1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910817888903321

Autore

Headrick Annabeth

Titolo

The Teotihuacan trinity : the sociopolitical structure of an ancient Mesoamerican city / / Annabeth Headrick

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Austin, : University of Texas Press, 2007

ISBN

0-292-79488-6

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (227 p.)

Collana

The William & Bettye Nowlin series in art, history, and culture of the Western Hemisphere

Disciplina

972

Soggetti

Aztecs - Mexico - San Juan Teotihuacan - Politics and government

Aztecs - Mexico - San Juan Teotihuacan - Rites and ceremonies

Aztecs - Mexico - San Juan Teotihuacan - Antiquities

Excavations (Archaeology) - Mexico - San Juan Teotihuacan

Social archaeology - Mexico - San Juan Teotihuacan

Teotihuacan Site (San Juan Teotihuacan, Mexico)

San Juan Teotihuacan (Mexico) Antiquities

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [181]-202) and index.

Nota di contenuto

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

Sommario/riassunto

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.