This thin volume is a well-written introduction to the role of foodstuffs, and the absence of foodstuffs, in Aztec rituals. Elizabeth Morán has done a fine job of bringing together the existing literature and then developing new lines of inquiry related to food and ritual. The book thus serves as an important addition to a growing literature on food and consumption in Latin America.
Morán begins with an outline of the multiple types of sources on which she draws for her analysis. These include pictorial manuscripts from the preconquest and colonial periods. Of great importance are primary materials gathered in the postconquest period and written in European characters, such as Bernardino de Sahagún's Florentine Codex and Diego Durán's Book of the Gods and Rites. The number of physical remains from the preconquest period, both domestic items and cultural artifacts, is limited, but these are of great importance in their...
