The Aztecs: A Very Short Introduction

Very Short Introductions #296

by Davíd Carrasco

This Very Short Introduction employs the disciplines of history, religious studies, and anthropology as it illuminates the complexities of Aztec life. Readers meet a people highly skilled in sculpture, astronomy, city planning, poetry, and philosophy, who were also profoundly committed to cosmic regeneration through the thrust of the ceremonial knife and through warfare. Davíd Carrasco looks beyond Spanish accounts that have colored much of the Western narrative to let Aztec voices speak about their origin stories, the cosmic significance of their capital city, their methods of child rearing, and the contributions women made to daily life and the empire. Carrasco discusses the arrival of the Spaniards, contrasts Aztec mythical traditions about the origins of their city with actual urban life in Mesoamerica, and outlines the rise of the Aztec empire. He also explores Aztec religion, which provided both justification for and alternatives to warfare, sacrifice, and imperialism, and
he sheds light on Aztec poetry, philosophy, painting, and especially monumental sculpture and architecture. He concludes by looking at how the Aztecs have been portrayed in Western thought, art, film, and literature as well as in Latino culture and arts.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Religion, Audiobook, World History, Mythology, Historical

152 pages, Paperback

First published October 23, 2011

About the author

Davíd L. Carrasco is currently Neil L. Rudenstine Professor of Latin America Studies at Harvard. He is a Mexican-American academic historian of religion, anthropologist, and a Mesoamericanist scholar who has published widely on the Aztecs.

Reviews

[nero · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I went into this expecting something completely different, I wasn't too disappointed overall.
In general, I felt like way too much of this short book was dedicated to the Spanish invasion, when what I was really hoping for was a lot more information about the Aztecs themselves. I'm aware that a lot of the information we have on the Aztecs and their culture is based on what the Spanish observed and documented, but I think this should not have been the focus of the book.

I also didn't really like the structure of this book, as I feel it was lacking an introduction that starts you off with some basics instead of throwing you right into a Spanish account of Tenochtitlan...

However, at the very least, Davíd Carrasco accomplished one thing: I'm even more keen on learning more about Aztec culture now, especially after reading the chapter on the role of women and children in Aztec society, which in my opinion was the highlight of this book.

[Grady · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is what the Very Short Introductions are intended to be: a short but balanced introduction to the topic, with plenty of jumping off points to follow for more in depth treatments elsewhere. Carrasco does a solid job presenting the background of the Mexica people and governance structures, placing human sacrifice in context, and describing the society’s cultural accomplishments. He discusses the fall of the empire and - briefly - the persistance and reemergence of cultural traditions.

I really struggle with my reaction to the pre-Columbian Aztecs, in a way that I don’t when I read about other Meso- and South American civilizations, specifically because of the bloody, integral role of human sacrifice. Carrasco explains how this fit into the Aztec ‘cosmovision’, in which humans owe the gods for their self-sacrifice that created our world, and in which human sacrifice pays the debt and keeps the cosmos running, so to speak. Life in pre-modern times all over the world seems to have been hard, with security and freedom elusive and often restricted to a small portion of the population. Yet the graphic violation of bodily integrity triggers a reaction of disgust I don’t usually feel for other civilizations.

On a less emotional level, I wonder - if the Spanish hadn’t arrived with catastrophic results - if Aztec political and economic structures and culture had a capacity to ‘modernize’, to find symbolic replacements for human sacrifice (as a number of Old World cultures did) and develop philosophic traditions providing a basis (eventually) for human rights. That’s not to justify the way the Columbian contact played out, just to wonder, if it had survived, how Aztec culture would have evolved. One of the sad consequences of the post-contact cultural bonfire seems to me that our documentary evidence of Aztec society is smashed into akind of atemporal, static picture (despite fine archeological work sorting out a millenium or more of pre-contact history), making it hard to spot pre-contract trends and predict where they might have gone.

