Aztec Thought and Culture: A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind (Civilization of the American Indian Series)

Rating:
Summary: Timexihca!
Review: I first bought this book thirty years ago. I now use it as a text book for my Mexican American Culture and Society Class and for my Pre Hispanic life and Religion Class. This book is basic in understanding the depth of philosophical and religious thought of the ancient Mexican. Portilla is is primarily instruemental in all of his writings in intoducing the reader to the ancient civilizations of this hemisfaire....that was in exsisitance at the same time of the old world....and which we have been so ignorant of for too long.

Rating:
Summary: Aztec Thought and Culture
Review: I first bought this book thirty years ago. I now use it as a text book for my Mexican American Culture and Society Class and for my Pre Hispanic life and Religion Class. This book is basic in understanding the depth of philosophical and religious thought of the ancient Mexican. Portilla is is primarily instruemental in all of his writings in intoducing the reader to the ancient civilizations of this hemisfaire....that was in exsisitance at the same time of the old world....and which we have been so ignorant of for too long.

Rating:
Summary: Timexihca
Review: I recommend this book to be read among the first if anyone is trying to learn the true Anahuaca (Mexican and "Central American") history. The most important part in my opinion of this book is the theological aspects which Portilla explains, in which he at one point says that what Europeans interpreted as "Gods" are actually manifestations of one creator, Ometeotl.

Rating:
Summary: A great book!
Review: Just like India's Upanishadic teaching tradition unfolded the Knowledge of the true identity of the individual, the universe and God, the Náhuatl Tlamatinime (spiritual teachers) were the "phylosphers", as Sahagun called them, who, abiding in Spiritual wisdom, were able to guide their students to discover the nature of their True Self. Don Miguel Leoón-Portilla is the ideal commentator because, after introducing his readers to the Tlamatinime's recorded words, showing a deep personal insight of the Náhuatl language, he accurately and methodically expounds, word by word and verse by verse, in the content of their spiritual wisdom. My opinion is that he could be considered the Adi Shankaracharya (the Commentary Master of the Tradional Vedanta texts of India) of the Americas.

Rating:
Summary: Timexihca!
Review: This book should be among the first books to read if anyone is trying to learn the true Anahuaca (Mexican and "Central American") history. Portilla does a good job in mentioning important theological aspects of our people, in that what Europeans interpreted as "Gods" are actually manifestations of one creator.

Rating:
Summary: Must-read, but with two caveats
Review: This tour into the thicket of Aztec thought is indispensable, which is why I gave it four stars. But it was written forty years ago, leaving it with two glaring problems.

The author: What might seem to be hyper-political-correctness is actually poignantly outrageous ancestor worship. The Aztecs can do no wrong, so get used to it. On p. 155 Leon-Portilla takes us through the "sagacity" of book burning! "The common folk were worshipping pictures of their ancient rulers as gods." (Sound familiar?) How, exactly, was this culture-destroying move sagacious? Well, it shows that the Mexica had "a strong awareness of history"!

(But when the Spanish burn books, poetry, art and music - beauty itself - leave the planet forever.)

This quaint attitude actually helps make a difficult topic entertaining. The translation is a more aggravating problem. "Deities of the Close Vicinity"? Why didn't our translator throw in some English, like "Lords of the Nearby"? And he gives us "tiger" in place of jaguar! (Spanish for jaguar is "tigre.")

Leon-Portilla goes to great lengths to explain a phenomenon common in Náhautl, difrasismo, which apparently is rare in Spanish. But the translation completely ignores that it's the bread and butter of English - difrasismo is the coupling of words, like "bread and butter"! The crucial Aztec phrase "face and heart," for example, is apparently untranslatable into Spanish, but English has "body and soul," or the plural "hearts and minds"! How beautifully Nahuatl must translate directly into English!

This is a must-read for the student of ancient America, and not just because there's nothing else out there. But oh for a new translation!