MesoAmerica
As usual, I begin with a bibliography, to which I will add other features as my interest grows. More on this story as it breaks.
Burr Cartwright Brundage, Fifth Sun, U. Texas 1979. Though quite readable cover to cover, this is more of a reference book than a narrative. It surveys the Aztec pantheon and cosmology with particular attention to the subordination, fusion and absorption of deities by one another over time. Rather in the spirit of Guthrie's The Greeks and Their Gods. This author is rarely referenced nowadays because he wrote forty years ago (though his information and conclusions are by no means dated). Brundage was never quite accepted by the academic MesoAmericanist community because he was a soldier, a renegade Egyptologist and a poet. The fear and suspicion with which the the academic regards a complete and realized man is here once more sufficiently attested. The only criticism I can offer of him is his bourgeois horror of the Aztec religious darkness, which results in some Frazerian purple passages which are thoroughly enjoyable.
Burr Cartwright Brundage, The Jade Steps, U. Utah 1985. This remains the best survey of Aztec religion, cult, priesthood and festivals, that I have seen. Really a reference book, it is quite readable cover to vcover as well. Brundage writes unflinchingly, poetically, and thus memorably, of the often horrific rites. A splendid companion-piece to the still-unsurpassed Fifth Sun.
Mel Gibson, Apocalypto. I rented this film knowing that it would be offensive drivel, just wanting to see the costumes, fine Native American actors, and the reconstructed city. It had all that, lovingly reconstructed, as well as a well-paced adventure movie plot that held my interest from beginning to end. Now, the offenses of the film in no particular order. The drumming and dance of the Aztecs was about what one would find at a pagan gathering: four-four thumping and dance steps only white people could have come up with. The complex, mystical and chivalric Aztec attitude to sacrifice and warfare was reduced to the sort of leering sadism Gibson clearly enjoys. But not every Aztec is presented as a Nazi with a war-club: only the warriors. The civilized Aztecs are depicted as deranged drooling subhumans (rather like the "natives" in the remake of King Kong). The good guys are of course the Christians, who show up at the very end to put an end to the meso-american killing frenzy. In sum, Gibson hates Native Americans very nearly as much as he hates Jews. But not quite. The Native Americans only worship devils, the Jews actually are the devil. I wonder how long before he turns his camera eye on the Evil Albigensians?
Pal Kelemen, Medieval American Art, Macmillan NY 1943. An important publication in its time, in black and white, and now superceded. I have not seen the first volume, which contains the commentary. Perhaps that would give me a higher opinion of this.
Mary Miller and Karl Taube, An Illustrated Dictionary of The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya, Thames and Hudson 1993. Profusely illustrated in black and white, this handy and clearly written little reference book indispensable.
Ralph L. Roys, The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel. U. Oklahoma 1967. A book of Mayan prophecies written down in Mayan in Roman transcription. The oldest material goes back to the 16th century, but the versions we have now are from the 18th and have plenty of Christian interpolation. A thoroughly random collection of prophecy and assorted lore, and nearly unintelligible. It contains some valuable snippets of mythological information, but it would take a real specialist to appreciate them.