Contents Foreword Acknowledgments List of Illustrations Introduction 1 Introducing the Subject 2 Indicating Sociopolitical Relevance 3 Realizing the Aesthetics of Religion 4 Outlining the Chapters 1 Methodology 1 Doing Research in a Postcolonial World 2 Writing History 3 Clarifying Perspectives and Objectives 4 Summary 2 Living in Cultural Diversity 1 Drawing on History 2 Living in the Central Highlands 3 Living in Religious Diversity 4 Conclusion: Diversity within the Nahua Tradition 3 Living in Relation: Being Human in Tenochtitlan 1 How the World Came to Be 2 How the Human World Came to Be 3 How the Cosmic Dynamics Unfold 4 Living in Cosmic Relations 5 Living in Social Relations 6 Living Properly-Living in Balance 4 A World in Motion: Nahua Ontology 1 Aztec Notions of "Divinity" 2 The Nature of Teotl 3 Teotl's Realization: Nahualli and the Layers of Reality 4 A World in Motion: The Fifth Era 5 The Problem of Ephemerality: What Is Really Real? 5 Understanding a World in Motion: Nahua Epistemology 1 Epistemology 2 Knowledge Experts: Wise (Wo)Men and Scribes 2 People with Special Insights 3 The Inspiration of Knowledge and Its Expression 6 Interacting with a World in Motion: Nahua Pragmatism and Aesthetics 1 Human Agency: Seeking Balance 2 Human Duties 3 Interacting with Rituals 4 Involving the Senses and Aesthetic Media 5 The Concept of the Teixiptla 7 Expressing Reality in Language: Nahua Linguistic Theory 1 Nahua Oral Tradition 2 Reconstructing Nahua Songs 3 Thinking in Nahuatl 4 Nahua Imagery 5 The Relationship between the Spoken Sign and Reality in Nahuatl 6 Nahua Imagery and the Problem of Rationality 8 Materializing Reality in Writing: Nahua Pictography 1 The History of Writing Systems in Mesoamerica 2 The Writing System of the Nahuas 3 Social Text Practice 4 Books and Authors 5 Nahua Culture between Orality and Literacy 9 Understanding Pictography: Interpreting Nahua Semiotics 1 The History of Evaluating Aztec Writing 2 Different Kinds of Meaning and Knowledge 3 Seeing Reality: Nahua Semiotic Theory 4 Interpreting Nahua Pictography 10 Interpretative Results: Nahua Religion, Scripture, and Sense of Reality 1 From Religion to Being-in-the-World 2 From Scripture to Semiotics 3 Interrelationships: Semiotic Theory and Embodied Meaning Conclusion References Index Plates