Soustelle’s Daily Life Of The Aztecs

I was doing some digging online today, and had quite a stroke of good luck — I found a complete copy of Jacques Soustelle’s classic The Daily Life of the Aztecs online! The English edition of the entire book is available to read for free on Questia. Soustelle was a famous French anthropologist who specialized in studying the Aztecs before the Conquest, one of the bright lights in Mesoamerican studies of the mid 20th Century. His Daily Life of the Aztecs is one of his best-known works on this subject, covering a wide variety of details of Mexica life in great Tenochtitlan, ranging from architecture to agriculture, religion, economics, and the conduct of war. Though somewhat dated (written in 1962), most of the information in this book still remains quite useful, and his respectful, non-sensationalistic tone is refreshing. As it predates the rediscovery of the Templo Mayor (Huey Teocalli) in the 1970’s, it sadly doesn’t include much on that famous structure. Still, I strongly recommend giving it a read, as it remains one of the better general histories and anthropological overviews of life in Precolumbian Mexico.

Go HERE to read The Daily Life of the Aztecs in full!

Incidentally, I have now activated the Pre-Conquest History page in the History section of this blog’s static pages and placed an additional permanent link to this book there.

October 8, 2008 | Categories: Culture, History, Miscellaneous, People, Places, Preconquest Era, Religion, Things, Updates | Tags: antes de la conquista, Aztec, Azteca, chinampa, Conquest, cultura, culture, economics, French, full text, Grand Temple, historia, history, Huey Teocalli, indígena, Indian, indigenous, indio, Jacques Soustelle, Mesoamerica, Mexica, Mexico, Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Nahua, pre-Columbian, pre-Conquest, Pre-Hispanic, Precolumbian, preconquest, Prehispanic, Questia, religion, Templo Mayor, Tenochca, Tenochtitlan, The Daily Life of the Aztecs, Tlatelolco, Tlatelulco, tradicional, traditional, war | 9 Comments