"Daily Life of the Aztecs"

Paper Summary:

This paper focuses on the various and varied sources used by Soustelle in his book in which the author provides a multi-perspective account into the daily life of the Aztecs. Soustelle draws upon original source documents from surviving texts and materials. He cites surviving Aztec documents such as the Codex Azcatitlan, Cronica Mexicayotl, and the Mapa Tlotzin; Soustelle also cites numerous Spanish sources written at the time of conquest.

From the Paper:

"The Introduction to Daily Life of the Aztecs provides historical context and background to the ideas, issues, and facts Soustelle presents in the book. The author begins by reminding the reader that the Aztecs were only one of many Mexican civilizations that flowered since the third millennium, BCE. Furthermore, Soustelle notes that the Aztecs themselves conquered other cultures on Mexican soil to eventually attain dominance of the region. The area in question is Mexico-Tenochtitlan, or the valley now known as Mexico City. Because Aztec life during the fifteenth century was largely urban in nature, Soustelle is also able to hone in on the specifics of city life. This makes the material extremely accessible to modern readers, who can relate to many of the aspects of daily life depicted in Soustelle's book. The introduction also clarifies the source documents. The Aztecs were dedicated to chronicling their culture, as they were proud and self-conscious people. Their language was a sophisticated set of figurative and phonetic pictographs. Unfortunately, after conquest, most of the Aztec writings were destroyed. The Spaniards, when they first encountered the Aztec people, deemed them immoral savages incapable of producing anything of true worth. Soustelle does a great job of emphasizing the horrendous nature of the conquest, even as he is able to describe some of the more brutal activities the Aztecs themselves engaged in. Soustelle's account is honest but not without opinion"

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