The Aztec Kings: The Construction of Rulership in Mexican HistoryWinner of the American Society for Ethnohistory's Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin Prize Scholars have long viewed histories of the Aztecs either as flawed chronologies plagued by internal inconsistencies and intersource discrepancies or as legends that indiscriminately mingle reality with the supernatural. But this new work draws fresh conclusions from these documents, proposing that Aztec dynastic history was recast by its sixteenth-century recorders not merely to glorify ancestors but to make sense out of the trauma of conquest and colonialism. The Aztec Kings is the first major study to take into account the Aztec cyclical conception of time—which required that history constantly be reinterpreted to achieve continuity between past and present—and to treat indigenous historical traditions as symbolic statements in narrative form. Susan Gillespie focuses on the dynastic history of the Mexica of Tenochtitlan, whose stories reveal how the Aztecs used "history" to construct, elaborate, and reify ideas about the nature of rulership and the cyclical nature of the cosmos, and how they projected the Spanish conquest deep into the Aztec past in order to make history accommodate that event. By demonstrating that most of Aztec history is nonliteral, she sheds new light on Aztec culture and on the function of history in society. By relating the cyclical structure of Aztec dynastic history to similar traditions of African and Polynesian peoples, she introduces a broader perspective on the function of history in society and on how and why history must change. |
Contents
A Model of the Tenochtitlan Dynasty | 3 |
The Founding Queen | 25 |
Mothers of Gods and Daughters of Chichimecs | 57 |
Copyright | |
11 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
The Aztec Kings: The Construction of Rulership in Mexican History Susan D. Gillespie Limited preview - 2016 |
The Aztec Kings: The Construction of Rulership in Mexican History Susan D. Gillespie Limited preview - 2022 |
Common terms and phrases
Acamapichtli Acatl accounts Ahuitzotl Anales de Cuauhtitlan appears aspect associated Atotoztli Axayacatl Azcatlxochitl Aztec history brother Carrasco Central Mexico Chapter Chapultepec Chichen Itza Chichimec Chimalaxochitl Chimalman Chimalpahin cihuacoatl Cincalco Coatepec coatl Coatlichan Coatlicue conceptions conquest Cortés Coxcoxtli Coyolxauhqui Crónica Mexicayotl Cuauhtemoc Culhua Culhuacan cultures cyclical daughter of Motecuhzoma Davies death divine documents Durán earth Ehecatl episodes father female Genealogía genealogy gods historical traditions Huehue Huemac Huitzilihuitl Huitzilopochtli Ilancueitl Ilhuicamina Itzcoatl Ixtlilxochitl kingship Leyenda López Austin married Maya Memorial Breve Mesoamerican Mexica Mexicanos Mexico City Miahuaxihuitl Mixcoatl mortal Motecuh mother mother-earth goddess Nahuatl name glyph native origin Pinturas pre-Hispanic princess Quetzal Relación relationship role royal rule ruler of Culhuacan rulership sacrifice Sahagún Spaniards Spanish story Tenochtitlan Tenochtitlan dynasty Tenochtitlan kings Tezcatlipoca Tezozomoc tion Tizaapan Tizoc Tlacaelel Tlatelolco tlatoani Tlaxcala Toci Tollan Toltec Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl Toxpanxochitl Tula tzalcoatl Valley of Mexico versions wife woman women Zantwijk