Anahuac; or, Mexico and the Mexicans, Ancient and Modern

Record summary

Edward Burnett Tylor’s Anahuac records travel observations, antiquarian material, Indigenous and popular traditions, and discussions of ancient Mexican religion. It provides a nineteenth-century European account of how sun, fire, celestial powers, and legendary history were being interpreted in Mexico. The book is useful for locating names and motifs and for studying the period’s transition from travel writing to anthropology. Its descriptions are mediated by Tylor’s assumptions, selective encounters, and reliance on earlier sources, so it cannot be treated as a transparent record of living tradition.