[Overbooked ✎ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book delivers exactly what its title promises, a brief introduction on Aztec (or rather Mexica) history and culture. The information here is just enough to whet one’s appetite, I will definitely look for more books on this subject.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do dearly love these little gems from Oxford University Press. In this case, I happen to admire the author, too, having taken one of his classes at Harvard in 2015. Davíd Carrasco is a gifted teacher, a warm human being, and, of course, a great expert in this subject.
I read this book as part of a tear I'm on to read histories of Mexico and particularly of the Mexican-American border. As expected, I learned some things from this slim volume: For one, the Aztecs were preceded by even older civilizations, upon which they built (this should not be a surprise, of course). They were in constant battle with neighboring groups; yes, they practiced human sacrifice, but there is no evidence that they practiced it more than other civilizations; Cortez's conquest was not a simple case of superior weapons and tactics, but more from a civil war among the Aztecs and their neighbors, masterminded by Cortez; and, of course, the European diseases that Cortez brought with him did more than anything.
I liked the Aztec idea of souls comprising four distinct pieces that depart the body for different dwelling spots after death. Sad how prior generations of Europeans "men of science" (e.g. Morgan) disparaged the Aztecs, but good now that scholarship has resurrected their merit and importance. And I understand the pride that many Mexicans have felt, and continue to feel, about the grand civilization that grew in North America independent of other civilizations.

[Stephen Clare · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you always carry a book on you it's surprising how much time you can find to read throughout the day. On public transit, in queues, or while waiting for friends to arrive, you can get through a dozen pages or more. Oxford's "Very Short Introduction"s are great for this purpose because they're small enough to fit in my pocket, and short enough to be digested in bite-sized chunks.

Some interesting facts from "The Aztecs" that I think will stick with me:

-English words with Aztec origins include tomato ("tomatl"), coyote ("coyotl"), and chocolate ("chocolatl")

-Tenochitlan was a cool city. It was built on an island in the middle of Lake Tezcoco. When the Spaniards showed up in 1519 it was one of the largest cities in the world, with 200,000 inhabitants at a time when London had 50,000 and Paris had 300,000. Later, flood control efforts drained the lake. Mexico City is built on top of Tenochitlan's historic location. Excavation efforts at the rediscovered Great Aztec Temple, buried at the center of the modern city, have been ongoing since 1978.

-The Mexican coat of arms, which appears in the center of the flag, includes an eagle eating a snake on top of cactus. This depicts an Aztec founding myth.

-Carrasco writes that there is no proof that the Aztecs ritually killed more people than other ancient cultures. He then describes the Great Skull Rack where the severed heads of sacrificial victims were displayed, sacrifices to the corn goddess which involved flaying the victim so the "fire priest" could wear her skin, and the "Feast of the Flaying of Men". The description of how Aztec sacrifices reflected their cosmovision was particularly interesting. Captured warriors were sometimes forced to climb to the top of the Great Aztec Temple, where they were killed and flung down the stairs. This represented an Aztec founding myth about a battle between the gods Huitzilopochtli and Coyolxauhqui at the summit of a mountain called Coatepec.

-Hernan Cortes and his soldiers arrived in Mexico in 1519, but two Spanish sailors had actually been shipwrecked there in 1511. One was happy to be rescued and joined Cortes as a translator and guide. The other had married a Mayan woman and become a warrior chief. He fought *against* the Spanish invaders in the coming wars and was killed in battle in 1535.

-At first Cortes only had about 500 soldiers with him. He managed to conquer the huge Aztec empire with the help of smallpox and alliances with disgruntled city-states and other groups that chafed under Aztec domination. 90% of the attacking force that eventually sacked Tenochitlan was made up of warriors from other cities - "the battles were as much a native civil war against the Aztecs as a Spanish conquest" (p. 110).

[Taylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This little book does exactly what the title says it does - gives a very short introduction to the Aztecs, or rather the Mexica. Most available primary sources were written by Spanish chroniclers who destroyed much Aztec (Mexica) materials since they thought everything was heathen. As a result there is not a great deal of evidence that survives from the Aztec (Mexica) point of view. Consequently much evidence is archaeological as well as based on the Spanish perspective. However, the book is informative and well written and gives just enough information to not only give you the basics of this once great civilisation, but also to make you want to look into the topic more. David Carrasco gives a good list of references and further reading titles to start you off on your own journey of further investigation if you want to. Highly recommended.

