Cycles of Time and Meaning in the Mexican Books of Fate
Title | Cycles of Time and Meaning in the Mexican Books of Fate PDF eBook |
Author | Elizabeth Hill Boone |
Publisher | University of Texas Press |
Total Pages | 527 |
Release | 2013-05-17 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0292756569 |
In communities throughout precontact Mesoamerica, calendar priests and diviners relied on pictographic almanacs to predict the fate of newborns, to guide people in choosing marriage partners and auspicious wedding dates, to know when to plant and harvest crops, and to be successful in many of life's activities. As the Spanish colonized Mesoamerica in the sixteenth century, they made a determined effort to destroy these books, in which the Aztec and neighboring peoples recorded their understanding of the invisible world of the sacred calendar and the cosmic forces and supernaturals that adhered to time. Today, only a few of these divinatory codices survive. Visually complex, esoteric, and strikingly beautiful, painted books such as the famous Codex Borgia and Codex Borbonicus still serve as portals into the ancient Mexican calendrical systems and the cycles of time and meaning they encode. In this comprehensive study, Elizabeth Hill Boone analyzes the entire extant corpus of Mexican divinatory codices and offers a masterful explanation of the genre as a whole. She introduces the sacred, divinatory calendar and the calendar priests and diviners who owned and used the books. Boone then explains the graphic vocabulary of the calendar and its prophetic forces and describes the organizing principles that structure the codices. She shows how they form almanacs that either offer general purpose guidance or focus topically on specific aspects of life, such as birth, marriage, agriculture and rain, travel, and the forces of the planet Venus. Boone also tackles two major areas of controversy—the great narrative passage in the Codex Borgia, which she freshly interprets as a cosmic narrative of creation, and the disputed origins of the codices, which, she argues, grew out of a single religious and divinatory system.
The Fate of Texas
Title | The Fate of Texas PDF eBook |
Author | Charles D. Grear |
Publisher | University of Arkansas Press |
Total Pages | 308 |
Release | 2008-10 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 9781610751476 |
In its examination of a state too often neglected by Civil War historians, The Fate of Texas presents Texas as a decidedly Southern, yet in many ways unusual, state seriously committed to and deeply affected by the Confederate war effort in a multitude of ways. When the state joined the Confederacy and fought in the war, its fate was uncertain. The war touched every portion of the population and all aspects of life in Texas. Never before has a group of historians examined the impact of the war on so many facets of the state.
The Fate of Texas
Title | The Fate of Texas PDF eBook |
Author | Charles D. Grear |
Publisher | University of Arkansas Press |
Total Pages | 298 |
Release | 2008-09-01 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1557288836 |
Choice Outstanding Academic Title Texas has often been overlooked in Civil War scholarship, but this examination shows that the Lone Star State—though definitely unusual—was decidedly Southern. Eleven noted historians examine the ways the civil war touched every aspect of life in Texas and approach the subject from varied perspectives—military, social, and cultural history; public history; and historical memory—to provide a greater understanding of the roles of women and slaves during the war, and how veterans and the aftermath of loss helped pave the way for the Texas of today.
Hometown Texas
Title | Hometown Texas PDF eBook |
Author | |
Publisher | Trinity University Press |
Total Pages | 231 |
Release | 2017-11-07 |
Genre | Photography |
ISBN | 1595348085 |
Brown and Holley are interested in place and what makes people who they are. With particular interest in how people take the hand they’ve been dealt—fate, family, circumstance, luck—and craft a life for themselves, the authors celebrate the grit and gumption of these Texas originals. Introducing quirky characters and tenacious spirits, Holley’s stories seek out the personality of the small town while Brown’s photographs capture the essence of a changing landscape. Hometown Texas aims not to be nostalgic or sentimental but rather to show readers an unknown Texas—one that, while not vanishing, is certainly on the wane. Organized into five topographical, geographic, and cultural sections—East, West, North, South, and Central—three dozen stories and more than eighty complementary images work to create a parallel narrative to reveal what Brown has described as the “collective, various, remarkably complex soul that makes Texas unique.” Hometown Texas is an exploration across miles and cultures, of well-traveled roads and forgotten byways, deep into the heart of Texas.
Springs of Texas
Title | Springs of Texas PDF eBook |
Author | Gunnar M. Brune |
Publisher | Texas A&M University Press |
Total Pages | 616 |
Release | 2002 |
Genre | Business & Economics |
ISBN | 9781585441969 |
This text explores the natural history of Texas and more than 2900 springs in 183 Texas counties. It also includes an in-depth discussion of the general characteristics of springs - their physical and prehistoric settings, their historical significance, and their associated flora and fauna.
Passionate Nation
Title | Passionate Nation PDF eBook |
Author | James L. Haley |
Publisher | University of North Texas Press |
Total Pages | 673 |
Release | 2022-05-15 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1574418688 |
Utilizing many sources new to publication, James L. Haley delivers a most readable and enjoyable narrative history of Texas, told through stories—the words and recollections of Texans who actually lived the state’s spectacular history. From Jim Bowie’s and Davy Crockett’s myth-enshrouded stand at the Alamo, to the Mexican-American War, and to Sam Houston’s heroic failed effort to keep Texas in the Union during the Civil War, the transitions in Texas history have often been as painful and tense as the “normal” periods in between. Here, in all of its epic grandeur, is the story of Texas as its own passionate nation. “Texas native Haley does an outstanding job of narrating the outsized and dramatic history of the Lone Star State. John Steinbeck observed, ‘Like most passionate nations, Texas has its own private history based on, but not limited by, facts.’ Cognizant of this, Haley takes pains to separate folklore from fact. He's a good storyteller, but then it's hard to go wrong with the colorful characters he has to work with: pioneer nationalists Sam Houston and Davy Crockett, Quaker abolitionist Benjamin Lundy, a wagonload of liquored-up turn-of-the-century oilmen and such latter-day heroes as Lyndon Johnson, John Connally and Janis Joplin.”—Publishers Weekly Starred Review
A German Paradise in Texas
Title | A German Paradise in Texas PDF eBook |
Author | Stephen A. Engelking |
Publisher | Texianer Verlag |
Total Pages | 313 |
Release | 2019-12-06 |
Genre | Fiction |
ISBN |
A gripping historical novel about the Germans who left their home country more than 150 years ago. False promises of a better life and incompetent organisers attracted thousands who had little to lose back home to look for a new life in Texas with the hope of creating a New Germany free from tyranny and poverty. These courageous people created much of the culture of Texas today. This emotive rendering of Scheffel’s monumental ‘lost’ heart-rending classic makes this story available for English language readers for the first time. Notes are provided for additional background information.