Fünfte Sonne: eine neue Geschichte der Azteken

by Camilla Townsend

Other authorsAnna Leube (Translator), Wolf Heinrich Leube (Translator), Rothfos & Gabler (Hamburg) (Cover designer)

Hardcover, 2023

Status

Available

Call number

972

Genres

Collections

#Location - John's Library, WELTMUSEUM WIEN, History

Publication

München: C.H. Beck, 2023 (412 p., 9 b/w ill., map, genealogical table, notes, bibliography, index, glossary;; 22 cm).

Description

In November 1519, Hernando Cortes walked along a causeway leading to the capital of the Aztec kingdom and came face to face with Moctezuma. That story-and the story of what happened afterwards-has been told many times, but always following the narrative offered by the Spaniards. After all, we have been taught, it was the Europeans who held the pens. But the Native Americans were intrigued by the Roman alphabet and, unbeknownst to the newcomers, they used it to write detailed histories in their own language of Nahuatl. Until recently, these sources remained obscure, only partially translated, and rarely consulted by scholars. For the first time, in Fifth Sun, the history of the Aztecs is offered in all its complexity based solely on the texts written by the indigenous people themselves. Camilla Townsend presents an accessible and humanized depiction of these native Mexicans, rather than seeing them as the exotic, bloody figures of European stereotypes. The conquest, in this work, is neither an apocalyptic moment, nor an origin story launching Mexicans into existence. The Mexica people had a history of their own long before the Europeans arrived and did not simply capitulate to Spanish culture and colonization. Instead, they realigned their political allegiances, accommodated new obligations, adopted new technologies, and endured.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Shrike58

Though I suspect that the author has cannibalized out a lot of her previous work for this monograph there is a lot of food for thought here, and one has to respect the effort to reconstruct a "Mexica" perspective on their own history based on their own narratives. The single most important aspect

of this book is to normalize the so-called "Aztecs" in regards to the Spanish depictions of their culture, downplaying the human sacrifice and the supposed reception of Cortes as a god (Spanish propaganda) and emphasizing the rational reception to the Spanish invasion. Recommended.

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LibraryThing member amberluscious

This book was desperately needed. It was a treasure to read about my ancestors from their perspective. It was also good to finally read about the Mexica experience prior to the conquering European settlers. I am grateful that Townsend is the kind of scholar that felt the necessity to force her

perspective towards the unknown and the oft silenced and invisibilized voices by the white-european researcher.

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LibraryThing member rivkat

A history of the people now commonly known as the Aztec Empire, with the arrival of Cortez treated as a big shock but not as the end or beginning of the story, using whenever possible the records they left of themselves—which are relatively extensive given that they had written pictograph records

before Cortez and quickly adopted an alphabetical system.

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Fewer

Language

German

Original language

English

Original publication date

2019-10-04

Physical description

412 p.; 22 cm

ISBN

3-406-79817-9 / 9783406798177

Local notes

From the front jacket flap:
"Wir haben gelernt, dass die Schrift den Europäern gehörte. Doch nach der Ankunft der Spanier und unbemerkt von diesen nutzten die Azteken das lateinische Alphabet, um ihre Geschichte in ihrer Sprache Nahuatl selbst aufzuschreiben. Auf der Grundlage dieser Texte korrigiert Camilla Townsend unsere Vorstellungen von der aztekischen Kultur gewaltig. Anstatt den europäischen Stereotypen einer exotischen, blutrünstigen Gesellschaft zu folgen, zeichnet sie ein sehr viel menschlicheres Bild jener Indigenen, die sich selbst Mexica nannten. Sie macht auch deutlich, dass die Eroberung durch die Spanier weder eine Apokalypse noch der Ursprung der Mexikaner war. Denn das Volk der Mexica kapitulierte nicht einfach vor der spanischen Kultur und Kolonisierung. Stattdessen richteten sie ihre politischen Loyalitäten neu aus, übernahmen neue Technologien und hielten durch. Glänzend erzählt, erkundet dieses Buch die Erfahrungen eines einst mächtigen Volkes, das mit dem Trauma der Eroberung konfrontiert war und Wege fand zu überleben."

INHALT:

Glossar 7
Anmerkungen zur Terminologie, Übersetzung und Aussprache I I
Einleitung I 7
I Der Weg von den Sieben Höhlen (vor I299) 35
2 Menschen des Tals (1350-1460) 63
3 Die Stadt im See (1470-1518) 99
4 Fremdlinge für uns Menschen hier (1519) 137
5 Ein Krieg, um alle Kriege zu beenden (1520-1521I) 169
6 Frühe Tage (1520-1560) 201
7 Krise: Die Indios ergreifen das Wort (1560-1570) 239
8 Die Enkel (1570-1630) 275
Epilog 309
Danksagung 315
Wie Wissenschaftler die Azteken erforschen 319
Kommentierte Bibliographie der Nahuatl-Annalen 329
Anmerkungen 343
Literaturverzeichnis 389
Register 407

Note: the cover shows an important artifact from the Weltmuseum Wien:
page 4: Umschlagabildung: Federschild aus Mexiko, um 1500, Weltmuseum Wien, Foto: KHM-Museumsverband, Weltmuseum Wien.