[Demir · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a, “Very Short Introduction” this does exactly what it’s set out to do. In only about 120 pages you are given a brief overview of Aztec history and culture.

After reading, you should definitely check out the further reading section, as this book is essentially meant to prep you for those more in depth works.

[Andrew Fear · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a bit of a curate's egg. The political history part was very good, albeit the part on Cortes is caught up in some contradictions. Surprisingly, given the author's PhD was on mesoamerican religion, the section on religion and the "cosmovision" of the Aztecs was a little disappointing. This is a notoriously tricky subject, but here there was no real attempt to try to link things together. There was no sense of how the female deities related to the male, remarkably little on Tlaloc, or on the role of Xipe Totec, nor on how Ometeotl who bursts onto the scene in chapter 6. There is a rather sad attempt to play down the role of human sacrifice in Aztec religion. The attempt to equate this with Greece and Rome is particularly piteous and does the author no credit. Despite the author stressing new advances in the understanding of smaller settlements in the Aztec empire, none of this information is presented here and we are mainly presented with the high politics of the Aztecs (not that I'm complaining that much). There is an insistence on the Aztecs' cultural achievements which is a view with which I sympathise, but more could have been made of the poetry of Nezahualcoyotl and though we are promised philosophical thought the promise is never really delivered. There is also a rather naive approach to the way criollos regarded the Aztec past and a rather uncritical approach to modern "neo-Aztec" advocates which doesn't look at some of the glaring tergiversations it presents. Obviously the author has been constrained by the size of volumes in this series and so perhaps I'm complaining too much. There are choices to be made and I would have chosen in a slightly different way. Nevertheless, there are a lot of good things here and the book is worth a read. It isn't though, in my opinion, the balanced intro that you might have expected from this series.

[Daniel Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's slightly irritating that introductions about the Aztecs always end up as historical accounts of the Spanish invasion and take over of Mexico. Unfortunately, this is an inevitable result of the fact that we only know anything about the Aztecs through the distorting lens of the Spanish accounts, as well as a few physical remains recovered by archaeologists. Another result is that the Aztecs have a disproportionately large and mostly undeserved place in popular consciousness about the peoples of pre-colonial America.

Despite all this, Carrasco's enthusiastic book is a trove of interesting facts about Aztec history and culture, and I recommend it as such.

[Ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are a lot of details for a short introduction (maybe too many?), but overall it's quite readable and interesting. I read this partly out of personal interest and partly because I've started teaching a short section on Aztec philosophy in my World Philosophy course and thought I could use a bit more historical background. It was good on both counts as the Oxford Very Short Introductions tend to be.

(See also my blog review: http://examinedworlds.blogspot.com/20...)

[Christaaay]

Ethusiastic short history of the Aztecs. Lots of quotes from primary sources. Highly readable, although the names can get confusing if you're unfamiliar with Aztec history. (Still, if you have to start getting familiar somewhere, this seems like a good place to start!) I enjoyed it!

[Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

A balanced short introduction to the Aztecs, covering the major political, social, and cultural aspects of their society and empire. Carrasco provides good coverage of the major controversies and explores popular as well as scholarly views.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting insight into the religion and the history, but I would have liked to have had more on everyday life. Organization is a little difficult to follow.

[Colette · Rating 5 out of 5]

A number of reviews here are giving this book flack for being, well, “A Very Short Introduction.” This is unmerited.

In the majority of the world, the majority of this book’s content is not known by the majority of people, including self-proclaimed history nerds.

As a non-specialist, have you ever thought about the Aztecs as having a robust culture of poetry? Or an extensive and sophisticated network of spies? Had you truly considered outside of the Aztecs, most ancient civilizations practiced human sacrifice, including the Romans, Greeks, Chinese, Japanese, and Egyptians? And that there is no evidence that the Aztecs were even the most prolific in that regard? What could you say of the life of a n Aztec child? There were many, many moments in this book where I, someone with a four-year-degree in History, was pulled in and fascinated.

