The history of Mexico's fearless intimacy with death―the elevation of death to the center of national identity.
Death and the Idea of Mexico is the first social, cultural, and political history of death in a nation that has made death its tutelary sign. Examining the history of death and of the death sign from sixteenth-century holocaust to contemporary Mexican-American identity politics, anthropologist Claudio Lomnitz's innovative study marks a turning point in understanding Mexico's rich and unique use of death imagery. Unlike contemporary Europeans and Americans, whose denial of death permeates their cultures, the Mexican people display and cultivate a jovial familiarity with death. This intimacy with death has become the cornerstone of Mexico's national identity. Death and Idea of Mexico focuses on the dialectical relationship between dying, killing, and the administration of death, and the very formation of the colonial state, of a rich and variegated popular culture, and of the Mexican nation itself. The elevation of Mexican intimacy with death to the center of national identity is but a moment within that history―within a history in which the key institutions of society are built around the claims of the fallen. Based on a stunning range of sources―from missionary testimonies to newspaper cartoons, from masterpieces of artistic vanguards to accounts of public executions and political assassinations―Death and the Idea of Mexico moves beyond the limited methodology of traditional historiographies of death to probe the depths of a people and a country whose fearless acquaintance with death shapes the very terms of its social compact.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
This outstanding work was written by an author with a Renaissance mind. It examines the Mexican people's in many respects unique relationship to death throughout several centuries. It brilliantly straddles the fields of history, anthropology, and religion.
―Friedrich Katz"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Shipping:
US$ 3.99
Within U.S.A.
Book Description Condition: New. Brand New! Not Overstocks or Low Quality Book Club Editions! Direct From the Publisher! We're not a giant, faceless warehouse organization! We're a small town bookstore that loves books and loves it's customers! Buy from Lakeside Books!. Seller Inventory # OTF-S-9781890951542
Book Description Paperback or Softback. Condition: New. Death and the Idea of Mexico 1.75. Book. Seller Inventory # BBS-9781890951542
Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9781890951542
Book Description Condition: New. Brand New. Seller Inventory # 1890951544
Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # I-9781890951542
Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # ABLIING23Mar2912160269259
Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. Brand New!. Seller Inventory # 1890951544
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New. Fast Shipping and good customer service. Seller Inventory # Holz_New_1890951544
Book Description paperback. Condition: New. Language: ENG. Seller Inventory # 9781890951542
Book Description PAP. Condition: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. Established seller since 2000. Seller Inventory # WP-9781890951542