Word: aztecs
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...layering of material in chapters called "Stone," "Flesh," "Armies," "Iron" and so on -- permits him to range across time and distance to brilliant comparative effect. He roams from the Japanese suppression of firearms during the Tokugawa seclusion (an early success of gun $ control, unrepeatable and totalitarian) to the Aztec "Feast of the Flaying of Men"; from Sun Tzu to Clausewitz (whom he detests as the ideological godfather of modern war-as-policy); and from the dark, irrational roots of Roman military violence to the question of why the horse nomads left the steppe to go marauding...
...example, a radiant image of a boy sipping from a shadowy stream of falling water is entitled "Sed Publica" (Public Thirst). The commentary gives some interesting information about ancient sacrifice rituals and the Aztec's conception of water as life source. But Bravo's provocative title refers to a contemporary socio-economic reality which the commentary ignores. Similarly, the series of female nudes titled "Xipe" are explained solely in reference to the ancient "flayed goddess" of the same name. Yet the headless images of bodies criss-crossed with jagged shadows and leaves bear a resemblence...
Native Americans were victimized by colonialism in a different way: millions died of imported diseases like smallpox, which their immune systems could not handle. The conquistadores ruthlessly suppressed the imposing cultures of Aztec Mexico and Incan Peru, which nonetheless made a lasting and invaluable contribution to, among other things, world cuisine. Tomatoes, potatoes, corn and peppers, together with many other comestibles, were indigenous to the New World. So, less happily for humankind, was tobacco...
...Sage is to expand the traditional limits of Western cooking by incorporating Native American and Latin elements. "There were people in America before the arrival of Europeans," says Miller, who adds sizzle to poultry, fish and game with seasonings and textures derived from Plains Indian and Aztec recipes. "We are enriched as a culture by including these things, not by pushing them aside." Meanwhile, he expects the menu at Red Sage to continue the cultural evolution that inspired its creation. "The West has all these elements in its past, but it's still in the process of becoming," he observes...
...young, like Bill Clinton, should never have been faced with the dilemma of either fighting that war or being traitors. It was as if American power, like an Aztec sun god, required terrible infusions of blood. Either sacrifice yourselves upon the altar of Vietnam, the drama demanded, or slay the fathers, tear down their house...