Aztec Thought and Culture: A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind

by Miguel Leon-Portilla

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The fundamental concepts of ancient Mexico presented and examined in this book have been taken from more than ninety original Aztec documents. They concern the origin of the universe and of life, conjectures on the mystery of God, the possibility of comprehending things beyond the realm of experience, life after death, and the meaning of education, history and art. The philosophy of the Nahuatl wise men, which probably stemmed from the ancient doctrines and traditions of the Teotihuacans and show more Toltecs, quite often reveals profound intuition and in some instances is remarkably "modern". [Book jacket]. show less

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3 reviews
An interesting an important book, but more than anything else it shows how limited the evidence about Aztec thought and culture is. Hopefully a deeper account of this topic can be written sometime in the future.
a decent reference to the philosophical content of the available codices, w a slight glimpse into a little of the established consensus in archaeology. while the analysis is decent, the circumscribed source material is a little disappointing
En este libro, en el que por primera vez se ha dado a conocer cuál fue el pensamiento de los antiguos mexicanos acerca del mundo, del hombre y de la divinidad, así como las que podrían llamarse concepciones prehispánicas de la ética y el derecho, la historia y el arte, incluye ahora su autor un nuevo capítulo acerca de los orígenes y evolución de las ideas que llegaron a ser patrimonio de los tlamatinime, sabios nahuas del mundo azteca.

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165+ Works 2,208 Members
Miguel Leon-Portilla, author of more than forty books including "Broken Spears", is the world's leading scholar on Mesoamerican literature. He lives in Mexico. (Bowker Author Biography)

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Davis, Jack Emory (Translator)

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Aztec Thought and Culture: A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind

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Genres
Anthropology, Nonfiction, History, Religion & Spirituality
DDC/MDS
972.014History & geographyHistory of North AmericaMexico, Central America, West Indies, BermudaMexico, Central America, West Indies, BermudaAncient civilization (-1516)Aztec
LCC
F1219.3 .P5 .L43Local History of the United States, Canada and Latin AmericaLatin America. Spanish AmericaMexico
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Paper, Ebook
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12
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3