Product Description
Examines the Aztec civilization and includes instructions for related craft projects. ... Read more

Product Description
Describes the history and customs of the Aztec civilization from its beginnings to its conquest by Spanish explorers. ... Read more

Product Description

Contents include: Rediscovering the Aztecs; Growing up Aztec (The Stone of the Sun, Childhood and school days, Reaching adulthood); How the Aztecs Rose to Power (Tollan and Teotihuacan—pre-Aztec cities, 'Dog people,' Masters of the valley); Life in the Azt

... Read more

Product Description
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. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Scholarship
Hassig, in my opinion, is a meticulous and detailed scholar who studies his subjects from source documents and is very careful about what they actually say... and what they don't.Refusing to draw facile conclusions, and pointing out the fallacies of too broad an application of the universal theory he does rather a lot to enlighten one on the multitude of calendars of the mesoamerican world without trying to make them all the same. His balanced and thoughtful view make for a much better understanding of the subject. ... Read more

Product Description

This book teaches readers what the Aztecs gave us: chocolate, Day of the Dead, and more.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Judging by the cover...
I have not yet read this book, but judging only by the cover I am a bit leery of the author's credentials.(Or perhaps we should blame the publisher.)In any case, the building shown on the cover was not built by the Aztecs.It is the Pyramid of the Niches, erected several hundred years before the Aztecs came along, in an area outsie the central Aztec empire, by a people from a different cultural background.So what other mistakes will this book make?

... Read more

Product Description
A magnificently illustrated guide to the world of the Aztec people illuminates in colorful photographs and writing Aztec culture, religion, art, and activities of everyday life just prior to the Spanish invasion of 1519. Published in cooperation with the Denver Museum of Natural History which is showing an Aztec exhibit from September 1992 through April 1993. ... Read more

Product Description
For more than a millennium the great Mesoamerican city of Teotihuacn (c. 150 b.c.a.d. 750) has been imagined and reimagined by a host of subsequent cultures including our own. Mesoamerica's Classic Heritage engages the subject of the unity and diversity of pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica by focusing on the classic heritage of this ancient city.This new volume is the product of several years of research by members of Princeton University's Moses Mesoamerican Archive and Research Project and Mexico's Proyecto Teotihuacn.Offering a variety of disciplinary perspectives--including the history of religions, anthropology, archaeology, and art history--and a wealth of new data, Mesoamerica's Classic Heritage examines Teotihuacn's rippling influence across Mesoamerican time and space, including important patterns of continuity and change, and its relationships, both historical and symbolic, with Tenochtitlan, Cholula, and various Mayan communities.

The contributors to Mesoamerica's Classic Heritage offer a wide range of individual interpretations, but they agree that Teotihuacn, more than any other pre-Hispanic center, was a paradigmatic source that informed the art and architecture, cosmology and ritual life, and conceptions of urbanism and political authority for significant parts of the Mesoamerican world.This great city achieved the prestige of being the site of the creation of the cosmos and of effective social and political space in Mesoamerica through its capacity to symbolize, perform, and export its imperial authority.These essays reveal the different ways in which Teotihuacn's classic heritage both fed and fed on the dynamic interactivity of the entire area. Whether a paradigm shift in Mesoamerican studies is taking place, certainly a new contextual understanding of Teotihuacn and the diversities and unities of Mesoamerica is emerging in these pages. ... Read more

Product Description
A magnificent overview of the art and culture of the Aztecs.Examines their sculpture, jewelry, pottery, and more.Exquisitely executed with over 70 color photographs and illustrations and metallic inks and printed trace-paper inserts.Also in The Art Of series: India, Medieval Manuscripts, Ancient Egypt, Celts, Japanese Prints, and Native North America. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

That rate is only for this photos and paper
Photos and paper are excellent but literature is terrible, because looks like only Cawthorne's apreciation. I will sugest than he has been looking more carrefully the real history and the real persons' names. P.e. It's not"Montezuma", is MOCTEZUMA.

I am reviewing this book for school project.
This book is highly reconmended.When i saw the review i was amazed on the specfic facts about the Aztec civilization.