Picture a civilization of warriors, a society of conquerers set on expansion that commits brutal crimes including enslavement and mass murder of its enemies, but that also has a robust tradition of literature, religion, and art. Was I just describing the Aztecs? Or the Romans?

Very often when the Aztecs are discussed, it seems that nuance is sacrificed in favor of condemnation. And yet even Americans practiced ritualistic religious murder during the Salem witch trials.

Yes it’s a jumping off point, but it’s a jumping off point in a subject that is rarely studied, poorly understood, and often maligned. This book sees the Aztecs as the main characters of their own narrative, at least insofar as is possible given what primary source material is available, and that, I believe, is a very good thing.

———

“With flowers You write,
O Giver of Life;
With songs You give color,
With songs You shade
those who live here on the earth.
Later You will erase eagles and tigers, We live only in Your book of paintings, here, on the earth.”

- page 105, a dedication the the god Ometeotl, Give of Life

[Ronit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty balanced viewpoint. Gives quick summary of Aztec history. Discusses the Aztecs as successors of a broader urban civilization which emerged in Mesoamerica (According to Paul Kirchhoff, geographically it comprised of the southern two-thirds of Mexico plus Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and parts of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica). Begins with a historiography of how Aztec culture has been seen since its encounter with Europeans. Gives account of the warfare between Aztecs and other communities in the region. How such conflict was integral to Aztec worldview and religion. Human sacrifice was important to Aztec religious practices but much exaggerated by Europeans. It was comparable to other cultures. Aztec warfare turned other states and communities against them. When Europeans came they were highly aided by this dissatisfaction with Aztec rule. In fact, the conquest of the Aztec empire played out as a civil war amongst the people under their subjugation. It was this and European diseases that actually wiped out the empire. However, the people themselves survived though in straitened circumstances. The author ends the book with a chapter on how Aztec culture is seeing a revival as a form of protest. It continues an older tradition. In their quest for independence from Spain, Aztec culture was used as a form of weapon by the different american countries in the 18th-19th centuries.

[Elias Helfer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went into this book expecting "Aztecs for dummies" - a brief overview of their history, their society, their daily life, their cosmology, their gods. That's not what this is, however. Instead, this is more of a sampling of topics for further study: the role of language and riddles in their philosophy, the place of women in the Aztec world, their enduring legacy. That's not bad, as such - as a jumping off point for further study, I'd say it's a good book.

On the other hand, it left me wanting for the things I most wanted from it: an overview of their gods and mythology. A succinct rundown of their social structure. A brief presentation of their language, writing system and calendar. The 101-stuff.

Instead, it spills a fair amount of ink on the Spanish interactions with the Aztecs. This is probably unavoidable, as they are both a main player in the downfall of the Aztecs, as well as the main first hand witnesses we have access to. Still, I would have preferred a slightly shorter treatment of Spanish-Aztec interactions, and a more in-depth treatment of the Aztecs on their own merits.

As such, I can only give this a partial recommendation. If you want inspiration for interesting topics to dive into in relations to the Aztecs, by all means give this a look. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a good primer on the Aztecs, I would probably look elsewhere.

[Hank Hoeft · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading about the Aztec--their culture, their history, their cosmology and religion, their daily lives--was as fascinating as reading very good world-building science fiction. This was a world I'd long been mildly curious about (partly due to my central Mexican heritage on my mother's side) but had read little about (aside from Victor W. von Hagen's excellent The Ancient Sun Kingdoms of the Americas). I had the mistaken impression that little was known about the Aztecs due to the conquering Roman Catholic Spaniards' attempts to obliterate all artifacts of a highly-developed but non-Christian culture. But David Carrasco, in a mere 120 pages, presents a treasure trove of information about this fascinating nation/ people/ culture. (Something I found particularly fascinating was the cosmology that drove the Aztec penchant for human sacrifice and human mutilation--according to Aztec mythology, the world--always a temporary and unstable place--was created by gods who immolated themselves, and had to be kept from crumbling by constant nourishing--and the best nutrition was human blood. Hence the "necessity" of human sacrifice, which was not limited to prisoners of war and captured peoples, but also included native Aztec, many of whom were raised and groomed and prepared for just such an end.)

