Bonds of Blood Gender, Lifecycle, and Sacrifice in Aztec Culture

by Pennock, Caroline Dodds

• ISBN13: 9780230003309
• ISBN10: 0230003303
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-12-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

The history of the Aztecs has been haunted by the spectre of human sacrifice. As bloody priests and brutal warriors, the Aztecs have peopled the pages of history, myth and fiction, their spectacular violence dominating perceptions of their culture and casting a veil over their unique way of life. Reinvesting the Aztecs with a humanity frequently denied to them, and exploring their religious violence as a comprehensible element of life and existence, Caroline Dodds Pennock integrates a fresh interpretation of gender with an innovative study of the everyday life of the Aztecs. This was a culture of contradictions and complications, but in amongst the grand ritual we can find the personal and private, the minutiae of life which make the world of these extraordinary people instantly familiar. Despite their violent bloodshed, the Aztecs were a compassionate and expressive people who lived and worked in cooperative gendered partnership.

Author Biography

CAROLINE DODDS is Junior Research Fellow, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.

Table of Contents

List of Map and Figures	p. viii
List of Tables	p. ix
Acknowledgements	p. x
Note on Translation and Terminology	p. xii
List of Abbreviations	p. xv
Introduction	p. 1
Living with Death	p. 14
Birth and Blood	p. 41
Growing Up	p. 66
Tying the Knot	p. 89
Marriage and Partnership	p. 103
Outside the Norm	p. 133
Aging and Mortality	p. 155
Conclusion	p. 178
Glossary	p. 183
Notes	p. 185
Index	p. 219
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