I am reviewing this book for school project.
This book is highly reconmended.When i saw the review i was amazed on the specfic facts about the Aztec civilization. ... Read more

Product Description
The fall of this Aztec civilization before the Spanish Conquistadors resulted in the loss of its art, its religion, its social structure, and its language-all that a people must maintain if they are to attain their destiny.The development of the arts and sciences, and the growth of the communities of the ancient Mexican empire came to an abrupt halt; and then began the gradual sinking and disintegration of a great people which lasted four centuries.It would be difficult indeed to find in history a more convincing example of the complete disaster that might befall a people when stripped of its native culture. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A wide-ranging overview - very readable!
I have had a long-time interest in the Aztecs but had not yet had the chance to read extensively on their culture.I was looking for an overview, and this book was excellent in its sensible organization, which was easy to grasp for someone unfamiliar with social science research and writing in general.

The book title reflects the contents perfectly.Professor Dossick covers rituals and history associated with birth, early life, social and moral education, religion, the military, arts and sciences, and agricultural and vocational pursuits - and he ends with death rituals.The book was both readable and informative. I feel that it gave me a good start in understanding this fascinating culture.

A Brilliant Portrait of Male and Female Roles in an Ancient Patriarchal society...
Historically, women have had to find a way to live in the patriarchal societies throughout the world, as their destinies most often involved marriage. Marriage offered safety and social acceptance; the man was the unquestioned breadwinner.

The world of the ancient Aztecs was governed by men.

The story of the Aztec men and women can be seen as an object lesson in stoicism and strength, religious devotion, and attendance to duty.

As the officers, politicians and church leaders commanded the soldiers and farmers, so the men tended to command the women.The oppression becomes very real, as the rules of the state and the church break whatever resistance they might encounter with the application of utter control and overwhelming brutality. The women spend their time cooking, cleaning, spinning cloth, and tending to the children.

The tales of sacrifice, and their methods, are ever-present.

Professor Dossick intelligently weaves the social issues together into a communal narrative that slowly generates a life of its own.

What emerges is a portrait of a brilliant and creative people that nourishes introspective contemplation and a profound examination of the patriarchal society.

The socioeconomic, political, and emotional complexity within The Ancient Aztecs, always understated, delivers a harrowing tale of a people's struggle to survive in a hostile environment.

The intricacies of the roles of men and women emerge, as the state forcefully oppresses all those who resist.

The Ancient Aztecs by Dossick leaves the reader with an unforgettable experience from an economical, political, historical, social, and psychological perspective.

Very readable
My younger brother is planning a long trip through Mexico, and has become interested in all things related to Mexican history.I bought several books for him and his wife, and this one quickly became their favorite.

It's eminently readable and authoritative.After reading it you'll be able to visualize what life was like for the Aztecs as you roam their ruins in Mexico.

Perhaps Dossick's best...
Perhaps Dossick's best

The Ancient Aztecs - A complete account of the life of the ancient Aztecs from birth to death - is painstakingly detailed,
referenced, and scholarly.

Well thought out, well reasoned, and well written, Professor Dossick ties together events and history masterfully.

The book has a discernable thesis: that the fall of the Aztec nation before the Conquistadores, which resulted in the
loss of its religion, its art, its social structure, and its language, was a complete disaster for these singularly remarkable
people.

The Ancient Aztecs progresses by argument and example, and does not suffer from some of the assumptions of prior knowledge
that many other books on the subject do.

Overall a top choice for anyone interested in this eternally fascinating subject.

An authoritative account!
This book goes into wonderful detail on the daily lives of the Aztecs, one of the most formidable empires the world has seen.The rich imagery provided by the author touches on all aspects of the culture and society.The author also goes into great depth on the educational system of the Aztecs, which I found particularly interesting in comparison to our own modern educational practices. ... Read more

Product Description
This relatively short document is one of the few public domain translations of an Aztec religous manuscript. (Quote from sacred-texts.com)

About the Author

Daniel Garrison Brinton (1837 - 1899)
Daniel Garrison Brinton (May 13, 1837-July 31, 1899), was an American archaeologist and ethnologist.

