Breaking Through Mexico's Past: Digging the Aztecs with Eduardo Matos Moctezuma / Edition 1

by Davíd Carrasco, Leonardo L?pez Luján, Eduardo Matos Moctezuma

Overview

This biography of Mexico's award-winning archaeologist, Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, is based on a series of interviews conducted by Davíd Carrasco and Leonardo López Luján, respected Mesoamericanists in their own right. Born in 1940 Mexico City, Matos Moctezuma's father was a diplomat from the Dominican Republic and his mother was a Mexican national. Thanks to his father's career, Eduardo was exposed to other cultures throughout Latin America and he learned to appreciate all that each had to offer.

Carrasco and López Luján demonstrate Eduardo's determination to recover Mexico's cultural past. In addition to secondary archaeological projects, he recently supervised the Teotihuacan Project, where he conducted important excavations at the Pyramid of the Sun, and he is currently general coordinator of the Templo Mayor Project. He served as director of the Templo Mayor Museum (1987-2001) and the National Museum of Anthropology (1985-1987).

Matos Moctezuma has received many awards during his career, including the first H. B. Nicholson Award for Excellence in Mesoamerican Studies from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826338310
Publisher:	University of New Mexico Press
Publication date:	02/16/2007
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	195
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Davíd Carrasco is Neil L. Rudenstine Professor of the Study of Latin America with a joint appointment in the Department of Anthropology and the Divinity School at Harvard University. He was recently awarded the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle.


Leonardo López Luján is senior researcher and professor at the Museo del Templo Mayor, INAH, Mexico City.


Eduardo Matos Moctezuma is Mexico's most prominant archaeologist. He is the curator and chief excavator at the Templo Mayor Museum in Mexico City.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Eduardo Matos Moctezuma: Centaur at the Ready     1
Childhood     13
The Five Breaking Points of the Centaur     31
From Religion to Anthropology: The National School of Anthropology and History     41
The Templo Mayor Project: The Second Breaking Point     83
The Aztecs Conquer the World     137
Toward the Encounter with Death: The Fifth Breaking Point     165
Postscript     171
Pensamientos     173
Chronology     179
Index     185

Editorial Reviews

.,."this remarkable book provides real insight into the personality, personal and professional lives or one of Mexico's best known contemporary archaeologists..."

From the Publisher