The Aztecs

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About the Aztecs | Aztec religion | Bibliographies | Other

About the Aztecs

"Aztecs: a new perspective." Lengthy History Today cover story by John M. D. Pohl (Dec. 2002), reviewing recent scholarship, on the conquest and the archaeology of Mexico City.

1911 Catholic Encyclopedia: Mexico entry by Camillus Crivelli. Huge swaths of this are completely outdated and outmoded—the attempt to find "biblical" beliefs among the inhabitants is even dismissed by the author of the entry on Aztecs (Ad. F. Bandelier). There's a good deal of solid history later in the article.

1911 Catholic Encyclopedia: Aztecs. Some useful data, but dated and highly unsympathetic—note the concluding reference to "so-called Indian civilization."

Amazon. Moctezuma's Mexico: Visions of the Aztec World with essays by David Carrasco, Eduardo Matos Moctezuma and Scott Sessions, presents "a nonacademic exploration of Mexico's final pre-Columbian empire."

Amazon. Aztec Thought and Culture: A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind by Miguel Leon-Portilla.

The Net's Educational Resource Center. A good set of K-12 links on the Aztecs, broken down into subtopics like "Empire," "Gods and Religion," "Language," etc.

Aztec religion

Review of the Quetzalcoatl myth by Shep Lenchek, branching off his lengthy, good The Aztecs Speak: An Aztec account of the Conquest of Mexico .

Amazon. City of Sacrifice: The Aztec Empire and the Role of Violence in Civilization by David Carrasco.

Aztec Sacrifice. Image from the Duran Codex (c. 1500)

Bibliographies

Smith's Aztec Bibliography for Students. Lengthy bibliography by University at Albany anthropologist Michael E. Smith.

Short Aztec bibiliography from David Heading's Renaissance Wargames Home Page.

Bibliography on Aztec History by Ricardo J. Salvador. Short but well annotated bibliography.

Other

"Roman/Spanish/Aztec imperialism," Classics group email by David Lupher, discussing the causes of the Aztec collapse and some classical arguments made in support of the conquest.

"How can I learn Nahuatl?" The scoop by Ricardo J. Salvador.