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359 6 summation DOI: 10.5876_9781607322412.c006 Those who study the Nahua world may feel particularly fortunate in having available to them a huge corpus of extant preconquest and postconquest sources for numerous aspects of native life and culture. This material, though certainly not exhaustive, permits us to address a whole range of research topics. Nevertheless, the very size and diversity of the corpus make it very difficult to achieve an overall perspective that addresses broader phenomena across the whole temporal and geographical range, while at the same time paying the necessary attention to detail and tangible evidence. In the past the solution has often been to restrict studies in scope and in regard to source material. Having already defined my topic as the study of Nahua elite costume and status markers, I did not wish to restrict it further. I have attempted to combine perspectives, types, and genres of information, and consequently kinds of expertise, that are often separated in modern research. The project includes both philological research and pictorial analysis, sources with both precontact and postcontact emphasis, and as wide a regional range as the materials permit. This enterprise of mine on the one hand has produced a mass of evidence, needing systematic presentation; on the other hand it has suggested a variety of interpretations of that evidence. Thus I have operated at different levels simultaneously , combining close analysis with attention to broader phenomena: cultural patterns , attitudes, strategies, concepts. The volume is both a detailed research monograph and an interpretive study; it can also serve as a reference work, and I have been very much aware of that function as well. SUMMATION 360 Chapters 2 and 3 are large-scale topical surveys in which the factual aspect provides the organization, though it is intertwined with analytical commentary and conclusions. Taking this evidence to a different level, chapter 4 is thematic and interpretive, attempting to achieve a more contextualized reading of essential concepts and meanings attached to status items. Chapter 5 shares some of the qualities of both of the other types, both bringing up new data for discussion and outlining related results. In a word, the nature of the sources and the research method has called for weaving the type of material that might form a large-scale conclusion into the body of the book. Thus, what is needed at this point is not a conclusion in the usual sense but a brief recapitulation of some main points and some remarks to guide the reader in finding their full expression at various points in a work whose organization is of necessity more than usually complex. My basic original aim was to reconstruct the core of the repertory of elite dress and insignia among the preconquest Nahuas, being especially concerned to locate, assemble, and analyze the original terminology referring to status items. The results are presented discursively in the voluminous chapter 2, with the items organized from head to foot. To make comparative use by researchers easier, the bulk of these data are systematized in the Appendix, together with translations, references, and contextual information. The reconstruction of this repertory draws on textual sources, pictorial evidence, and, to a lesser extent, on available museum objects. It is based not only on widely explored sources such as the works compiled by Sahagún, but also on lesser-known native texts, including annals and documents in mundane genres. Whenever possible and relevant, I have attempted a more profound examination of the meanings and functions of particular items. This was especially the case with the turquoise diadem, one of the most important symbols of power in Tenochtitlan and beyond. Enveloped in esoteric symbolism , this insignia predated the establishment of the Triple Alliance, but during the Alliance’s expansion, the diadem became a source of prestige for local elites subordinate to it. I have argued that the material form of the Aztec xiuhhuitzolli derived from the stylized head of the fire serpent, conveying a strong link to the god of fire and time. In their use of the mosaic diadem, the Postclassic Nahuas, and especially the Mexica, based themselves on an ancient tradition, inherited from and reminiscent of the most important Mesoamerican centers of power of the Classic and Early Postclassic periods. As has been shown, the development, the ways of use, and the conceptual meanings of this item need to be viewed as aspects of a long-term interplay between central Mexican and Mayan traditions, going back to the Early Classic period in...

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