Merilee Grindle In the Shadow of Quetzalcoatl (Hardback)

Description: Further DetailsTitle: In the Shadow of QuetzalcoatlCondition: NewFormat: HardbackSubtitle: Zelia Nuttall and the Search for Mexico’s Ancient CivilizationsISBN-10: 067427833XEAN: 9780674278332ISBN: 9780674278332Publisher: Harvard University PressRelease Date: 11/07/2023Description: A Foreign Affairs Best Book of the Year"What a woman! And what a fabulous life to unearth. Zelia Nuttall was incredibly smart, determined, a divorced single mother in a man’s world, a great scholar, and an original thinker—yet today she’s completely forgotten. Merilee Grindle has dug deep into the archives and uncovered her fascinating story."—Andrea Wulf, author of The Invention of Nature"Zelia Nuttall comes alive in all her fascinating contradictions in Merilee Grindle’s capable hands...[This] biography challenges our modern smugness and reminds us that our roots as scholars are more complex than we often acknowledge."—Camilla Townsend, author of Fifth Sun: A New History of the AztecsThe gripping story of a pioneering anthropologist whose exploration of Aztec cosmology, rediscovery of ancient texts, and passion for collecting helped shape our understanding of pre-Columbian Mexico.Where do human societies come from? The drive to answer this question took on a new urgency in the nineteenth century, when a generation of archaeologists began to look beyond the bible for the origins of different cultures and civilizations. A child of the San Francisco Gold Rush whose mother was born in Mexico City, Zelia Nuttall threw herself into the study of Aztec customs and cosmology, eager to use the tools of the emerging science of anthropology to prove that modern Mexico was built over the ruins of ancient civilizations.Proud, disciplined, as prickly as she was independent, Zelia Nuttall was the first person to accurately decode the Aztec calendar stone. An intrepid researcher, she found pre-Columbian texts lost in European archives and was skilled at making sense of their pictographic histories. Her work on the terra-cotta heads of Teotihuacán captured the attention of Frederic Putnam, who offered her a job at Harvard’s Peabody Museum.Divorced and juggling motherhood and career, Nuttall chose to follow her own star, publishing her discoveries and collecting artifacts for US museums to make ends meet. From her beloved Casa Alvarado in Coyoacán, she became a vital bridge between Mexican and US anthropologists, connecting them against the backdrop of war and revolution.The first biography of Zelia Nuttall, In the Shadow of Quetzalcoatl captures the appeal and contradictions that riddled the life of this trailblazing woman, who contributed so much to the new field of anthropology until a newly professionalized generation overshadowed her remarkable achievements and she became, in the end, an artifact in her own museum.Language: EnglishCountry/Region of Manufacture: USItem Height: 235mmItem Length: 156mmAuthor: Merilee GrindleGenre: BiographyTopic: Language & Reference, Social Sciences, Society & Culture, HistoryItem Width: 34mmItem Weight: 816gType: AnthropologyRelease Year: 2023 Missing Information?Please contact us if any details are missing and where possible we will add the information to our listing.

Price: 51.42 USD

Location: 60543

End Time: 2025-01-31T14:06:29.000Z

Shipping Cost: 0 USD