Overview

The gripping story of a pioneering anthropologist whose exploration of Aztec cosmology, rediscovery of ancient texts, and passion for collecting helped shape our understanding of pre-Columbian Mexico. Where do human societies come from? The drive to answer this question inspired a generation of archaeologists and treasure-seekers who, following Darwin, began to look beyond the Bible for the origins of civilizations. Proud, disciplined, ferociously territorial, the inimitable Zelia Nuttall threw herself into the study of Mexico's past, eager to bring the tools of science to the study of ancient civilizations. A child of the San Francisco Gold Rush, Zelia immersed herself in the tales of conquistadores and pored through records of the Inquisition. She knew Nahuatl, the language of the Aztec and Toltec, and was skilled at deciphering their pictographic stories. She was also conversant with their gods and myths, as well as the stars by which they regulated their rituals and other activities. The first to fully decode the Aztec calendar stone, Zelia Nuttall was a protégé of Frederick Putnam, who offered her a job at Harvard's Peabody Museum. But as a divorced mother with a dwindling fortune, she preferred to live in Mexico, her mother's birthplace, where she became a vital bridge between Mexican and American anthropologists through war and revolution. The first biography of a true original, In the Shadow of Quetzalcoatl reveals how, from the 1880s to the 1930s, scholar-collectors like Zelia Nuttall shaped America's museums. Merilee Grindle captures the appeal and contradictions of this trailblazing woman, who contributed so much to the new field of anthropology until a newly professionalized generation trained in universities overshadowed her remarkable achievements.

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Zelia Nuttall was the first anthropologist to accurately decipher the Aztec calendar stone. In this first published biography of the pioneering social scientist, Merilee Grindle examines the then-new field of anthropology, which employed few women. She explores how Nuttall’s dogged research contributed to our understanding of the history and culture of ancient Mexico. * Christian Science Monitor * [A] fascinating biography of Mexican-American anthropologist Zelia Nuttall…[whose work] helped shape the field of archaeology and the scientific study of the history of humankind in the Americas…Defying her cultural constrictions, she exerted a significant impact on the values and methodologies of institutions. -- Seonaid Valiant * ReVista * Grindle combines a rousing tale of archaeological discovery with an incisive description of how institutional marginalization occurs, tracing how Nuttall’s legacy was ignored by subsequent generations of anthropologists. This enjoyable account restores to prominence an influential figure in her field. * Publishers Weekly * What a woman! And what a fabulous life to unearth. Zelia Nuttall was incredibly smart, determined, a divorced single mother in a man’s world, a great scholar, and an original thinker—yet today she’s completely forgotten. Merilee Grindle has dug deep into the archives and uncovered her fascinating story. -- Andrea Wulf, author of <i>The Invention of Nature</i> Zelia Nuttall comes alive in all her fascinating contradictions in Merilee Grindle’s capable hands. Nuttall came of age in the nineteenth century and thought nothing of removing Mexico’s antiquities, or supporting Porfirio Díaz. But she was also a world-traveling single mother who studied Nahuatl with a native speaker, convinced Franz Boas to take Mexican students, ferreted out a previously unknown pre-Columbian codex, made a leap forward in our understanding of the Mesoamerican calendar, and chose to spend her declining years in her beloved Mexico, her mother’s native country. Grindle’s biography challenges our modern smugness and reminds us that our roots as scholars are more complex than we often acknowledge. -- Camilla Townsend, author of <i>Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs</i> Zelia Nuttall was a major figure in the rediscovery of ancient Mexico, yet today she is barely remembered. Merilee Grindle has marshaled an impressive amount of evidence to tell Nuttall’s story afresh and restore her to her rightful place in the annals of anthropology. -- Toby Wilkinson, author of <i>A World Beneath the Sands: The Golden Age of Egyptology</i> As a teenager on a seemingly endless grand tour of Europe, Zelia Nuttall described her globe-trotting Californian family as ‘wanderers in the highway of nations.’ In Merilee Grindle’s deft telling, we see Nuttall grow into a brilliant and focused interpreter of the secrets of ancient nations, a founder of the modern science of anthropology, a bold female traveler on time’s highway whose life story illuminates our twenty-first-century struggle to apprehend the ravages of civilization. -- Megan Marshall, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of <i>Margaret Fuller: A New American Life</i> and <i>Elizabeth Bishop: A Miracle for Breakfast</i>

Zelia Nuttall was a major figure in the rediscovery of ancient Mexico, yet today she is barely remembered. Merilee Grindle has marshaled an impressive amount of evidence to tell Nuttall's story afresh, and restore her to her rightful place in the annals of anthropology. -- Toby Wilkinson, author of <i>A World Beneath the Sands: The Golden Age of Egyptology</i>

Author Information

Merilee Grindle is the Edward S. Mason Professor of International Development, Emerita, at Harvard University and the former director of its David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies. She served as president of the Latin American Studies Association and has written or contributed to over a dozen scholarly books.

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