Aztec Thought and Culture

A study by the Mexican historian, published in 1956 as La filosofía náhuatl estudiada en sus fuentes and translated by Jack Emory Davis in 1963 with the subtitle A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind. Working from Nahuatl texts preserved after the Conquest, many gathered by Bernardino de Sahagún, León-Portilla argues that the Nahua had real philosophers, the tlamatinime, or 'those who know something'. He shows them asking whether anything on earth is lasting or true, given that all things pass. Their answer, he argues, was 'flower and song', poetry and art as the way to reach what is real. He reconstructs their idea of a dual supreme principle, Ometeotl, the source of all things, and their image of the person as 'face and heart', formed by education in schools such as the calmecac. He also contrasts this reflective strand with the mystic-military vision of sacrifice associated with the state. Critics have asked whether the category of philosophy fits, and how far colonial sources can be trusted.

It is the classic case for pre-Columbian philosophy, and it introduces Nahua ideas about truth, impermanence, art and the person that many readers have never met.