Daily Life of the Aztecs (Native American) [Paperback]

Jacques Soustelle (Author)

Book Description

Series: Native American | Publication Date: December 28, 2011

Vivid account of a profoundly religious warrior society — from its most primitive days to the eve of the Spanish conquest in the early 16th century. Detailed accounts of life in a city-state, religious beliefs, public buildings and markets, home furnishings, family life, the conduct of war, language, music, much more. 39 illustrations, 2 maps.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jacques Soustelle was born in Montpellier in 1912 and attained fame both as a scholar and a politician. He made an exhaustive study of the Aztec language, society, art and architecture, rituals and beliefs. Following his retirement from active politics at the time of the first Algerian revolt, he returned to Paris to reassume a position he had held since 1937-Director of the most famous ethnological museum in the world, the Musee de l'Homme. He died in 1990. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (December 28, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486424855
• ISBN-13: 978-0486424859
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,488,471 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Utterly brilliant!, May 21, 2006

By 

Christopher Hazell (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Daily Life of the Aztecs (Paperback)

I'm a bit surprised nobody has yet reviewed this incredible book. Well, I might as well be the first.

The long short of it is: Anybody interested in Aztecs needs to read this book.

Soustelle ably demonstrates that there was more to Aztec society then war and human sacrifice, as he leads us first through the daily life of the average citizen of the Aztec empire, and from there goes on to talk about almost everything that a citizen could possibly come in contact with, from big things like the legal and educational systems, down to little things like what they ate where they went to the bathroom.

Soustelle's style is engaging and easy to read, and his immense admiration for the Aztecs is visible in nearly every sentence. In fact, sometimes it's almost too visible, as Soustelle doesn't really use the objective, detached style of writing that we modern readers are used to finding in history books. He often outright condemns both the Aztec merchant class and the Spanish conquistadors, which is a big no-no in history writing. That said, he spends most of the book examining subjects he admires, so these condemnations only occur in a few passages, and generally his enthusiasm for the subject matter is highly infectious. I'd be surprised if, after finishing this book, you didn't become a big Aztec booster.

There is only one other problem that kept me from giving the book a full five stars; it's a bit outdated. While the vast majority of information in Daily Life of the Aztecs is accurate, due to Soustelle's extensive use of primary sources, certain archeological evidence and ethnographical research has contradicted, or, more often expanded on Soustelle's understanding of Aztec life.

Because of this, you might want to select another more contemporary book as a companion to this one (If your library has a copy of the other Daily Life of the Aztecs, the one by David Carrasco and Scott Sessions, I recommend that one). I say companion because even though research on Aztec history has progressed since Soustelle's book was published in 1955, no modern book I have found comes close to having the breadth of subject matter or ease of reading as Daily Life of the Aztecs.

5.0 out of 5 stars If Only I Could Give This 6 Stars!, October 14, 2011

By 

Roy K. Farber (Grand Junction, CO) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Daily Life of the Aztecs (Native American) (Paperback)

This is not about the blood and guts we so often read, and is so very far removed from the 1st person perceptions of the Christian Conquistadors and those who have founded their version of reality thereon, and yet answers the central question of how so few such Uglies could kill so many and obliterate something as great as the Mexica Civilization. But Cortez is more of just a stopping point, the zenith of this civilization that was so rapidly maturing, becoming increasingly ever-finer, more dignified, literate, majestic, on its path to somewhere we'll now never know, with with rules of honorable behavior and thought that made them so unfortunately ill-prepared for the coming of The Aliens! Oh, but they had truly been Barbarians, we might all be speaking Nahuatl....

There are some Great Reviews here on Amazon of this very same book, only with the full title of Daily Life of the Aztecs on the Eve of the Spanish Conquest. Check those out &, yes, get this book!