Aztec Antichrist (Paperback)

Ben Leeming

ISBN 10: 1646422996 / ISBN 13: 9781646422999

Published by University Press of Colorado, Colorado, 2022

About this Item

Paperback. In Aztec Antichrist, Ben Leeming presents a transcription, translation, and study of two sixteenth-century Nahuatl religious plays that are likely the earliest surviving presentations of the Antichrist legend in the Americas, and possibly the earliest surviving play scripts in the whole of the New World in any language. Discovered in the archives of the Hispanic Society of America in New York inside a notebook of miscellaneous Nahuatl-Christian texts written almost entirely by an Indigenous writer named Fabian de Aquino, the plays are filled with references to human sacrifice, bloodletting, ritual divination, and other religious practices declared idolatrous at a time when ecclesiastical authorities actively sought to suppress writing about Indigenous religion. These are Indigenous plays for an Indigenous audience that reveal how Nahuas made sense of Christianity and helped form its colonial imagethe title figure is a powerful Indigenous being, an Aztec Antichrist, who violently opposes the evangelizing efforts of the church and seeks to draw converted Nahuas back to the religious practices of their ancestors. These practices include devotion to Nahua deities such as Tlaloc, Quetzalcoatl, and Tezcatlipoca who, in one of the most striking moves made by Aquino, are cast as characters in the plays. Along with the translations, Leeming provides context and analysis highlighting these rare and fascinating examples of early Indigenous American literature that offer a window into the complexity of Nahua interactions with Christianity in the early colonial period. The work is extremely valuable to all students and scholars of Latin American religion, colonialism, Indigenous history, and early modern history and theater. "In Aztec Antichrist, Ben Leeming presents a transcription, translation, and study of two Nahuatl Antichrist plays that are likely the earliest surviving presentations of the Antichrist legend in the Americas, and possibly the earliest surviving play scripts in the whole of the New World in any language"-- Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781646422999

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Aztec Antichrist (Paperback)
• Publisher: University Press of Colorado, Colorado
• Publication Date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1646422996
• ISBN 13: 9781646422999
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

In Aztec Antichrist, Ben Leeming presents a transcription, translation, and study of two sixteenth-century Nahuatl religious plays that are likely the earliest surviving presentations of the Antichrist legend in the Americas, and possibly the earliest surviving play scripts in the whole of the New World in any language.

Discovered in the archives of the Hispanic Society of America in New York inside a notebook of miscellaneous Nahuatl-Christian texts written almost entirely by an Indigenous writer named Fabían de Aquino, the plays are filled with references to human sacrifice, bloodletting, ritual divination, and other religious practices declared “idolatrous” at a time when ecclesiastical authorities actively sought to suppress writing about Indigenous religion. These are Indigenous plays for an Indigenous audience that reveal how Nahuas made sense of Christianity and helped form its colonial image—the title figure is a powerful Indigenous being, an “Aztec Antichrist,” who violently opposes the evangelizing efforts of the church and seeks to draw converted Nahuas back to the religious practices of their ancestors. These practices include devotion to Nahua deities such as Tlaloc, Quetzalcoatl, and Tezcatlipoca who, in one of the most striking moves made by Aquino, are cast as characters in the plays.

Along with the translations, Leeming provides context and analysis highlighting these rare and fascinating examples of early Indigenous American literature that offer a window into the complexity of Nahua interactions with Christianity in the early colonial period. The work is extremely valuable to all students and scholars of Latin American religion, colonialism, Indigenous history, and early modern history and theater.

About the Author

Ben Leeming is an independent scholar who works on colonial Nahuatl-Christian religious texts. He is a senior member of the faculty at The Rivers School in Weston, Massachusetts, where he teaches the history of art, world history, and the history of the Indigenous Americas.