Books
The Aztecs by
This Very Short Introduction employs the disciplines of history, religious studies, and anthropology as it illuminates the complexities of Aztec life. Readers meet a people highly skilled in sculpture, astronomy, city planning, poetry, and philosophy, who were also profoundly committed to cosmic regeneration through the thrust of the ceremonial knife and through warfare. David Carrasco looks beyond Spanish accounts that have colored much of the Western narrative to let Aztec voices speak about their origin stories, the cosmic significance of their capital city, their methods of child rearing, and the contributions women made to daily life and the empire. Carrasco discusses the arrival of the Spaniards, contrasts Aztec mythical traditions about the origins of their city with actual urban life in Mesoamerica, and outlines the rise of the Aztec empire. He also explores Aztec religion, which provided both justification for and alternatives to warfare, sacrifice, and imperialism, and he sheds light on Aztec poetry, philosophy, painting, and especially monumental sculpture and architecture. He concludes by looking at how the Aztecs have been portrayed in Western thought, art, film, and literature as well as in Latino culture and arts.
The Codex Borgia by 
Handbook to Life in the Aztec World by
Examines the evolution of Aztec civilization and presents current scholarship and recent archeological discoveries about the Aztec world.
Mexico by 
Quetzalcoatl by
Ethnohistoric and archeological testimony / Demetrio Sodi -- Quetzalcoatl / José López Portillo -- The psyche and metamorphosis of Quetzalcoatl / Fernando Díaz Infante.
Books
Handbook to Life in the Inca World by
Examines the Inca Empire, which stretched across the Andes Mountains in Peru from the 13th century until the invasion of the Spanish in the 16th century.
Books
Handbook to Life in the Ancient Maya World by
Explores ancient Maya civilization including society and government, religion, art, economy, industry, architecture and more.
Water and Ritual by
In the southern Maya lowlands, rainfall provided the primary and, in some areas, the only source of water for people and crops. Classic Maya kings sponsored elaborate public rituals that affirmed their close ties to the supernatural world and their ability to intercede with deities and ancestors to ensure an adequate amount of rain, which was then stored to provide water during the four-to-five-month dry season. As long as the rains came, Maya kings supplied their subjects with water and exacted tribute in labor and goods in return. But when the rains failed at the end of the Classic period (AD 850-950), the Maya rulers lost both their claim to supernatural power and their temporal authority. Maya commoners continued to supplicate gods and ancestors for rain in household rituals, but they stopped paying tribute to rulers whom the gods had forsaken.
In this paradigm-shifting book, Lisa Lucero investigates the central role of water and ritual in the rise, dominance, and fall of Classic Maya rulers. She documents commoner, elite, and royal ritual histories in the southern Maya lowlands from the Late Preclassic through the Terminal Classic periods to show how elites and rulers gained political power through the public replication and elaboration of household-level rituals. At the same time, Lucero demonstrates that political power rested equally on material conditions that the Maya rulers could only partially control. Offering a new, more nuanced understanding of these dual bases of power, Lucero makes a compelling case for spiritual and material factors intermingling in the development and demise of Maya political complexity.
The Ancient Maya by
Thanks to powerful innovations in archaeology and other types of historical research, we now have a picture of everyday life in the Mayan empire that turns the long-accepted conventional wisdom on its head.
* Includes numerous illustrations and drawings plus depictions of important artifacts such as the murals of Bonampak and the hieroglyphic stairway of Copan
* Provides detailed maps of major Maya cities as well as other research sites
Maya Political Science: Time, Astronomy, and the Cosmos by The Fall of the Ancient Maya by
Ancient Maya civilization thrived in the tropics of Central America for more than a thousand years and produced some of the world's finest architecture and art. Then it mysteriously vanished, leaving a landscape of ruins smothered by forests. The Classic Maya collapse is one of the great puzzles of history, ranking alongside the Fall of Rome as an enigma that has intrigued scholars for generations.
In This Body by
The Kaqchikel Maya, who live in the highlands of central Guatemala, experience soul as part of a continuum of bodily states. This account of life in one highland Maya community shows how, among Kaqchikels, spirit expresses itself fundamentally through the body, and not as something entirely separate from the body. By examining the lived-meanings of midwifery, soul therapy, and community dance in the town of San Juan Comalapa, the book identifies the body as the primary vehicle for spiritual grounding in daily life. Hinojosa invites readers to understand how specialists in these activities articulate their knowledge of the spirit through their understanding of blood, and he encourages readers to glimpse the hidden life of the body and how bodily processes guide local understandings of spirit at the personal and group level. This work further illuminates the agentive role of the body in Maya spiritual experience and enriches the current discussions of Maya spiritual revitalization.
Books
The Art of MesoAmerica by
A guide to the art and architecture of ancient central America, from Mexico to Honduras. Discoveries from San Lorenzo, El Manati, Monte Alban, Tikal and Copan are included and the chapter on the enigamtic Olmecs - the putative mother culture of Mesoamerica - has been expanded.
Olmec Religion by
Religion and civilization -- How to meet the Olmecs -- Ridges and volcano heads -- Volcanic serpent faces -- The green reform -- In the serpents mouth -- How long a serpent? -- A mythic postscript: Western scholar in Olmec paradise.
The Winds of Ixtepeji by