Acknowledgments
The research leading to the findings published in this book received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) as a Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship under ERC grant agreement number 271935 (“Pictorial History in Mesoamerican Religions”) between 2012 and 2015. The contents of this publication reflect only the author’s views, and the European Union is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. The project’s home institution was the Institut für Religionswissenschaft (Institute for the Study of Religion) at Heidelberg University, with Gregor Ahn as official project coordinator. The project included a two-year research stay at the Harvard University Department of Anthropology with Davíd Carrasco (Harvard Divinity School) as outgoing host.
The present book is a revised and abridged version of a manuscript accepted as the Habilitation Thesis for the venia legendi in Religionswissenschaft (study of religion) by the Faculty of Philosophy at Heidelberg University on January 24, 2018. I am very grateful to the Faculty of Philosophy, the Habilitation committee, and my three examiners, Gregor Ahn, Michael Bergunder, and Andreas Grünschloß.
I consider it a great privilege to acknowledge the generosity, kind support, and guidance of many colleagues and friends during this project. Most of all, my work would not have been possible without Gregor Ahn, my supervisor and mentor of many years. Thank you for igniting my passion for reflexivity and profound in-depth academic thinking, which allowed me to develop my own unique style of thinking that was, nevertheless, fundamentally shaped by your teaching and intellectual guidance. I am eternally indebted to you for your unceasing institutional, academic, and emotional support, and for your faith in me. Thank you for your unwavering belief in sincerity, integrity, and fair play in collaborative working relationships and in the necessity of humane working conditions in academia.
I am greatly thankful to Davíd Carrasco for introducing me to the world of Harvard and the Moses Mesoamerican Archive and Research Project. To continue working in this inspiring cycle of Mesoamerican scholars would be a great honor. I am deeply impressed by Davíd’s immense rhetorical charisma and admire his devotion to fostering Mexican-US relations and to raising awareness about the complexity and beauty of pre-Hispanic Mexican cultures. My sincerest thanks for writing the foreword to this publication and for advocating an inspired reading of Mircea Eliade that proved to be a powerful alternative to the critique of his work that I was raised in. I am looking forward to many more discussions of these theories of religion.
Many thanks to José Rabasa for opening up for me the fascinating world of Classical Nahuatl and the colonial sources from Central Mexico and for sharing with me his experience of how postcolonial perspectives clash with traditional historiographical approaches.
Much appreciation goes to Andreas Grünschloß for his highly valuable and constructive comments on my manuscript; for reminding me of Hans Wißmann’s studies, the Coloquios de los Doce as a powerful source, and the Indigenous concept of tlamaniliztli; for critically challenging my arguments about Nahua semiotic theory and the monistic reading of teotl; and, finally, for identifying a disparity between my theoretical interest in aesthetics and the fact that this book consists primarily of text, with images of Aztec art confined to a small plate section. While I was unable to solve this problem—which touches on the fundamentals of academic styles of discourse—for this book, I intend to work on this in the future.
I am deeply grateful to Alan R. Sandstrom, the (previously anonymous) referee of my manuscript for the Numen Book Series, for providing highly valuable feedback and helpful suggestions that took this book to another level by creating more coherence and focus. This is the most professional review I have ever received, with a referee willing to get himself into my line of reasoning and to read my manuscript thoroughly and with great attention to both the details and the big picture. Thank you for challenging my epistemological standpoints, emphasizing the aspects of pantheism and the association of pollution with fertility in Aztec culture, discussing questions of style, and for pointing out copy editing errors. Above all, thank you for helping me access the extensive field of ethnographic studies about contemporary Nahuas in Mexico.
Many thanks go to Ingrid Heijckers-Velt for her interest in my manuscript in its early stages and for discussing publication options in Brill’s academic book series. Many thanks as well to Tessa Schild, Editor for Religious Studies at Brill, for her support and patience in answering my questions about the publication process. I appreciate her assistance in bringing this project to fruition, and I am thankful for the staff at Brill for producing such a beautiful book. My thanks also go to Lea Galanter (http://www.gallanteditorial.com), who professionally copy edited my manuscript. Thank you for discussing with me all the intricate details of style and language and responding to my specialized questions and needs, for skillfully correcting my English language mistakes, and for perceptively and sensitively honing my style of expression. I could not have found a better copy editor.
I would like to express my sincerest thanks to the staff at Harvard for finding ways to establish the project partnership between Heidelberg and Harvard and for incorporating me into the research staff at Harvard’s Department of Anthropology. Particular thanks go to Monica Munson, Director of Administration, and Cris Paul, Staff Assistant, for welcoming me warmly and for helping me find access to Harvard’s sometimes mysterious ways. Thank you to the librarians at Tozzer Library and Widener Library for their excellent support in my search for relevant literature and in handling the many facsimiles of pre-Hispanic manuscripts available at Harvard. Finally, thank you to the many unknown and often underpaid Harvard staff without whom university life simply would not exist.
