Indian Clothing Before Cortes: Mesoamerican Costumes from the Codices by Patricia Rieff Anawalt (1924-2015) - 1981

xx+232 pages with color plates, figures, illustrations, drawings, bibliography and index. Folio (12" x 9") bound in original publisher's blue cloth with gilt lettering to spine in original pictorial jacket. Foreword by H B Nicholson. Charts prepared by Jean Cuker Sells. Civilization of the American Indian Series Volume 156. First edition.

In her book, Patricia Anawalt describes through text and more than 350 illustrations and charts what the Indians of Middle America were wearing when Cortes and his conquistadors arrived in the New World in 1519. The costumes reveal a great deal about those who wore them. To the peoples of Middle America, dress was identity; even a god had to don his proper attire. To the Aztecs and their neighbors, for example, the wearing of appropriate clothing was strictly controlled by both custom and law. An individuals attire immediately identified not only culture affiliation but rank and status as well. Since each group dressed in a distinctive and characteristic manner, a great deal of ethnographic and historical information can be gleaned from a study of what those groups wore.

Condition: Edges sunned. Jacket spine sunned, corners chipped, spine ends chipped with 1/4" chip to spine heal, closed edge tears with small chips else very good in like jacket.