Religion and Empire: The Dynamics of Aztec and Inca Expansionism

by Geoffrey W. Conrad, Arthur A. Demarest

Religion and Empire is an innovative and provocative study of the two largest states of the Precolumbian Americas, the Aztec and Inca Empires. By examining the causes of the formation and expansion of these two empires, the authors identify similar patterns and processes underlying their rise and decline. They demonstrate that in both examples among the critical elements in the transition from marginal people to imperial power to disintegrating society were changes in traditional religion, including the elaboration of Aztec human sacrifice and Inca worship of the corpses of their kings. The authors show that the complex interaction between such ideological shifts and political and economic factors generated the spectacular historical trajectories of these Pre-Colombian empires.

Genres: Nonfiction, Read For School, History

280 pages, Paperback

First published August 31, 1984

Reviews

[Cody VC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very dry but highly enlightening. Conrad and Demarest argue that the Aztec and Inca empires were founded upon religion, unlike the other empires Western people are familiar with - or at least unlike the way we're familiar with thinking about those empires - and their argument is a convincing one. They also take the reader through a survey of pre-empire culture, and they do an impressive job building a convincing portrait from the scant and problematic sources they have. Conrad and Demarest's work shows quite clearly that these were dynamic societies, and that any weaknesses exploited by the Spanish were not inherent or anything like that - they were developed over time through policies, much like any other empire was or is brought down by overreaching. It's the unique aspects of these policies that makes C&D's book particularly interesting, and worthwhile for those seeking to better understand this period of time or the roots of Mesoamerican/Andean culture in general.

A few quibbles: I personally didn't find it difficult to accept the different cultural standards wrt human sacrifice and ritual cannibalism (they crop up in other societies throughout history) which made the subjective language that C&D use more noticeable, and mildly ironic to boot given that they repeatedly point out that one must not apply modern-day standards to older societies. Ah well.
And while the use of archaeological findings as evidence was a welcome update to the traditional historical method, it seemed that C&D were giving too much credibility to archaeology's supposed self-evident truths - archaeological evidence is subject to the same issues/problems of interpretation as other forms of historical evidence, yet C&D stress the unreliable aspects of all their sources save the archaeological ones.

[Marshall Borrus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to read. Good and memorable.