He was born in Thornbury, Pennsylvania. After graduating from Yale University in 1858, Brinton studied at Jefferson Medical College for two years and spent the next travelling in Europe. He continued his studies at Paris and Heidelberg. From 1862 to 1865, during the American Civil War, he was a surgeon in the Union army, acting during 1864-1865 as surgeon-in-charge of the U.S. Army general hospital at Quincy, Illinois.

After the war, Brinton practiced medicine in West Chester, Pennsylvania for several years; was the editor of a weekly periodical, the Medical and Surgical Reporter, in Philadelphia from 1874 to 1887; became professor of ethnology and archaeology in the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia in 1884; and was professor of American linguistics and archaeology in the University of Pennsylvania from 1886 until his death.

He was a member of numerous learned societies in the United States and in Europe and was president at different times of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia, of the American Folk-Lore Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Brinton, at his presidential address in August 1895, advocated theories of scientific racism that were pervasive at the time. As Charles Lofgren notes in his book, The Plesy Case, Brinton "accepted the 'psychical unity' throughout the human species," he noted that 'all races were 'not equally endowed,' which disqualifie ... Read more

Product Description
Here is an intimate look at the everyday lives of the people that inhabited the great empires through history. Each book covers a specific time and place, illuminating the human experience by describing the transportation, agriculture, housing, communication, religion, innovation and technology, and social organization of the period. ... Read more

Product Description

Ever thought of becoming a bug farmer?
Or how about a stone slinger?

Imagine growing up in Mesoamerica before the Spanish Conquest (1350-1521). What does your future hold? The ancient Aztecs, Maya and other Mesoamericans believed that the gods created a world where everyone had a role to play. Some people were born to rule, others to serve. If you were lucky, you might have been a high priest or a queen. On the other hand, you could have ended up as a latrine boatman or a slave destined to become a sacrificial victim.

Find out what it was like to be a tax collector (don't try to keep any money for yourself; the penalty is death!) or a porter (only if you enjoy carrying heavy packs up mountains). Or perhaps you'd prefer building pyramids, raising dogs or being a royal cook (frog casserole with green chile, anyone?).

Other jobs you might have held include:

• Counterfeiter
• Bell maker
• Mosaic mask maker
• Beekeeper.

Featuring a fact-filled introduction, a timeline and humorous illustrations, this book offers a unique view of one of the most remarkable civilizations of all time.

Product Description
Divided into four sections, this encyclopedia covers the Aztec and Mayan world, the Inca Empire, the Native Americans and Arctic peoples. A variety of practical projects is included to help bring the past alive. ... Read more

Product Description
First scholarly work devoted to Aztec and Maya papermaking. Chosen by the American Institute of Graphic Arts as one of the fifty best books of 1944, it thoroughly discusses the processes and materials used by these ancient craftsmen. Extensive editorial apparatus. 6 illustrations, 81 photographs. Essential reading for historians, anthropologists, and students. 1944 ed. Introduction. Foreword. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Index.
... Read more

Product Description
This new series looks at civilizations in the ancient and medieval worlds, and explains the technological advances that were made in those times ... Read more

Product Description
The Rest of the Title:...; Within the Canons (sic), Cliff Buildings and Gardens of the Gods; Through the Dark Continent; In OUr Own American Egypt; On The Isles of the Sea; An In All Parts of the Globe. Embracing The Most Thrilling Adventures and Wonderful Discoveries of our Greatest Travelers, Pioneers and Explorers. Among Whom Are The World-renowned Livingstone, Stanley, Baker, Cameron, Pinto, Speke, Paul Du Chaillu, Burton, Grant, Wallace, Gordon, Kane, Hayes, Greely, Franklin, Schwatka, Hall, Melville, Ross, Parry, Cook, Wilkes, Humboldt, and Others. Beautifully and Elaborately Illustrated With Over 300 Fine Engravings. By James P. Boyd, A.M., Author of "Building and Ruling the Republic" and "Military and Civil Life of General U.S. Grant," etc. ... Read more