in general. For more detailed information on the content of the individual works in this collection, see the abstracts in the citations preceding each document. For additional information on related cultures, see the Nahua Collection (NU46) and Central Mexico Postclassic Collection (NU93) in eHRAF Archaeology.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.