The Aztec Kings

This work proposes that Aztec dynastic history was recast by its 16th century recorders, not merely to glorify ancestors but to make sense out of the trauma of conquest and colonialism. "The Aztec Kings" takes into account the Aztec cyclical conception of time - which required that history constantly be reinterpreted to achieve continuity between past and present - and to treat indigenous historical traditions as symbolic statements in narrative form. Susan Gillespie focuses on the dynastic history of the Mexica of Tenochtitlan, whose stories reveal how "history" was used to construct, elaborate and rectify concepts concerning the nature of rulership and the cyclical nature of the cosmos, and how the Spanish conquest was projected deep into the Aztec past in order to make history accommodate that event. By demonstrating that most of Aztec history is nonliteral, she aims to shed light on Aztec culture and on the function of history in society. By relating the cyclical structure of Aztec dynastic history to similar traditions of African and Polynesian peoples, she introduces a broader perspective on the question of the function of history in society and on how and why history must change.