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"Aztec calendar"
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Decoding the Codex Borgia
Exploring the meanings in the intricate symbolism of a
rare Precolumbian manuscript
This book explores the rich symbolism of the Codex Borgia, a
masterpiece of Precolumbian art dating to the fifteenth century,
one of the few surviving books from before the Spanish conquest of
Mexico. Susan Milbrath uses information from the fields of art
history, anthropology, ethnohistory, natural history, and cultural
astronomy to show how the manuscript's intricate and colorful
imagery conveys complex ideas related to Mesoamerican myths and
religion.
Milbrath sets the work in historical context, establishing its
provenance in the Puebla-Tlaxcala Valley of Central Mexico and
pinpointing the date it was painted based on rain almanacs found in
its pages. She offers a new interpretation of a unique narrative
section that has long intrigued scholars, arguing that the
ceremonial variations depicted in it are related to the solar
cycle. Overall, this book opens new doors in the study of the Codex
Borgia by identifying seasonal imagery in the narrative and
associated astronomical events, especially those that involve the
three brightest objects in the sky: the sun, the moon, and Venus.
Decoding the Codex Borgia is an illuminating journey into
the culture and cosmology of the Aztecs and their neighboring
communities.
eBook
Cycles of time and meaning in the Mexican books of fate
In communities throughout precontact Mesoamerica, calendar priests and diviners relied on pictographic almanacs to predict the fate of newborns, to guide people in choosing marriage partners and auspicious wedding dates, to know when to plant and harvest crops, and to be successful in many of life’s activities. As the Spanish colonized Mesoamerica in the sixteenth century, they made a determined effort to destroy these books, in which the Aztec and neighboring peoples recorded their understanding of the invisible world of the sacred calendar and the cosmic forces and supernaturals that adhered to time. Today, only a few of these divinatory codices survive. Visually complex, esoteric, and strikingly beautiful, painted books such as the famous Codex Borgia and Codex Borbonicus still serve as portals into the ancient Mexican calendrical systems and the cycles of time and meaning they encode. In this comprehensive study, Elizabeth Hill Boone analyzes the entire extant corpus of Mexican divinatory codices and offers a masterful explanation of the genre as a whole. She introduces the sacred, divinatory calendar and the calendar priests and diviners who owned and used the books. Boone then explains the graphic vocabulary of the calendar and its prophetic forces and describes the organizing principles that structure the codices. She shows how they form almanacs that either offer general purpose guidance or focus topically on specific aspects of life, such as birth, marriage, agriculture and rain, travel, and the forces of the planet Venus. Boone also tackles two major areas of controversy—the great narrative passage in the Codex Borgia, which she freshly interprets as a cosmic narrative of creation, and the disputed origins of the codices, which, she argues, grew out of a single religious and divinatory system.
eBook
The Ritual Practice of Time
Drawing upon the category \"ritual practices of time\" the book offers a comparative analytical model and theoretical insights about calendars in Mesoamerica and in general. This comprehensive study systematically explicates how ritual practises are represented and conceptualised in intellectual systems and societies.
eBook
Time, history, and belief in Aztec and Colonial Mexico
Based on their enormously complex calendars that recorded cycles of many kinds, the Aztecs and other ancient Mesoamerican civilizations are generally believed to have had a cyclical, rather than linear, conception of time and history. This boldly revisionist book challenges that understanding. Ross Hassig offers convincing evidence that for the Aztecs time was predominantly linear, that it was manipulated by the state as a means of controlling a dispersed tribute empire, and that the Conquest cut off state control and severed the unity of the calendar, leaving only the lesser cycles. From these, he asserts, we have inadequately reconstructed the pre-Columbian calendar and so misunderstood the Aztec conception of time and history. Hassig first presents the traditional explanation of the Aztec calendrical system and its ideological functions and then marshals contrary evidence to argue that the Aztec elite deliberately used calendars and timekeeping to achieve practical political ends. He further traces how the Conquest played out in the temporal realm as Spanish conceptions of time partially displaced the Aztec ones. His findings promise to revolutionize our understanding of how the Aztecs and other Mesoamerican societies conceived of time and history.
eBook
Time, History, and Belief in Aztec and Colonial Mexico
Based on their enormously complex calendars that recorded cycles
of many kinds, the Aztecs and other ancient Mesoamerican
civilizations are generally believed to have had a cyclical, rather
than linear, conception of time and history. This boldly
revisionist book challenges that understanding. Ross Hassig offers
convincing evidence that for the Aztecs time was predominantly
linear, that it was manipulated by the state as a means of
controlling a dispersed tribute empire, and that the Conquest cut
off state control and severed the unity of the calendar, leaving
only the lesser cycles. From these, he asserts, we have
inadequately reconstructed the pre-Columbian calendar and so
misunderstood the Aztec conception of time and history.
Hassig first presents the traditional explanation of the Aztec
calendrical system and its ideological functions and then marshals
contrary evidence to argue that the Aztec elite deliberately used
calendars and timekeeping to achieve practical political ends. He
further traces how the Conquest played out in the temporal realm as
Spanish conceptions of time partially displaced the Aztec ones. His
findings promise to revolutionize our understanding of how the
Aztecs and other Mesoamerican societies conceived of time and
history.
eBook
Cycles of Time and Meaning in the Mexican Books of Fate
In communities throughout precontact Mesoamerica, calendar priests and diviners relied on pictographic almanacs to predict the fate of newborns, to guide people in choosing marriage partners and auspicious wedding dates, to know when to plant and harvest crops, and to be successful in many of life's activities. As the Spanish colonized Mesoamerica in the sixteenth century, they made a determined effort to destroy these books, in which the Aztec and neighboring peoples recorded their understanding of the invisible world of the sacred calendar and the cosmic forces and supernaturals that adhered to time. Today, only a few of these divinatory codices survive. Visually complex, esoteric, and strikingly beautiful, painted books such as the famous Codex Borgia and Codex Borbonicus still serve as portals into the ancient Mexican calendrical systems and the cycles of time and meaning they encode. In this comprehensive study, Elizabeth Hill Boone analyzes the entire extant corpus of Mexican divinatory codices and offers a masterful explanation of the genre as a whole. She introduces the sacred, divinatory calendar and the calendar priests and diviners who owned and used the books. Boone then explains the graphic vocabulary of the calendar and its prophetic forces and describes the organizing principles that structure the codices. She shows how they form almanacs that either offer general purpose guidance or focus topically on specific aspects of life, such as birth, marriage, agriculture and rain, travel, and the forces of the planet Venus. Boone also tackles two major areas of controversy—the great narrative passage in the Codex Borgia, which she freshly interprets as a cosmic narrative of creation, and the disputed origins of the codices, which, she argues, grew out of a single religious and divinatory system.
eBook
