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Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs

Camilla Townsend

Start date: April 1, 2024

Finish date: May 31, 2024

Discussion: Books of the Month

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Apr 12, 2024 Oleksandr Zholud rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fic

This is a history non-fic that attempts to present history of Aztec people is a new way, as the very title suggests. I read it as a part of the monthly reading for April-May 2024 at Non Fiction Book Club group.

From the very start I have to admit, I don’t know a lot about pre-Columbian American history – I know main groups, their buildings, some bits of history, etc. In this situation the book serves well to present me with the historic narrative, not a new, but the one, for my knowledge on the s This is a history non-fic that attempts to present history of Aztec people is a new way, as the very title suggests. I read it as a part of the monthly reading for April-May 2024 at Non Fiction Book Club group.

From the very start I have to admit, I don’t know a lot about pre-Columbian American history – I know main groups, their buildings, some bits of history, etc. In this situation the book serves well to present me with the historic narrative, not a new, but the one, for my knowledge on the subject is too meagre. One of the (good) surprises was the time period the book covers, roughly from the 13th to 17th century, so actually Cortez 1519-1521 invasion is not the starting or ending point but in the middle.

The book starts with a tribe losing a war in 1299 and captives led by victors and a woman, Chimalxochitl (Chi-mal-SHO-cheet, Shield Flower) committing self-sacrifice to curse the victors and give power to her people. They aren’t Aztec. Moreover, no one is an Aztec, the name introduced in 1810 by Alexander von Humboldt and then used by European scholars. There are at least three groups/tribes under this umbrella, speaking Nahuatl (NA-wat) language. They came from the north, initially as mercenaries, but as with a lot of mercenaries before, once they decided not to follow orders by others but to rule themselves. This happens roughly in the 1350s…

In their urban centers they set communalist rules, with the people making collective decision (e.g. to add a layer of gravel to their original adobe shrine) and jointly implementing them. To keep the giant (by European standards) city clean, they collected urine in clay pots in households from across the city and used ammonia for tanning hides and making salt crystals. Their leaders practiced polygamy and therefore had numerous offspring and complex connections between the ‘ruling houses’.

Then there is a detailed description of Cortez conquest, who helped him, how he operated, etc., with which I has been acquainted before, but here I found for the first time that viewing white bearded men as gods is a myth, invented later…

The book gives a wealth of info but there are some issues: first, one linked to audio – too many local names, which are hard to remember and then follow, who did what (this is more my fault than the book). Secondly, too much following the written sources without linking them to archeology and other disciplines – I’m more interested in how their cities operated than on court intrigues. Finally, the author bases too much on books written by natives in the 1540s or later for the event from over a century before. Say, the very fact that initial teachers/creators of phonetic alphabet were friars means non-random selection of pupils and say stories like the sacrifice described at the start maybe a Christian interpretation (similar to Christ’s sacrifice) and not ‘truly’ a story from the thirteenth century. However, overall, a great introduction.

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Jun 04, 2024 Mer rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, other-perspectives, nf-challenge-24

Growing up I knew just the name of 3 cultures from Central and/or South America, and that was it. Where they had lived and when, and details about them either didn't exist or I've forgotten them. This book does a great job of drilling into 1 of them, especially focusing on native sources.

It can get a bit overwhelming and drawn out but hang in there to the Epilogue and Appendix where the author goes into detail on the discovery of the sources of her information and how they relate to her story.

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