[Shu Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best history and social explanation text on the Aztecs I've read in the last two weeks of my research. An easy, direct read, well organized, with a timeline like thru-line that helps the history hang together like a story, from a religious past grounded in actual events and current, present days heritage and implications for those alive today.

That the author shares heritage with the subject matter only helped bring a dedication and lack of distance that was warmly welcomes by me, as a reader and researcher, after several other arms distance texts. This one places in context the fabled human sacrifice of Aztec religion, but also calls into question those accounts with may be politically motivated and exaggerated. It does not dramatize or other, but rather explores and presents in a factual manner, drawing on as many first hand accounts (with accounting for bias of such sources) and physical evidence as possible.

My favorite book on the Aztecs at this present time.

[Mira M · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always found the history of Mayans and Aztecs fascinating, but the subject is so extensive and full of details that I never really understood the timeframes, cultural difference, traditions etc.

Thanks to this book, I was able to get a pretty good understanding of the dynamics of these ancient civilizations and their decline.

Perhaps many knew this, but I was today's years old when I found out the tomato is native to the Americas and the word for the fruit comes from Nahuatl language - tomatl. Europeans didn't want to eat it, at first, because they thought it was poisonous due to its red color. There are many curious facts, like this one, in this book. It summarizes very well the life, rituals, people, education, strengths and weaknesses in their society.

At times, I felt the narrative could be slightly more engaging rather than textbook description, but overall - Mr. Carrasco did a great job. I will definitely pick up another book about Mesoamerica.

[Abra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative and short, the book is divided into different subjects about the Aztecs: General history, human sacrifice, mythology, poetry and philosophy and Spanish conquest. I've been often told that the Aztecs had been an amazingly anvanced and sofisticated culture with their cities which population sizes even surpassed the ones of the biggest cities in Europe, Paris and London, at that time. But I never quite knew exactly what the Aztecs were about and now I feel a little bit more enlightened. Overall an OK read.

[KG · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very informative look into the Aztec empire and how it lives on in modern times. An introduction only, it covers lots of ground and expels some myths while also explaining how grand the Aztec Empire was at one point of time. It does a great job of breaking down the customs, practices and contributions to the world the Aztecs left behind. An aptly titled book, if you want to look deeper, the Author has written a few longer form works that would help to further understand this once great civilization.

[Religion Year · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author's enthusiasm for the topic is evident throughout the book and the book excels at vivid descriptions of Aztec rituals, beliefs, and cosmology. But it's easy to get lost in the details. I would recommend looking for something else if you want a linear chronology.

https://ayearinreligion.wordpress.com

[Joel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very well done and engaging introduction to the Aztecs. Reading this book helped me understand how and why Aztec culture had, and continues to have, such a big impact on Mexican culture. It wasn't until I read this book that I realized that some of my great aunts and uncles have Nahuatl ("Aztec") names.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was overall good, but felt a little jumpy at times. The author’s expertise on mesoamerican religion is clear in the abundance of information on ceremonies and myths. (And I love the concluding chapter where the author talks about his personal experience studying the Aztecs.) But I personally wanted more information on day-to-day life and occasionally felt like I was missing pieces.

[Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find this series very useful for a starting overview: usually brisk but comprehensive. This one did nicely in providing some high level notes on history, cosmology, culture and ongoing context. I slightly wish there'd been less of an overall frame through Spanish conquest, but it was thorough and balanced and teased open the edges of some commonly held myths.

[R · Rating 4 out of 5]

No está mal, es un buen resumen. Sin embargo, he echado de menos que se desarrollasen más las secciones sobre religión, idioma o vida diaria. Es una pena que se haya dedicado gran parte del libro a la conquista española.

[Karen Adkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Impressively compendious despite its brevity. My main conclusion after reading it: it is truly embarrassing how little I learned about Mesoamerican history that was factual (as opposed to biased or outrageously false), especially given that I grew up in what was once Mexico (Texas).

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Parts were interesting but there were almost too many details for a book that is supposed to be a very short introduction.

[Juan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well done very short history on the Aztecs.

[Corinna Bechko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting overview of the Aztec culture. The sections on family life were particularly enlightening.