The sacred as everyday: Food and ritual in Aztec art.
Item
-
Title
-
The sacred as everyday: Food and ritual in Aztec art.
-
Identifier
-
AAI3283180
-
identifier
-
3283180
-
Creator
-
Moran, Elizabeth.
-
Contributor
-
Adviser: Eloise Quinones Keber
-
Date
-
2007
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Art History
-
Abstract
-
The examination of food and its consumption in a society can lead to a wealth of information about a culture's worldview. In addition to being a source of sustenance, food also reflects a society's system of beliefs and ideals. This dissertation focuses on food, its depiction in Aztec art, and its ritual use in Aztec culture. While admittedly an odd choice for an art historian, the representation of food and its consumption is prevalent in the surviving art works created in various media by the Aztecs of Central Mexico in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The symbolic use of food and consumption is also evident in Aztec ritual, another subject recorded in several sixteenth-century sources of both native and European origin.;Food and its consumption have been explored by archaeologists, anthropologists, and religion specialists, among others. This dissertation, however, is the first integrated study by an art historian. The examination of sculptural and pictorial works of art is central to the ongoing discourse on Aztec culture and ritual. Crucial to that discussion is the way in which everyday staples gave meaning to the rituals performed, and in the process became sacred themselves. The Aztec chose specific foods as symbols and metaphors to be significant in their worldview because these foods in themselves were important to daily life. The art works created helped to communicate this intertwined relationship between the sacred and the everyday. Through an analysis of images of food and eating, and their role in ritual, this dissertation hopes to facilitate and expand the continuity of dialogue on Aztec art, culture, and worldview.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
