The Teotihuacan Trinity : : The Sociopolitical Structure of an Ancient Mesoamerican City / / Annabeth Headrick.

Northeast of modern-day Mexico City stand the remnants of one of the world's largest preindustrial cities, Teotihuacan. Monumental in scale, Teotihuacan is organized along a three-mile-long thoroughfare, the Avenue of the Dead, that leads up to the massive Pyramid of the Moon. Lining the avenue...

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Bibliographic Details
Superior document:Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Texas Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
VerfasserIn:
Place / Publishing House:Austin : : University of Texas Press, , [2021]
©2007
Year of Publication:2021
Language:English
Series:The William and Bettye Nowlin Series in Art, History, and Culture of the Western Hemisphere
Online Access:
Physical Description:1 online resource (230 p.)
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Other title:Frontmatter --
Contents --
List of Illustrations --
Preface --
Chapter 1. Approaching the City --
Chapter 2. The Invisible Kings --
Chapter 3. Ancestral Foundations --
Chapter 4. Animals, Cannibals, and the Military --
Chapter 5. A Marriage of Convenience: The King and the Military --
Chapter 6. The Gods Did It: The Divine Sanction of Power --
Chapter 7. Teotihuacan Jihad --
Chapter 8. Fiesta Teotihuacan Style --
Chapter 9. Continuities and Power --
Notes --
Bibliography --
Index
Summary:Northeast of modern-day Mexico City stand the remnants of one of the world's largest preindustrial cities, Teotihuacan. Monumental in scale, Teotihuacan is organized along a three-mile-long thoroughfare, the Avenue of the Dead, that leads up to the massive Pyramid of the Moon. Lining the avenue are numerous plazas and temples, which indicate that the city once housed a large population that engaged in complex rituals and ceremonies. Although scholars have studied Teotihuacan for over a century, the precise nature of its religious and political life has remained unclear, in part because no one has yet deciphered the glyphs that may explain much about the city's organization and belief systems. In this groundbreaking book, Annabeth Headrick analyzes Teotihuacan's art and architecture, in the light of archaeological data and Mesoamerican ethnography, to propose a new model for the city's social and political organization. Challenging the view that Teotihuacan was a peaceful city in which disparate groups united in an ideology of solidarity, Headrick instead identifies three social groups that competed for political power—rulers, kin-based groups led by influential lineage heads, and military orders that each had their own animal insignia. Her findings provide the most complete evidence to date that Teotihuacan had powerful rulers who allied with the military to maintain their authority in the face of challenges by the lineage heads. Headrick's analysis also underscores the importance of warfare in Teotihuacan society and clarifies significant aspects of its ritual life, including shamanism and an annual tree-raising ceremony that commemorated the Mesoamerican creation story.
Format:Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
ISBN:9780292794887
9783110745344
DOI:10.7560/716650
Access:restricted access
Hierarchical level:Monograph
Statement of Responsibility: Annabeth Headrick.