ISBN:
9789004392014
Language:
English
Pages:
1 Online-Ressource (XVIII, 435 Seiten)
,
Illustrationen
Series Statement:
Numen book series volume 161
Series Statement:
Religious Studies, Theology and Philosophy E-Books Online, Collection 2019, ISBN: 9789004390898
Parallel Title:
Erscheint auch als Laack, Isabel Aztec religion and art of writing
Parallel Title:
Erscheint auch als Laack, Isabel Aztec religion and art of writing
Dissertation note:
Habilitationsschrift Faculty of Philosophy at Heidelberg University 2018
Keywords:
Nahuatl language Writing
;
Nahuas Religion
;
Aztec cosmology
;
Nahuatl language Writing
;
Nahuas Religion
;
Aztec cosmology
;
Hochschulschrift
;
Azteken
;
Religion
;
Nahua-Sprachen
;
Heilige Schrift
;
Präkolumbische Zeit
Abstract:
Front Matter -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Figures -- Introduction 1 -- 1 Methodology 16 -- 2 Living in Cultural Diversity 59 -- 3 Living in Relation: Being Human in Tenochtitlan 80 -- 4 A World in Motion: Nahua Ontology 109 -- 5 Understanding a World in Motion: Nahua Epistemology 149 -- 6 Interacting with a World in Motion: Nahua Pragmatism and Aesthetics 167 -- 7 Expressing Reality in Language: Nahua Linguistic Theory 203 -- 8 Materializing Reality in Writing: Nahua Pictography 246 -- 9 Understanding Pictography: Interpreting Nahua Semiotics 286 -- 10 Interpretative Results: Nahua Religion, Scripture, and Sense of Reality 342 -- Conclusion 356 -- Figures 365 -- Figure Credits 381 -- Back Matter -- References -- Index.
Abstract:
In her groundbreaking investigation from the perspective of the aesthetics of religion, Isabel Laack explores the religion and art of writing of the pre-Hispanic Aztecs of Mexico. Inspired by postcolonial approaches, she reveals Eurocentric biases in academic representations of Aztec cosmovision, ontology, epistemology, ritual, aesthetics, and the writing system to provide a powerful interpretation of the Nahua sense of reality. Laack transcends the concept of “sacred scripture” traditionally employed in religions studies in order to reconstruct the Indigenous semiotic theory and to reveal how Aztec pictography can express complex aspects of embodied meaning. Her study offers an innovative approach to nonphonographic semiotic systems, as created in many world cultures, and expands our understanding of human recorded visual communication. This book will be essential reading for scholars and readers interested in the history of religions, Mesoamerican studies, and the ancient civilizations of the Americas. 'This excellent book, written with intellectual courage and critical self-awareness, is a brilliant, multilayered thought experiment into the images and stories that made up the Nahua sense of reality as woven into their sensational ritual performances and colorful symbolic writing system.' - Davíd Carrasco, Harvard University
Note:
Includes bibliographical references and index
DOI:
10.1163/9789004392014
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