Frances F. Berdan and "Finding a Good Road:" Anthropology and the Aztec World

Summary

Frances F. Berdan and Patricia Rieff Anawalt begin their magnificent four-volume edition of the Codez Mendoza by offering the following words to Mesoamerican scholars, "ce qualli obtli." "May you find the good road." Frances Berdan’s road to understanding the Aztec world crosses subfields of anthropology, ethnography, ethnohistory, archaeology and linguistics. As one of the most influential and productive scholars of the Aztecs, her road runs opposite the trend in anthropology of increasing divergence among its subfields. Drawing on her biography, this paper considers Berdan’s contributions and how her research has so successfully intersected subfields and disciplines to yield new information and new insights about one of the most complex societies of the prehispanic Americas.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• The Aztecs and their World: Initerdisciplinary Contributions of Frances Berdan

Keywords

Spatial Coverage