Customer Reviews

Daily Life of the Aztecs: People of the Sun and Earth (The Greenwood Press Daily Life Through History Series)

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

 

 

Carrasco has written a very good and detailed introduction to Aztec history here. As the other reviewer pointed out it is written in simple language. But while she sees this as a drawback I see it as perfectly acceptable. The book was, in fact, written for a high school audience and so the the simple tone should not count against it. Aztec culture and history are so well-presented and discussed in such detail that I most certainly would suggest it to any general reader. From Aztec origins to child-rearing to art to warfare and human sacrifice this book is thorough enough to interest anyone without a PHD. Even at the textbook price it is worthwhile for anyone interested.

And now I will give my reason for the four instead of five star review. In the chapter in human sacrifice the authors go far beyond objective analysis of the various Aztec practices. They step far outside the boundaries of historical presentation of fact and offer analogies to aid the reader in his understanding of Aztec human sacrifice. Should we, as readers or scholars or historians, have an intellectual open-mindedness toward this touchy issue? Of course. But when the practice of tearing the hearts out of captured enemies, flaying them, eating them and parading around in their skins is equated with a Catholic priest inadvertently passing on a disease to an infant during the course of Baptism then we have serious, very serious problems in academia. The Aztecs slaughtered human beings, viciously, disgustingly and frequently. Whatever the Spanish did, and God knows they did awful things, their priestly class sought only to make the lives of those infants better. In this case numbers of dead do not count. A baby being cradled by a priest and being dunked in water for the presumed and desired benefit of the child is very, very different to children being killed so that their tears of fear and pain bring rain for the coming year's crop production. No amount of revisionist history and cultural leveling can make that so. Should we be aware of the Aztec cosmology that makes such behavior acceptable, nay desired? Of course we should. It is a fascinating, complex story. Should we try to justify it in order to paint a prettier picture of a particular civilization? Absolutely not. That is not a history that is a polemic.

The Aztecs themselves are incredibly fascinating and "Daily Life of the Aztecs" does a good job of explicating Aztec culture for a Western point of view. The detailed information that Carrasco and Sessions give in the book surprised me somewhat since I assumed that primary documents or unbiased secondary accounts would be hard to come by. Content-wise this is an excellent introduction into pre-Columbian Aztec culture and appropriate for young people too thanks to its simple language. However, the editing of the book is appalling because of the sheer amount of spelling errors. I was also put off by Carrasco and Sessions' attempts to be understanding of the ceremonial practices they presented in the book, reminding the audience more than once that we should all try to be sympathetic of the culture even though it is hard for a modern person to sympathize with the sacrifice of 10,000 humans for the purpose of building a temple, or child mutilation and sacrifice for example. I would recommend this as an introductory textbook for middle- or high-schoolers, though perhaps not for general interest since its illustrations are few, its language childish, and its spelling errors aggravating.