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Title: Mexico's Indigenous Past (The Civilization of the American Indian Series) by Alfredo Lopez Austin, Leonardo Lopez Lujan, Bernard R. Ortiz De Montellano, Alfredolopez Autin, Leonardo Lopez Lujan ISBN: 0-8061-3214-0 Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press Pub. Date: 01 November, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $39.95

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Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)

Rating: 5
Summary: An Excellent Book
Comment: The ambitious agenda of Lopez Austin and Lopez Lujan is to both write a comprehensive historical review of preconquest Mexico and to present a series of debates about the important topics related to the history, archaeology, and art history of the indigenous peoples. Though they leave some room for improvement, these authors are clearly successful in their endeavor, and I heartily recommend this book, both for those looking for a primer on preconquest Mexico and for those looking for a text to use in the classroom.

This book, a translation of _El pasado indgena_, provides scholars and students with an important synthesis. The book, in an effort to preserve readability, lacks endnotes (an unfortunate decision in this reviewer's mind). The authors provide the first such overview book which goes beyond the boundaries of Mesoamerica. They argue that the three great culture areas (Aridamerica, Oasisamerica, and Mesoamerica) must be understood in relation to each other. It is a solid argument indeed. Even Mesoamerica cannot be understood without an analysis of shifting boundaries and its relationships with the other cultural areas. Yet, the problem that Lopez Austin and Lopez Lujan face is endemic to all such studies: the information on Aridamerica and Oasisamerica pales in comparison to that of Mesoamerica. Hence the book is primarily about Mesoamerica, as the other two culture areas really only influence the first chapter.

This book is well worth reading and provides some fascinating commentary. However, the authors' analyses would be helped by consulting the more recent colonial ethnohistories, which provide some more systematic analysis which could be useful, particularly in analyzing the late Postclassic societies. Certainly a consultation of recent works could allow the authors to engage in more of a critique of indigenous social structures on the eve of the Spanish conquest. The book also largely ignores gender differentiation (except for a very brief discussion of gender within religion). As recent works have shown, placing gender within historical analysis is always extremely relevant and useful. These considerations aside, the methodology used here, allowing students access to archaeological and historiographical debates while also providing a historical overview, is sound, and the authors present a highly readable and well reasoned account of indigenous Mexico before the Spanish conquest.