Time and Sacrifice in the Aztec Cosmos

This introduction to the Mexica (or Aztec) cosmos explores sacrifice as both the foundation for and an ethical response to existence in the richly textured world of sixteenth-century Mexico. Drawing on archaeological remains, sculptures, pictorial and calendrical codices, and original translations of Nahuatl poetry and folktales, Kay Almere Read describes a world in which every being was allotted a specific lifetime and where sacrifice was the mechanism by which time functioned.

This book presents a convincing interpretation of what sacrifice meant in the religious life of the Mexica people - and how human sacrifice of staggering proportions could be accepted.