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With its rich archaeological and historical record, the Aztec empire provides an intriguing opportunity to understand the dynamics and structure of early states and empires. Rethinking the Aztec Economy brings together leading scholars from multiple disciplines to thoroughly synthesize and examine the nature of goods and their movements across rural and urban landscapes in Mesoamerica. In so doing, they provide a new way of understanding society and economy in the Aztec empire.
The volume is divided into three parts. Part 1 synthesizes our current understanding of the Aztec economy and singles out the topics of urbanism and provincial merchant activity for more detailed analysis. Part 2 brings new data and a new conceptual approach that applies insights from behavioral economics to Nahua and Aztec rituals and social objects. Contributors also discuss how high-value luxury goods, such as feather art, provide insights about both economic and sacred concepts of value in Aztec society. Part 3 reexamines the economy at the Aztec periphery. The volume concludes with a synthesis on the scale, integration, and nature of change in the Aztec imperial economy.
Rethinking the Aztec Economy illustrates how superficially different kinds of social contexts were in fact integrated into a single society through the processes of a single economy. Using the world of goods as a crucial entry point, this volume advances scholarly understanding of life in the Aztec world.
With its rich archaeological and historical record, the Aztec empire provides an intriguing opportunity to understand the dynamics and structure of early states and empires. Rethinking the Aztec Economy brings together leading scholars from multiple disciplines to thoroughly synthesize and examine the nature of goods and their movements across rural and urban landscapes in Mesoamerica. In so doing, they provide a new way of understanding society and economy in the Aztec empire.
The volume is divided into three parts. Part 1 synthesizes our current understanding of the Aztec economy and singles out the topics of urbanism and provincial merchant activity for more detailed analysis. Part 2 brings new data and a new conceptual approach that applies insights from behavioral economics to Nahua and Aztec rituals and social objects. Contributors also discuss how high-value luxury goods, such as feather art, provide insights about both economic and sacred concepts of value in Aztec society. Part 3 reexamines the economy at the Aztec periphery. The volume concludes with a synthesis on the scale, integration, and nature of change in the Aztec imperial economy.
Rethinking the Aztec Economy illustrates how superficially different kinds of social contexts were in fact integrated into a single society through the processes of a single economy. Using the world of goods as a crucial entry point, this volume advances scholarly understanding of life in the Aztec world.
Deborah L. Nichols is the William J. Bryant 1925 Professor
of Anthropology at Dartmouth College. She is the co-editor of the
Oxford Handbook of the Aztecs, among other volumes. She has
received both the Society for American Archaeology's Distinguished
Service Award and the American Anthropological Association's
President's Award.
Frances F. Berdan is professor emerita of anthropology at
California State University, San Bernardino. She has authored,
co-authored, or co-edited thirteen books and more than a hundred
articles, including the four-volume Codex Mendoza. Her most recent
book is Aztec Archaeology and Ethnohistory.
Michael E. Smith is a professor in the School of Human
Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. He is the
author of numerous scholarly articles and six books on the Aztecs,
including At Home with the Aztecs: An Archaeologist Uncovers Their
Daily Life.
A superb new contribution to the literature on premodern goods and
economies, and Aztec society in particular.""—David M. Carballo,
author of Urbanization and Religion in Ancient Central Mexico
""An essential contribution to Mesoamerican studies, and a
statement of progress toward understanding premodern economy and
society generally.""—Stephen Kowalewski, co-author of Origins of
the Ñuu Archaeology in the Mixteca Alta, Mexico
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