Humor and Laughter among the Pre-Hispanic Nahua: The Rabbit, the Navel and the Jester Ruler (The Early Americas: History and Culture, 14)

Brylak, Agnieszka

ISBN 10: 9004745157 / ISBN 13: 9789004745155

Published by Brill, 2025

About this Item

Never read, no marks or highlighting in the book. Our copy is hardback, with printed covers, showing light shelf-wear.

Seller Inventory # TJP-26-0324-nr

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Humor and Laughter among the Pre-Hispanic Nahua: The Rabbit, the Navel and the Jester Ruler (The Early Americas: History and Culture, 14)
• Publisher: Brill
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9004745157
• ISBN 13: 9789004745155
• Binding: hardcover
• Condition: As New
• Weight: 24 ounces
• Seller catalogs:
  • Social Studies

About this title

Synopsis

What made the Nahua laugh? This book dives into colonial-era Nahuatl and Spanish sources to uncover the roles of humor and laughter in pre-Hispanic Central Mexico, offering a lively and original look at an often-overlooked dimension of Mesoamerican culture. From ritual clowns and sacred jokes to satirical songs and political mockery, laughter emerges as a powerful tool in religion, community life, and resistance. Drawing on lesser-known documents and on familiar texts viewed through a fresh interpretive lens, this volume reveals how the Nahua used humor to engage with the divine, critique power, and shape collective memory.

About the Author

Agnieszka Brylak, Ph.D. (2015) , University of Warsaw, is a cultural historian and philologist at that university, specializing in pre-Hispanic and early colonial Nahua culture and religion. She has published articles on Mesoamerican studies and produced critical translations of colonial Nahuatl texts.