Introduction to Mesoamerica reading material
This list is drawn from old school syllabi, what I’ve read, and what I’ve seen others recommend. I will try to update this periodically with more books, journal articles, book chapters, and even documentaries. I’ll try and provide an open access (or limited access like a free JSTOR account) for the journal articles and book chapters.
* Mann, Charles C. 1491: New revelations of the Americas before Columbus. Alfred a Knopf Incorporated, 2005.
* Coe, Michael D., and Rex Koontz. Mexico: from the Olmecs to the Aztecs. Vol. 29. Thames & Hudson, 2008.
* Evans, Susan Toby. Ancient Mexico and Central America: archaeology and culture history. Thames & hudson, 2013.
* Coe, Sophie D. America’s first cuisines. University of Texas Press, 1994.
* Matthew, Laura E., and Michel R. Oudijk. Indian conquistadors: Indigenous allies in the conquest of Mesoamerica. University of Oklahoma Press, 2007.
* Restall, Matthew. Seven myths of the Spanish conquest. Oxford University Press, 2004.
* Miller, Mary Ellen, and Karl Taube. An illustrated dictionary of the gods and symbols of ancient Mexico and the Maya. London: Thames and Hudson, 1997.
* Tiesler, Vera, and Andrea Cucina, eds. New perspectives on human sacrifice and ritual body treatments in ancient Maya society. Springer Science & Business Media, 2007.
* Smith, Michael E. The Aztecs. John Wiley & Sons, 2013.
* Hassig, Ross. Aztec warfare: Imperial expansion and political control. Vol. 188. University of Oklahoma Press, 1995.
* Soustelle, Jacques. Daily life of the Aztecs. Courier Corporation, 2002.
* Lêaon-Portilla, Miguel. Aztec Thought and Culture. University of Oklahoma Press, 1963.
* Anderson, Arthur JO, and Charles E. Dibble. Florentine Codex. School of American Research and University of Utah, Sante Fe, New Mexico, II(1950).
* Portilla, Miguel León. The broken spears: The Aztec account of the conquest of Mexico. Beacon Press, 2006.
* Houston, Stephen D., and Takeshi Inomata. The Classic Maya. Cambridge University Press, 2009.
* Freidel, David, and Linda Schele. A forest of kings: The untold story of the ancient Maya. Harper Collins, 1992.
* Freidel, David A., Linda Schele, and Joy Parker. Maya Cosmos Three Thousand Years on the Shaman’s Path. (1993).
* Martin, Simon, and Nikolai Grube. Chronicle of the Maya kings and queens: Deciphering the dynasties of the ancient Maya. Thames & Hudson, 2008.
* Coe, Michael D. “Breaking the Maya Code, rev. ed.” London and NewYork(1999).
* American Anthropological Association. Ancient Maya Commoners. Eds. Jon C. Lohse, and Fred Valdez Jr. University of Texas Press, 2004.
* Demarest, Arthur. Ancient Maya: the rise and fall of a rainforest civilization. Vol. 3. Cambridge University Press, 2004.
* Sharer, Robert J., and Loa P. Traxler. The ancient maya. Stanford University Press, 2006.
* Iannone, Gyles, and Samuel V. Connell. Perspectives on Ancient Maya Rural Complexity. The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, 2003.
* Scarborough, Vernon L., Fred Valdez, and Nicholas P. Dunning, eds. Heterarchy, Political Economy, and the Ancient Maya: The Three Rivers Region of the East-central Yucatˆn Peninsula. University of Arizona Press, 2003.
* Houston, Stephen, David Stuart, and Karl Taube. The memory of bones: Body, being, and experience among the Classic Maya. University of Texas Press, 2013.
* Jones, Grant D. The conquest of the last Maya kingdom. Stanford University Press, 1998.
* Pool, Christopher. Olmec archaeology and early Mesoamerica. Cambridge University Press, 2007.
* Moctezuma, Eduardo Matos. Teotihuacan. Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2009.
* Sugiyama, Saburo. Human sacrifice, militarism, and rulership: materialization of state ideology at the Feathered Serpent Pyramid, Teotihuacan. Cambridge University Press, 2005.
* Manzanilla, Linda. Teotihuacan, ciudad excepcional de Mesoamérica. El Colegio Nacional, 2017.
* Headrick, Annabeth. The Teotihuacan trinity: the sociopolitical structure of an ancient Mesoamerican city, 2007.
* Pollard, Helen Perlstein. Tariacuri’s Legacy: The Prehispanic Tarascan State. University of Oklahoma Press, 1993.
* Warren, Joseph Benedict. The conquest of Michoacan: the Spanish domination of the Tarascan kingdom in western Mexico, 1521-1530. University of Oklahoma Press, 1985.
* Von Winning, Hasso, and Olga Hammer. Anecdotal sculpture of ancient West Mexico. Ethnic Arts Council of Los Angeles, 1972.
* Von Winning, Hasso. The shaft tomb figures of West Mexico. No. 24. Southwest Museum, 1974.
* Hosler, Dorothy. The sounds and colors of power: The sacred metallurgical technology of ancient west Mexico. MIT Press, 1994.
* Townsend, Richard F. Ancient West Mexico: Art and archaeology of the unknown past. Thames and Hudson, 1998.
* Beekman, Christopher S. and Robert B. Pickering. Shaft Tombs and Figurines in West Mexican Society: A Reassessment. Gilcrease Museum, 2016.
* Altman, Ida. The War for Mexico’s West: Indians and Spaniards in New Galicia, 1524-1550. University of New Mexico Press, 2010.
* Flannery, Kent V. The cloud people: Divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Percheron Pr, 2003.
* Byland, Bruce, and John MD Pohl. In the Realm of Eight Deer. (1994).
* Joyce, Arthur A. Mixtecs, Zapotecs, and Chatinos. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell (2010).
* Winter, Marcus. Oaxaca: the archaeological record. Editorial Minutiae Mexicana, 1989.
* Joyce, Arthur A., ed. Polity and ecology in Formative period coastal Oaxaca. University Press of Colorado, 2013.
* Spores, Ronald, and Andrew K. Balkansky. The Mixtecs of Oaxaca: Ancient Times to the Present. Vol. 267. University of Oklahoma Press, 2013.
* Terraciano, Kevin. The Mixtecs of colonial Oaxaca: Ñudzahui history, sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. Stanford University Press, 2004.
* Edgewalker: A Conversation with Linda Schele
* Glyphers: Deciphering Mayan Society
* The Popol Vuh - English / Español
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