James Maffie is principal lecturer in the Department of Philosophy and affiliate of the Latin American Studies Program at the University of Maryland.
"A masterful exposition of a fascinating topic."
--Ethnohistory "An excellent piece of scholarship. . . . Maffie's
book has given Aztec philosophy and culture a renewal of which both
he and the Aztecs can be justly proud."
--Philosophy in Review
"[A] comprehensive and beautifully argued account of Aztec
(Mexica-Nahua) metaphysics. At 527 pages with over 1800 footnotes,
it exercises a dazzling methodological and empirical precision and
constitutes one of the most important treatises on Mesoamerican
philosophy to date. It engages with and revises what have
heretofore been the predominant interpretations of Nahua philosophy
by the most important scholars in anthropology, linguistics,
ethnohistory and literature. . . . Maffie's book is an exemplary
exercise in interdisciplinary scholarship and will be invaluable to
scholars from diverse fields. . . . The simultaneous clarity and
poetic repetition make his argument not only convincing but
stellar."
--Bulletin of Latin American Research
"I would recommend this book to anyone with a professional interest
in Aztec culture, or Mesoamerican culture more broadly. It is
worthwhile to a wide audience, including philosophers, historians,
theologians, anthropologists, and archaeologists. . . . In reading
this book, I feel as if I have not only increased my knowledge of
Aztec culture. . . . I feel as if it has altered my own personal
philosophy of how to Be in the world, or better, how to engage in
an active process of Becoming."
--Anthropology News
"...the originality of this metaphysics shines through."
--L.M. Alcoff, CHOICE "For scholars interested in indigenous
heritage philosophy of the Americas, this text will delight with
its metaphysical playfulness. It is, however, to be taken
seriously. For if Maffie is correct in only some of his
disagreements with traditionally received views, he has forever
changed the weave of the rug! . . . I highly recommend this book to
anyone wanting to know more about the heritage philosophies of our
native soil. And all American philosophers should be familiar with
the metaphysics of these philosophies if they hope to have any kind
of understanding of their own philosophical influences since coming
to the Americas!"
--Anne Schulherr Waters, APA Newsletter Indigenous Philosophy
"An elaborate, fascinating, and crucially important study of Aztec
metaphysics . . . Maffie sets out to prove that the Aztecs not only
had a philosophy, and a radically different one from the
Greco-Christian West, but did philosophy as well. His account of
this philosophy is fascinating and important, worthy of the best
anthropology. Marshaling evidence from a number of sources
(textual, graphic, archaeological) and necessarily disputing the
claims of some of his scholarly predecessors, he describes a
metaphysics so foreign to Western-Christian thinking that it should
and must make us pause and consider the ground of Western
philosophy and religion."
--David Eller, Anthropology Review Database
"In this comprehensive study, James Maffie offers much more than an
introduction to Aztec philosophy. For the reader unfamiliar with
the N�huatl-speaking people of the Central Valley of Mexico, whose
capital Tenochtitlan was conquered by Hern�n Cort�s in 1521, Aztec
Philosophy offers a close examination of Nahua life, thought, and
culture; for the anthropologist and Mesoamericanist, it offers a
philosophical lens through which to examine and evaluate standard
interpretations of Aztec life and society; for the student of
philosophy, it reconstructs a systematic and coherent worldview and
provides enough material to pursue graduate level research; and for
any reader, it is a model of how to bring multiple disciplines to
bear on a topic that is beyond the scope of any one
discipline."
--Robert Eli Sanchez, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
"Aztec Philosophy not only provokes several debates within Aztec
studies but also offers some excellent, new and innovative
interpretations of Aztec cultural traditions such as ball games and
the religious practice of sweeping. The book's rich linguistic,
pictographic, historical, anthropological, and archaeological
analysis will also serve as a valuable source for scholars and
students interested in ancient Mexican culture."--Jongsoo Lee,
Journal of Anthropological Research
"Stunning . . . a major breakthrough that will be a game-changer in
Mesoamerican studies."
--Alan Sandstrom, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne
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