‘The Aztec Empire’
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
October 15, 2004-February 13, 2005
Let us suppose that you are living in the great city of
Tenochtitlan (today’s Mexico City) in the glory days of the
Aztec Empire—that is, before the arrival of Cortés and the Spaniards.
And let us imagine that you are worried—very, very worried.
Will the sun rise tomorrow? What if it doesn’t?
What if it never comes up again? We must do
something to make sure the sun rises tomorrow or we are
doomed!
Well, luckily for you, the Emperor, the leading
nobles, and the chief priests have given this matter a great
deal of thought. What we must do, they explain, is have
the chief priest rip the hearts out of
thousands of
living humans, toss the hearts into a large stone container as
food for the gods, and then hurl the bloody bodies down the
steps of the Great Temple, whereupon they will be carefully
butchered, cooked up, and eaten by the elite. There! That
ought to do it! And sure enough, the sun does come up
the next day!
Is this what we learn from the monumental
exhibition on the Aztecs currently installed at the
Guggenheim Museum?
Not at all. The existence of human
sacrifice is gently alluded to, but certainly not
emphasized. The issue of cannibalism is not mentioned at all,
although it is an established fact that the Aztecs practiced
cannibalism.
The overall tone of