General Aztecs Maya Tocuaro Kids Contact 19 Mar 2024/2 Death
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Dr. Alfredo López Austin

Question for August 2016

What’s the most interesting fact you’ve come across about the Aztecs? (3) Asked by Witham Hall Prep School. Chosen and answered by Dr. Alfredo López Austin.

An Aztec family studying the night sky
An Aztec family studying the night sky (Click on image to enlarge)

The most important thing for me has been their ‘cosmovision’ - that is, the way they saw the world, their gods, time and space, nature, society, and themselves as people, etc. Everything was part of one big system that made sense as a whole: and not just to the Aztecs. They shared their core principles with all other Mesoamerican peoples.

Español -
Lo que he encontrado más importante es su cosmovisión, o sea la concepción que tenían del mundo, de los dioses, del tiempo y el espacio, de la naturaleza, de la sociedad, de sí mismos como personas, etc. Todo formaba parte de un gran sistema coherente. Sin embargo, no era una cosmovisión exclusiva de los aztecas, sino que sus principios básicos eran comunes a todos los pueblos mesoamericanos.

Illustration drawn for us by Felipe Dávalos/Mexicolore.

See Professor Elizabeth Graham’s answer to this question

See Professor Esther Pasztory’s answer to this question

Dr. Alfredo López Austin has answered 6 questions altogether:

Why do the 20 day signs run ANTI-clockwise on the Sunstone?

Who was the first archaeologist to find out about the Aztecs?

Why was the statue of the earth goddess re-buried?

How were the stars created?

What toys did children play with?

What’s the most interesting fact you’ve come across about the Aztecs? (3)

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