The Treatise of Hernando Ruiz de Alarcon is one of the most
important surviving documents of early colonial Mexico. It was
written in 1629 as an aid to Roman Catholic churchmen in their
efforts to root out the vestiges of pre-Columbian Aztec religious
beliefs and practices. For the student of Aztec religion and
culture is a valuable source of information.
Hernando Ruiz de Alarcon was born in Taxco, Guerrero, Mexico, in
the latter part of the sixteenth century. He attended the
University of Mexico and later took holy orders. Sometime after he
was assigned to the parish of Atenango, he began writing the
Treatise for his fellow priests and church superiors to use as a
guide in suppressing native "heresy."
With great care and attention to detail Ruiz de Alarcon
collected and recorded Aztec religious practices and incantations
that had survived a century of Spanish domination (sometimes in his
zeal extracting information from his informants through force and
guile). He wrote down the incantations in Nahuatl and translated
them into Spanish for his readers. He recorded rites for such
everyday activities as woodcutting, traveling, hunting, fishing,
farming, harvesting, fortune telling, lovemaking, and the curing of
many diseases, from toothache to scorpion stings. Although Ruiz de
Alarcon was scornful of native medical practices, we know now that
in many aspects of medicine the Aztec curers were far ahead of
their European counterparts.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
