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Course Goals

This course explores the ways Mesoamericans understood the world and their place in it, and the ways they constructed history as these are reflected in the few books that have survived from the period before the European invasion.

In addition to elaborate pictorial imagery, Mesoamericans developed a variety of special-purpose symbol systems and the only fully elaborated writing systems in the Americas. We will explore the structure of these systems and their potential for illuminating Mesoamerican world views and approaches to history. Philosophies of time were central to ancient Mesoamerican thought, so we will devote particular attention to the calendars that structured them.

We will exploit documents recorded in the Colonial period for essential clues to the meanings of precolumbian imagery and conventionalized symbols, but our primary focus will be a detailed analysis of five precolumbian books: Codex Borgia, a central Mexican manual of divinatory ritual; Codex Boturini, a history of migration in central Mexico; Codex Nuttall, a Mixtec dynastic history; and two Maya books of astrology and divination, Codex Dresden and Codex Madrid.

Syllabus

Fall 2024 syllabus

Contact Information

	John Henderson - Instructor
	Perspectives on the Past	Office Hours: Tuesday 2:00-3:00
	jsh6@cornell.edu	email for appointments at other times
	225 McGraw