At Heidelberg University, my thanks go to Simon Kopp, who encouraged me to apply for the Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship and who patiently and expertly coached me through the many arduous stages of applying for and administering an ERC-funded project. Without him I would have lost my mind many times. Thank you for your ongoing advice about relevant programs and opportunities for external funding, advice that has long become true counsel for all kinds of questions regarding career and life. At the Institut für Religionswissenschaft, I am grateful to Antje Constantinescu and Daniela Leitner for maintaining a close and connective link to home, sorting my mail, and keeping me informed and up to date. Thank you to Ann-Laurence Maréchal-Haas and Kathrin Kohle for skillfully managing the financial administration of my project.
The many colleagues I wish to thank for their support and fruitful collaboration include Michael Stausberg, Jens Schlieter, and Oliver Krüger, who gave me useful expert advice and counsel at several stages of my career; Johannes Quack and Jens Kugele, who visited me at Harvard and with whom I shared wonderful and collegial days together; and Matthias Egeler for his helpful advice on funding applications and negotiating with publishers as well as for the many cathartic emails we exchanged about the particularities of (a highly mobile) academic life.
I would like to express my thanks to the members of the working group “Aesthetics of Religion” of the German Association for the Study of Religion (Deutsche Vereinigung für Religionswissenschaft) for continually discussing all aspects of this research perspective and to the members of AESToR.Net, a network funded by the German Research Fund (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), for staying in touch while I was in the United States and on maternity leave. My thanks particularly to Peter Bräunlein, Esther-Maria Guggenmos, Alexandra Grieser, Adrian Hermann, Dirk Johannsen, Anja Kirsch, Anne Koch, Jens Kugele, Brigitte Luchesi, Sebastian Schüler, Annette Wilke, Katharina Wilkens, and Robert A. Yelle. It is a pleasure to work with you, and I hope we work on many more joint projects in the future.
My two-year stay in New England would not have been such a wonderful and inspiring experience without the friends I found there. I am greatly thankful to Donald Cutler, who warmly invited me into his home one lonely Christmas Eve and who shared many illuminating discussions with me and my family about US politics and American society while preparing for us the most delicious food. I also immensely enjoyed attending a conference with him at the Museo Amparo in Puebla, Mexico, where we were allowed to see the original beautiful, radiating, awe-inspiring Mapa de Cuauhtinchan No. 2—an experience I will never forget. My deepest thanks go to Ute Schmidt and James McClintock for graciously taking care of me during my stay in a country that turned out to be more foreign than I would have thought. We shared wonderful experiences of leaf peeping in the Green Mountains, Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts and dance performances at Tanglewood, and a New Year’s Eve full of music at Northampton. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to their perspectives on American culture and life, and I am deeply grateful for the friendship that took strong roots during this time. I also owe many thanks to Laura Heath-Stout, whom I first met in a study group of Classical Nahuatl. We continued these studies after my return to Germany, and our relationship has become one of true friendship. Thank you for your many insights into a truly alternative America, which resonates strongly in my heart. I greatly enjoyed our long conversations about Mesoamerican studies, university-level teaching, and the difficulties, concerns, and pleasures of academic life. Thank you for the times we shared our personal lives and for being there for me through the hard times. Finally, I also owe thanks to my longtime friend and classmate Luise Lampe, who moved from Germany to the US just as I was returning to Germany. The difference in time zones, our busy work lives, and caring for small children do not allow us to catch up as often as we would like to. Nevertheless, I look forward to many more opportunities to share our professional and personal interests.
While I was revising my manuscript for publication, I received the extremely sad message that Ursula Stürzenhofecker, my beloved teacher from middle and high school, had died. I am deeply grateful that we managed to make the long journey to Wien (Austria) to visit her a couple of months before her death. I include her in my thanks because it was she who first stirred my interest in and fascination for Indigenous American cultures and who taught me to critically reflect on European colonialism.
Over and above, I am greatly indebted to my parents, Almut and Christian Laack, for encouraging me to develop my talents from childhood on and for always believing in the relevance of my academic career studying religion. (Thank you also for continually explaining to family and friends the difference between the Aztecs, the Maya, and the Inca.) Without you, I would not be who and where I am today. Being a mother now myself, I truly understand the vast dimensions of energy, patience, and love you bestowed on me. I can only say thank you from the bottom of my heart.
And finally, I offer my deepest thank to my husband, Andreas Laack, for being by my side. Thank you for encouraging me to fight against the demons of self-doubt and for understanding and supporting my passion for my profession without envy or competitiveness. Thank you for undertaking many strenuous trips to visit me in the US and for unstintingly supporting me while I finished this manuscript after our son, Maris Immanuel, was born. Thank you for persevering through this uncertain stage of my career. I hope we will soon find a place to settle.
A heartfelt thank-you to you all.