| Description |
1 online resource. |
|
text file |
| Series |
Numen book series : studies in the history of religions,
0169-8834 ;
VOLUME 161
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Studies in the history of religions.
0169-8834 ; VOLUME 161.
|
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Contents |
Front Matter -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Figures -- Introduction 1 -- 1 Methodology 16 -- 2 Living in Cultural Diversity 59 -- 3 Living in Relation: Being Human in Tenochtitlan 80 -- 4 A World in Motion: Nahua Ontology 109 -- 5 Understanding a World in Motion: Nahua Epistemology 149 -- 6 Interacting with a World in Motion: Nahua Pragmatism and Aesthetics 167 -- 7 Expressing Reality in Language: Nahua Linguistic Theory 203 -- 8 Materializing Reality in Writing: Nahua Pictography 246 -- 9 Understanding Pictography: Interpreting Nahua Semiotics 286 -- 10 Interpretative Results: Nahua Religion, Scripture, and Sense of Reality 342 -- Conclusion 356 -- Figures 365 -- Figure Credits 381 -- Back Matter -- References -- Index. |
| Summary |
In her groundbreaking investigation from the perspective of the aesthetics of religion, Isabel Laack explores the religion and art of writing of the pre-Hispanic Aztecs of Mexico. Inspired by postcolonial approaches, she reveals Eurocentric biases in academic representations of Aztec cosmovision, ontology, epistemology, ritual, aesthetics, and the writing system to provide a powerful interpretation of the Nahua sense of reality. Laack transcends the concept of "sacred scripture" traditionally employed in religions studies in order to reconstruct the Indigenous semiotic theory and to reveal how Aztec pictography can express complex aspects of embodied meaning. Her study offers an innovative approach to nonphonographic semiotic systems, as created in many world cultures, and expands our understanding of human recorded visual communication. This book will be essential reading for scholars and readers interested in the history of religions, Mesoamerican studies, and the ancient civilizations of the Americas. 'This excellent book, written with intellectual courage and critical self-awareness, is a brilliant, multilayered thought experiment into the images and stories that made up the Nahua sense of reality as woven into their sensational ritual performances and colorful symbolic writing system.' - Davíd Carrasco, Harvard University. |
| Local Note |
eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America |
| Subject |
Nahuatl language -- Writing.
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Nahuatl language -- Writing. |
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Nahuas -- Religion.
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Nahuas -- Religion. |
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Aztec cosmology.
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Aztec cosmology. |
| Genre/Form |
Electronic books.
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| Other Form: |
Print version: Laack, Isabel. Aztec religion and art of writing. Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2019 9789004391451 (DLC) 2018053318 |
| ISBN |
9004392017 |
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9789004392014 (electronic book) |
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9789004391451 (hardback ; alkaline paper) |
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