Output details

Bonds of Blood: Gender, Lifecycle and Sacrifice in Aztec Culture

In July 2009, this book was awarded the Royal Historical Society's Gladstone Prize for 2008, for the best first book published in that year on a subject not primarily related to British history.

This output is based on a substantial body of primary source material, principally alphabetic texts in multiple languages but also archaeological evidence and pictorial codices. These are highly problematic sources for pre-conquest Aztec culture, and required meticulous and nuanced dissection, as they were almost all produced in the post-conquest period. The evidence is used to develop two complex and original insights: a fresh interpretation of gender relations; and an innovative study of the everyday life of the Aztecs which explores human sacrifice as a comprehensible element of their everyday life and existence.