Handbook to Life in the Aztec World [Paperback]

Manuel Aguilar-Moreno (Author)

List Price:	CDN$ 27.50
Price:	CDN$ 26.13 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details
You Save:	CDN$ 1.37 (5%)
	o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca. Gift-wrap available.

Only 1 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

Want it delivered Monday, May 28? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout.

Formats	Amazon Price		New from	Used from
Hardcover	CDN $71.55		--	--
Paperback	CDN $26.13		--	--

Product Details

Paperback: 464 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press; 1 edition (Sep 12 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0195330838
ISBN-13: 978-0195330830
Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 18.9 x 2.6 cm
Shipping Weight: 930 g
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #420,891 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #39 in Books > History > Ancient > Aztec

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

See Complete Table of Contents

Product Description

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up–A comprehensive, engaging examination of Aztec history and culture based on recent archaeological discoveries and excavations in Mexico City. Meticulously organized chapters present accessible information on such topics as geography, government, warfare, daily life, religion, architecture, economy, and astronomy. The readable format consists of two neatly spaced columns of text per page, with appropriate subdivisions and well-positioned visual matter. A plethora of instructive aids such as a bibliography in each chapter, line drawings, well-composed and -reproduced black-and-white photographs, and accurate maps enhances this authoritative work. A general bibliography, a list of museums containing relevant collections, a selection of Aztec poems, and a thorough index round out this resource. Michael E. Smith's The Aztecs (Blackwell, 2002) also provides a scholarly yet readable study of Aztec life, and it can be used as a supplement to this book. A remarkable look at the grandeur of an ancient civilization.–Hillary Jan Donitz-Goldstein, formerly at New York Public Library
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

This entry in Facts On File's Handbooks to Life series is, as far as layout and design, typical of the series. It is arranged topically rather than dictionary-style, but it has a good index. Illustrations consist of line drawings and small photographs, and there are a few maps. There is a pronunciation guide for Nahuatl terms, which is very helpful. Facts are dependably presented, and there is a long bibliography.

Fourteen chapters cover topics such as "Geography of the Aztec World," "Warfare," "Aztec Architecture," and "Economy, Industry, and Trade." Each chapter is broken down into easily identified subentries; the chapter "Religion, Cosmology, and Mythology," for example, has sections on the structure of the Aztec universe, the main Aztec myths, the Aztec gods, rituals, and human sacrifice. The topical approach results in some repetition; for example, the chinampas, or floating gardens, that provided the Aztecs with more arable land are described in several places in the text. The writing is fairly academic.

Aguilar-Moreno is an associate professor of art history at California State University, Los Angeles, and his interest in art makes the chapters on art, architecture, and literature a substantial part of the work. He spends nearly as much time on the provenance of surviving Aztec codices as he does on the content of the literature. The chapter on architecture has a city-by-city description of major surviving Aztec architecture. The life of the people, on the other hand, is crowded into a single chapter on "Daily Life." A final chapter summarizes post-conquest Aztec contributions to Mexican society. One of the highlights at the end of the book is an appendix of Aztec poems in English.

Suitable for larger public libraries and academic libraries with undergraduate courses in Mesoamerican history, this volume complements The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures: The Civilizations of Mexico and South America (2001). Kathleen Stipek
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Product Description

Inside This Book (Learn More)

Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index

Tag this product

(What's this?)

Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items.

Customer Reviews

There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.ca

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

Share your experience with this product with others

Create your own review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com ^(beta)

Amazon.com: 4.3 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Clunky but worth it, Aug 16 2007

By Ian S. Oakes "Ian" - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Handbook to Life in the Aztec World (Hardcover)

The book is, as other reviewers have observed, a goldmine of information. I have yet to find any source that cuts quite so broad a swath through the material, giving the reader insights into numerous topics: myth, history, religious practice, military strategy, diet, architecture, social organization, and more. Moreover, the text is richly illustrated with diagrams, photographs, and maps.

Each section also ends with helpful, reasonably well-organized, suggestions for further reading.

That said, the work is a bit too textbook-y for my tastes. The organizational categories seem forced at times, applying an overly traditional, European model of how to divide indigenous cultural elements.

The book, like a textbook, frequently repeats basic information. I presume this was intended to allow the reader to dip into a section without having to cross-reference many others. But that effort seems too haphazard to achieve that end and many times I had to flip through many different sections in order to form even a partial picture of what was going on.

Topics of obvious concern for a modern reader (like the degree to which women could participate in organized religious rituals or in society in general) were often ignored or treated so lightly as to be ambiguous.

Still, all that said, the book is a treasure chest of information and a wonderful place to begin studying about Aztec and Mesoamerican culture, even if it is very clearly not the place to stop.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine reference, Sep 23 2006

By Midwest Book Review - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Handbook to Life in the Aztec World (Hardcover)

High school to college-level students will find Handbook to Life in The Aztec World a fine reference, providing a thematic approach to the Aztec world which surveys geography, civilization development, Aztec arts and architecture, daily life, and customs and beliefs. Each chapter pairs an article with an extensive bibliography and the books also packs in over a hundred line drawings, photos and maps.

Diane C. Donovan

California Bookwatch

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Compendium Of Azteca, July 9 2009

By Michael Gunther - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Handbook to Life in the Aztec World (Paperback)

Most people know at least two things about the Aztecs: that they practiced human sacrifice, and that they were conquered by the Spanish around 1520. Aguilar-Moreno's Handbook presents a fuller spectrum of Aztec life, by showing them as warriors, priests, astronomers, artists, merchants, and farmers. The book is organized by topic, with separate chapters on Aztec history, government, religion, trade, architecture, and so on. The book includes a good bibliography with inline citations, and an extensive index.

There is quite a bit of repetition in the book, although this does help to make the chapters more self-contained; each one is almost a little mini-book in its own right. Although not quite for beginners, the book is approachable by general readers, and its writing is blessedly free of academic jargon. Be prepared to learn an amazing number of Nahuatl words, though.

All illustrations and photos are in black and white only. This is especially a problem in the chapter on Aztec art. This chapter mostly discusses individual objects in the Mexico City museum, but its black-and-white photos are so small and blurry that it is impossible to follow along with the text. In fact, several objects discussed in the text are not even illustrated at all. If you mostly want to look at Aztec art, then this is not the book for you.

Otherwise, it is a good resource - especially at its bargain paperback price - for university-level students, professionals, and other interested readers. I learned quite a bit that I did not know before, from the small but interesting details (the Aztecs poisoned their arrows with the juice of decayed pineapples) to larger questions about meaning, purpose, and sacrifice that still resonate today.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 6 reviews 4.3 out of 5 stars