INDIAN ART OF MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA

by Miguel Covarrubias ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 11, 1957

The posthumous work of a very competent anthropologist is presented here as the logical extension of his previous book, The Eagle, The Jaguar, and the Serpent, dealing with the Indian art of North America (excluding Mexico). With the same factual but scholarly approach Mr. Covarrubias now examines Middle America --the intellectual and artistic focus of Indian civilization. Middle America (Mexico and Central America) was the scene of great turbulence, of ever-flourishing and ever-waning cultures; each one different from the other yet attesting to the diffusion, communication, and continuity between them, both temporally and geographically. In detail the types of architecture, jewelry, pottery, sculpture of the Mayans, Aztecs, Toltecs, ""Olmecs"", Zapotecs, Tarascans and others are presented with copious illustrations by the author and an album of 64 photographs. While the author emphasizes the plastic arts, he does not neglect to include observations on thought and the development of ideas, especially manifest in the calendars and astronomical calculations of the Mayans.. Grouped chronologically into three periods, the arts in Teotihuacan, Chichen-Tiza, Palenque, Mitla and many others are traced as indices of the whole culture in terms of their own interest. A defined market.

Pub Date: Nov. 11, 1957

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1957

Categories: NONFICTION