Alfredo López Austin

"Divides indigenous peoples into three major units: 1) 'Aridamérica' (including central and southern California, the Sonora coast, the Great Basin of Nevada, Utah, and northwestern Arizona, the Apache area, a small part of southern Texas, and a large portion of northern Mexico), 2) 'Oasisamérica' (covering parts of northern Mexico, southeastern California, all of Arizona, almost all of Utah, more than half of New Mexico, and the southwestern corner of Colorado); and 3) 'Mesoamérica' (defined, in part, as taking in the peoples of 16 linguistic families: Hokano-coahuilteca, Chinanteca, Otopame, Oaxaqueña, Mangueña, Huave, Tlapaneca, Totonaca, Mixe, Maya, Yutoazteca, Tarasca, Cuitlateca, Lenca, Xinca, and Misumalpa). Proceeds with an overview of the Mesoamerican preclassic, classic, epiclassic, and postclassic periods"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.

The Rabbit on the Face of the Moon is a collection of articles on mythology in the Mesoamerican tradition by Alfredo Lopez Austin, one of the foremost scholars of ancient Mesoamerican thought. Their span is diverse: myths and names, eclipses, stars, left and right, Mexica origins, Aztec incantations, animals, and the incorporation of Christian elements into the living mythologies of Mexico. The title essay relates the Mesoamerican myth explaining why there is a rabbit on the moon's face to a Buddhist image and suggests the importance of the profound mythical concepts presented by each image. The eighteen pieces in this volume are unified by their basis in Mesoamerican tradition and provide a fascinating look into a system of milennia-old legends and beliefs.

"The Myth of Quetzalcoatl is a translation of Alfredo López Austin’s 1973 book Hombre-Dios: Religión y politica en el mundo náhuatl. Despite its pervasive and lasting influence on the study of Mesoamerican history, religion in general, and the Quetzalcoatl myth in particular, this work has not been available in English until now. The importance of Hombre-Dios and its status as a classic arise from its interdisciplinary approach, creative use of a wide range of source material, and unsurpassed treatment of its subject—the nature and content of religious beliefs and rituals among the native populations of Mesoamerica and the manner in which they fused with and helped sanctify political authority and rulership in both the pre- and post-conquest periods. Working from a wide variety of previously neglected documentary sources, incorporating myth, archaeology, and the ethnography of contemporary Native Americans including non-Nahua peoples, López Austin traces the figure of Quetzalcoatl as a “Man-God” from pre-conquest times, while Russ Davidson’s translator’s note, Davíd Carrasco's foreword, and López Austin’s introduction place the work within the context of modern scholarship. López Austin’s original work on Quetzalcoatl is a pivotal work in the field of anthropology, and this long-overdue English translation will be of significance to historians, anthropologists, linguists, and serious readers interested in Mesoamerica."--

"Collection of seven significant articles by scholars such as Graulich, López Austin, and Taube. Chronologically organized, the chapters consist of an analysis of iconographic representations of the maize god among the Olmec and its spread among other peoples of Mesoamerica, a discussion of evidence for decapitation rituals found in recent excavations of the Casa del Marqués del Apartado in central Mexico City (the site of a prehispanic temple), a study of late postclassic central Mexican astrological and calendrical symbolism connected with pulque, death, the night, and the tzitzimime, an examination of the iconography of the famous 'Mexican Calendar Stone' and the Teocalli de la Guerra Sagrada, two chapters on the functions of myth and ritual, and a study of modern Papago ritual from the area encompassed by parts of Arizona and Sonora"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.

Published in 1990 under the title Los mitos del tlacuache, this is the first major theoretical study of Mesoamerican mythology by one of the foremost scholars of Aztec ideology. Using the myth cycle of the opossum and the theft of fire from the gods as a touchstone, the author constructs a definition of myth that pertains to all of Mesoamerican culture, challenging the notion that to be relevant such studies must occur within a specific culture. Shown here is that much of modern mythology has ancient roots, despite syncretism with Christianity, and can be used to elucidate the pre-Columbian world view. Analysis of pre-Columbian myths can also be used to understand current indigenous myths. Subtopics include the hero and his place in the Mesoamerican pantheon, divine space and human space, mythic event clusters, myth as truth, and the fusion of myth and history.