The Oxford Handbook of the Aztecs

Description

The Oxford Handbook of the Aztecs, the first of its kind, provides a current overview of recent research on the Aztec empire, the best documented prehispanic society in the Americas. Chapters span from the establishment of Aztec city-states to the encounter with the Spanish empire and the Colonial period that shaped the modern world. Articles in the Handbook take up new research trends and methodologies and current debates. The Handbook articles are divided into seven parts. Part I, Archaeology of the Aztecs, introduces the Aztecs, as well as Aztec studies today, including the recent practice of archaeology, ethnohistory, museum studies, and conservation. The articles in Part II, Historical Change, provide a long-term view of the Aztecs starting with important predecessors, the development of Aztec city-states and imperialism, and ending with a discussion of the encounter of the Aztec and Spanish empires. Articles also discuss Aztec notions of history, writing, and time. Part III, Landscapes and Places, describes the Aztec world in terms of its geography, ecology, and demography at varying scales from households to cities. Part IV, Economic and Social Relations in the Aztec Empire, discusses the ethnic complexity of the Aztec world and social and economic relations that have been a major focus of archaeology. Articles in Part V, Aztec Provinces, Friends, and Foes, focuses on the Aztec's dynamic relations with distant provinces, and empires and groups that resisted conquest, and even allied with the Spanish to overthrow the Aztec king. This is followed by Part VI, Ritual, Belief, and Religion, which examines the different beliefs and rituals that formed Aztec religion and their worldview, as well as the material culture of religious practice. The final section of the volume, Aztecs after the Conquest, carries the Aztecs through the post-conquest period, an increasingly important area of archaeological work, and considers the place of the Aztecs in the modern world. Cover The Oxford Handbook of the Aztecs Copyright Contents List of Figures List of Tables List of Contributors Introduction—​Aztec Studies: Trends and Themes Part I Archaeology of the Aztecs 1. Ancient Stone Sculptures: In Search of the Mexica Past 2. The Historical Sources: Codices and Chronicles 3. Museums and the Conservation of Mexica Cultural Heritage Part II Historical Change 4. Comments on Cultural Continuities Between Tula and the Mexica 5. Aztec Settlement History 6. The Creation, Rise, and Decline of Mexica Power 7. The Measure, Meaning, and Transformation of Aztec Time and Calendars 8. Aztec Pictography and Painted Histories 9. The Languages of the Aztec Empire 10. Aztec State-​Making, Politics, and Empires: The Triple Alliance 11. Nahua Thought and the Conquest Part III Landscapes and Places 12. Aztec Agricultural Production in a Historical Ecological Perspective 13. Population History in Precolumbian and Colonial Times 14. Aztec Urbanism: Cities and Towns 15. Tenochtitlan 16. Aztec Palaces and Gardens, Intertwined Evolution 17. Households in the Aztec Empire Part IV Economic and Social Relations in the Aztec Empire 18. Aztec Agricultural Strategies: Intensification, Landesque Capital, and the Sociopolitics of Production 19. The Structure of Aztec Commerce: Markets and Merchants Part IV-​A Aztec Manufacturing 20. Aztec Use of Lake Resources in the Basin of Mexico 21. Aztec Metallurgy 22. Aztec Obsidian Industries 23. Aztec Lapidaries 24. Pottery and the Potter’s Craft in the Aztec Heartland 25. Pregnant in the Dancing Place: Myths and Methods of Textile Production and Use Part IV-​B Social Relations 26. Gender and Aztec Life Cycles 27. The Human Body in the Mexica Worldview 28. Nahua Ethnicity 29. Inequality and Social Class in Aztec Society Part V Aztec Provinces, Friends, and Foes 30. Structure of the Triple Alliance Empire 31. Mexica War: New Research Perspectives 32. Aztec Provinces of the Central Highlands 33. Aztec Provinces of the Southern Highlands 34. Aztec Provinces of the Gulf Lowlands 35. Tututepec: A Mixtec Imperial Capital in Southern Oaxaca 36. Cholula in Aztec Times 37. The Independent Republic of Tlaxcallan 38. The Tarascan (Purépecha) Empire 39. Aztec Empire in Comparative Perspective Part VI Ritual, Belief, and Religion 40. Humans and Gods in the Mexica Universe 41. Aztec Art, Time, and Cosmovisión 42. The Aztec Ritual Landscape 43. State Ritual and Religion in the Sacred Precinct of Tenochtitlan 44. Aztec Domestic Ritual Part VII Aztecs after the Conquest 45. Post-​Conquest Rural Aztec Archaeology 46. A City Transformed: From Tenochtitlan to Mexico City in the Sixteenth Century 47. The Aztecs and the Catholic Church 48. Aztec Art after the Conquest and in Museums Abroad 49. The Aztecs and Their Descendants in the Contemporary World Index