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9781477334492 Academic Inspection Copy

The Bundle

Unwrapping Nahua Religious Traditions
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An examination of the importance of Nahua sacred bundles, emphasizing their impact on power dynamics, language, and culture in the Nahua religious tradition. The Bundle is a deep scholarly meditation on tlaquimilolli, key religious objects of Mexico's Indigenous Nahua, formerly "Aztec," people. These sacred bundles, depicted across Nahua iconography, contained objects associated with the gods and their deeds and were believed to be their embodiments. Drawing on Indigenous sources, Molly Bassett tells the story of the tlaquimilolli's origins and significance, critically examines previous interpretations, and argues that the form of the tlaquimilolli-not just their contents-is a key to understanding Nahua cosmology. Bassett turns to Indigenous scholarhip to interrogate and "unwrap" accepted narratives, taking the sacred bundle itself as a model for theorizing the world. She attends to tlaquimilolli in the context of glyphs and poetry, ritual and ordinary activity, and ceremonial structures. In revealing ways, the material properties of tlaquimilolli were reflected in the architecture of major temples and key cities, like Tenochtitlan. Bundling was also closely entwined with relationships between caretakers and their dependents. These prosaic attachments cast both sacred objects and Nahua sociability in new light, challenging existing interpretations of Nahua religious traditions.
Molly H. Bassett teaches about Indigenous religious traditions, animals and religion, and world religions in the Department of Religious Studies at Georgia State University. She is the author of The Fate of Earthly Things: Aztec Gods and God-Bodies and is coeditor of Indigenous Religious Traditions in 5 Minutes and Sainthood and Race: Marked Flesh, Holy Flesh.
List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Orienting Notes for Readers Introduction. Meeting the Tlaquimilolli 0.1. The Dawn of the Fifth Sun at Teotihuacan 0.2. Tlaquimilolli as Theory and Method 0.3. A Bundle Book Chapter 1. Building the Model, a First Bundle 1.1 Layer: Visiting Tlaquimilolli 1.2 Layer: Working the Bundle Model Chapter 2. Building Knowledge, a Second Bundle 2.1 Knot: Nahua Ecological Science 2.2 Layer: Working Nahuatl Bundles 2.3 Layer: "Tenochtitlan," the Eagle on the Nopal Chapter 3. Containing Teteoh, a Third Bundle 3.1 Knot: The Christianization of the "Poet" Nezahualcoyotl 3.2 Knot: Divine Containers 3.3 Layer: The Huei Tlaquimilolli Chapter 4. Walking with Nahua Bundles, a Fourth Bundle 4.1 Layer: Clothing Bodies 4.2 Layer: Caring for Tlaquimilolli 4.3 Layer: Carrying on the Work 4.4 Layer: Abelardo de la Cruz itlapohualiz Notes Bibliography Index
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