Mesoamerica's Classic Heritage: From Teotihuacan to the Aztecs (Mesoamerican Worlds)

For more than a millennium the great Mesoamerican city of Teotihuacan (c. 150 B.C.E.—750 C.E.) has been imagined and reimagined by a host of subsequent cultures, including our own. MesoamericaÂ’s Classic Heritage engages the subject of the unity and diversity of pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica by focusing on the classic heritage of this ancient city. This new volume is the product of several years of research by members of Princeton UniversityÂ’s Moses Mesoamerican Archive and Research Project and MexicoÂ’s Proyecto Teotihuacán. Offering a variety of disciplinary perspectives—including the history of religions, anthropology, archaeology, and art history—and a wealth of new data, MesoamericaÂ’s Classic Heritage examines TeotihuacanÂ’s rippling influence across Mesoamerican time and space, including important patterns of continuity and change, and its relationships, both historical and symbolic, with Tenochtitlan, Cholula, and various Maya communities. The contributors to MesoamericaÂ’s Classic Heritage offer a wide range of individual interpretations, but they agree that Teotihuacan, more than any other pre-Hispanic center, was a paradigmatic source that formed the art and architecture, cosmology and ritual life, and conceptions of urbanism and political authority for significant parts of the Mesoamerican world. This great city achieved the prestige of being the site of the creation of the cosmos and of effective social and political space in Mesoamerica through its capacity to symbolize, perform, and export its imperial authority. These essays reveal the different ways in which TeotihuacanÂ’s classic heritage both fed and fed on the dynamic interactivity of the entire area. Whether or not a paradigm shift in Mesoamerican studies is taking place, certainly a new contextual understanding of Teotihuacan and the diversities and unities of Mesoamerica is emerging in these pages. Part I : The Paradigm Shifts In Mesoamerican Studies -- The Myth And Reality Of Zuyuá : The Feathered Serpent And Mesoamerican Transformations From The Classic To The Postclassic / Alfredo López Austin And Leonardo López Luján -- Part Ii : Classic Teotihuacan In The Context Of Mesoamerican Time And History -- The Construction Of The Underworld In Central Mexico : Transformations From The Classic To The Postclassic / Linda Manzanilla -- Teotihuacan As An Origin For Postclassic Feathered Serpent Symbolism / Saburo Sugiyama -- The Iconography Of The Feathered Serpent In Late Postclassic Central Mexico / H.b. Nicholson -- From Teotihuacan To Tenochtitlan : City Planning, Caves, And Streams Of Red And Blue Waters / Doris Heyden -- From Teotihuacan To Tenochititlan : Their Great Temples / Eduardo Matos Moctezuma -- Teotihuacan Cultural Traditions Transmitted Into The Postclassic According To Recent Excavations / Rubén Cabrera Castro --^ The 9-xi Vase : A Classic Thin Orange Vessel Found At Tenochtitlan / Leonardo López Luján, Hector Neff And Saburo Sugiyama -- Part Iii : Classic Teotihuacan In The Context Of Mesoamerican Space And Sacred Geography -- Out Of Teotihuacan : Origins Of The Celestial Canon In Mesoamerica / Anthony F. Aveni -- The Turquoise Hearth : Fire, Self-sacrifice, And The Central Mexican Cult Of War / Karl Taube -- Tollan Cholollan And The Legacy Of Legitamcy During The Classic-postclassic Transition / Geoffrey G. Mccafferty -- Part Iv : Classic Teotihuacan In The Context Of Mesoamerican Scholarship And Intellectual History -- Venerable Place Of Beginnings : The Aztec Understanding To Teotihuacan / Elizabeth H. Boone -- Calendrics And Ritual Landscape At Teotihuacan : Themes Of Continuity In Mesoamerican Cosmovision / Johanna Broda -- Teotihuacan And The Maya : A Classic Heritage / William L. Fash And Barbara W. Fash --^ The Arrival Of Strangers : Teotihuacan And Tollan In Classic Maya History / David Stuart -- Parallel Consumptive Cosmologies / Philip P. Arnold. Edited By David Carrasco, Lindsay Jones, And Scott Sessions. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. For more than a millennium the great Mesoamerican city of Teotihuacan (c. 150 B.C.-A.D. 750) has been imagined and reimagined by a host of subsequent cultures including our own. Mesoamerica's Classic Heritage engages the subject of the unity and diversity of pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica by focusing on the classic heritage of this ancient city. This new volume is the product of several years of research by members of Princeton University's Moses Mesoamerican Archive and Research Project and Mexico's Proyecto Teotihuacan. Offering a variety of disciplinary perspectives -- including the history of religions, anthropology, archaeology, and art history -- and a wealth of new data, Mesoamerica's Classic Heritage examines Teotihuacan's rippling influence across Mesoamerican time and space, including important patterns of continuity and change, and its relationships, both historical and symbolic, with Tenochtitlan, Cholula, and various Mayan communities.The contributors to Mesoamerica's Classic Heritage offer a wide range of individual interpretations, but they agree that Teotihuacan, more than any other pre-Hispanic center, was a paradigmatic source that informed the art and architecture, cosmology and ritual life, and conceptions of urbanism and political authority for significant parts of the Mesoamerican world. This great city achieved the prestige of being the site of the creation of the cosmos and of effective social and political space in Mesoamerica through its capacity to symbolize, perform, and export its imperial authority. These essays reveal the different ways in which Teotihuacan's classic heritage both fed and fed on the dynamic interactivity of the entire area. Whether a paradigmshift in Mesoamerican studies is taking place, certainly a new contextual understanding of Teotihuacan and the diversities and unities of Mesoamerica is emerging in these pages. For more than a millennium the great Mesoamerican city of Teotihuacan (c. 150 B.C.E.-750 C.E.) has been imagined and reimagined by a host of subsequent cultures, including our own. Mesoamerica's Classic Heritage engages the subject of the unity and diversity of pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica by focusing on the classic heritage of this ancient city. This new volume is the product of several years of research by members of Princeton University's Moses Mesoamerican Archive and Research Project and Mexico's Proyecto Teotihuacán. Offering a variety of disciplinary perspectives-including the history of religions, anthropology, archaeology, and art history-and a wealth of new data, Mesoamerica's Classic Heritage examines Teotihuacan's rippling influence across Mesoamerican time and space, including important patterns of continuity and change, and its relationships, both historical and symbolic, with Tenochtitlan, Cholula, and various Maya communities. The contributors to Mesoamerica's Classic Heritage offer a wide range of individual interpretations, but they agree that Teotihuacan, more than any other pre-Hispanic center, was a paradigmatic source that formed the art and architecture, cosmology and ritual life, and conceptions of urbanism and political authority for significant parts of the Mesoamerican world. This great city achieved the prestige of being the site of the creation of the cosmos and of effective social and political space in Mesoamerica through its capacity to symbolize, perform, and export its imperial authority. These essays reveal the different ways in which Teotihuacan's classic heritage both fed and fed on the dynamic interactivity of the entire area. Whether or not a paradigm shift in Mesoamerican studies is taking place, certainly a new contextual understanding of Teotihuacan and the diversities and unities of Mesoamerica is emerging Explains how and why the mythic Toltecs must be distinguished from the later historic Toltecs