Aztec Political Thought (2013)
abandonedfootnotes.blogspot.com
abandonedfootnotes.blogspot.com
Thinking about culture as a largely collective and continuous act of creation, one wonders how and why any culture develops the way it does; what truths it holds dear; what virtues it praises; what vices it damns; what metaphysical stage all of these play upon.
From a circumstantial perspective, without defending the morality of either the Aztecs or the Spanish, there was just this vast cultural divide between them.
While what happened when they met was inevitable, there is still a ton of stuff you can learn watching a car crash in super-slow motion from all angles. As a "clash of cultures", this one was pretty intense. This article provided good insight on some of the contours of that impact, not from a military/physical perspective (that's been done and is easier), but from a psychological/cultural perspective. I'm getting the book.
Thank you for the wonderful trip down memory lane.
https://books.google.com/books?id=HptBCwAAQBAJ&printsec=fron...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Borgia
there's a really excellent podcast series i listened to a few months ago about the conquest of mexico a few months ago, beginning here:
http://historyonfirepodcast.com/episodes/2017/5/25/episode-2...
it's genuinely one of the most incredible stories in human history. if you, like me, only possess a cursory awareness of the events, i can't recommend listening through the whole thing enough.
and a supplementary podcast series about human sacrifice particularly by the aztecs (though quite meandering, in an enjoyable way):
http://www.martyrmade.com/8-how-to-serve-man-sacrifice-canni...
IIRC Cortes had ~1500 conquistadors on his side and Pizarro had ~500
> In Aztec Philosophy, James Maffie shows the Aztecs advanced a highly sophisticated and internally coherent systematic philosophy worthy of consideration alongside other philosophies from around the world. [...]
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> Aztec Philosophy focuses on the ways Aztec metaphysics—the Aztecs’ understanding of the nature, structure and constitution of reality—underpinned Aztec thinking about wisdom, ethics, politics, and aesthetics, and served as a backdrop for Aztec religious practices as well as everyday activities such as weaving, farming, and warfare. Aztec metaphysicians conceived reality and cosmos as a grand, ongoing process of weaving—theirs was a world in motion. [...] Maffie argues that Aztec metaphysics maintained a processive, transformational, and non-hierarchical view of reality, time, and existence along with a pantheistic theology.
As alien as “lord, our executioner, and our enemy” is it has echos today, in particular in the Locke-infused North America.
If you are fascinated by these kinds of models I encourage you to read about the Bronze Age Greek societies which were also profoundly weird and utterly unlike their depiction in contemporary culture (more ISIS than EU).
Some things that will seem clear and obvious through a modern lens are in fact utterly obscure, even, or perhaps especially, in translation. For example the famous Homeric line, "the wine-dark sea"...well it doesn't mean anything like you could imagine, for their whole model of colour utterly different from ours. Ironically this code was cracked by, of all people, Gladstone: here's a good essay on this though his monograph is quite readable: https://www.spectator.co.uk/2010/06/fathoming-the-winedark-s... -- notice this essay also references Vedic literature so my comment about Hinduism is not random. This kind of thing was quite puzzling to me as a high schooler trying to struggle through Homer and knowing that I would be immediately found out and screwed if I tried to use one of the translations to get a sense of the story...you get the plot in translation but can only dimly see the social order.
I also recommend Plutarch's Lives, although (or perhaps because) he attempted to bend the Greeks' actions to what we might consider a more modern frame, that of Rome. In particular though read Solon, Pericles (!!) and Alcibiades for clues into how they lived.
As for the Spartans in particular: basically any movie you've ever seen on the subject might as well be science fiction. The closest modern model I could come up with would be some Nazi fantasy crossed with Trotsky. The Spartans: The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece, from Utopia to Crisis and Collapse by Paul Cartledge's "The Spartans: The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece, from Utopia to Crisis and Collapse" is probably the best for the lay reader and will probably blow your mind.
Ancient Greek is worth learning IMHO and has opened up much more intellectual opportunity to me than the parallel years of Latin ever did. Both are Indo-European (aka "Indo-German" in German!) languages so pretty easy to learn.
HTH
Doesn't seem like everyone agrees with this speculation:
>"I'm even less impressed by Gordon's argument: it relies on oinops meaning 'wine-dark'. The trouble is, that's not a firm foundation. Strictly literally, the phrase straightforwardly means 'wine-faced sea', from οἶνος 'wine' + ὄψ 'face'." http://kiwihellenist.blogspot.com/2016/01/colours-in-homer-2...
(by the way I say "inaccurate" but not "wrong" as the point of contemporary reading of classic texts (or any text) is to find insights into your own states, unless you're a historian or historiographer).
Going with "dark" though, Mare Tenebrosum ("Sea of Darkness") was an ancient name for the Atlantic ocean: http://atlantipedia.ie/samples/mare-tenebrosum/
Schrader's trilogy about Leonidas is a pretty decent view into the current understanding of archaic Sparta as well.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xipe_Totec
Forty days before the festival of Xipe Totec, an Indian slave who was captured at war was dressed to represent the living god who was honored during this period. This occurred in every ward of the city, which resulted in multiple Indians being selected.[32] The central ritual act of "Tlacaxipehualiztli" was the gladiatorial sacrifice of war prisoners, which both began and culminated the festival.[33] On the next day of the festival, the game of canes was performed in the manner of two bands. The first band were those who took the part of Xipe Totec and went dressed in the skins of the war prisoners who were killed the previous day, so the fresh blood was still flowing. The opposing band was composed of daring soldiers who were brave and fearless, and who took part in the combat with the others. After the conclusion of this game, those who wore the human skins went around throughout the whole town, entering houses and demanding that those in the houses give them some alms or gifts for the love of Xipe Totec. While in the houses, they sat down on sheaves of tzapote leaves and put on necklaces which were made of ears of corn and flowers. They had them put on garlands and give them pulque to drink, which was their wine.[34] Annually, slaves or captives were selected as sacrifices to Xipe Totec.[35] After having the heart cut out, the body was carefully flayed to produce a nearly whole skin which was then worn by the priests for twenty days during the fertility rituals that followed the sacrifice.[35] This act of putting on new skin was a ceremony called 'Neteotquiliztli' translating to "impersonation of a god".[36] The skins were often adorned with bright feathers and gold jewellery when worn.[37] During the festival, victorious warriors wearing flayed skins carried out mock skirmishes throughout Tenochtitlan, they passed through the city begging alms and blessed whoever gave them food or other offerings.[6] When the twenty-day festival was over, the flayed skins were removed and stored in special containers with tight-fitting lids designed to stop the stench of putrefaction from escaping. These containers were then stored in a chamber beneath the temple.[38]
If the history passes through the conquers, it might be shaded. The actual codices would be the most reliable.
The meaning and symbolism would have been blindingly obvious to them. In general, Christian and pagan theology is basically the same. Christianity is a direct development of pagan thought.
The modern thought framework for 99.9% of modern people is Gnostic, not Christian. Both Christianity and paganism is thus completely impenetrable and incomprehensible for pretty much every person alive today.