The rethink of Aztec writing Europeans have a long history of belittling Aztec writing. Now it seems the pictographic communication system was much more sophisticated than generally believed, and perfectly suited to expressing the interconnected Aztec cosmology. Industrial Technologies © Thinkstock The Aztecs employed a pictographic writing system, which Spanish conquistadores and subsequent western scholars widely dismissed as a primitive or 'not real' form of writing. It now seems that such interpretation has been unfair, while also missing the true complexity of Aztec communication. The PICTORIAL HISTORY (Pictorial history in Mesoamerican religions) project re-examined Aztec discourse. In particular, researchers explored the Aztec's visual communications as expression of their interconnected worldview. Work began with a literature review, which established the need for a rethink about Aztec writing. The study concluded that previous assertions about the Aztec's allegedly dualistic thinking were merely Eurocentric projections. Instead, project researchers determined that in Aztec thinking all sensory manifestations were aspects of different but interconnected forces. The next phase showed how Aztec writing embodied such philosophies. In particular, the work illustrated that the Aztecs did not differentiate between writing and painting, nor writing and art. All Aztec visual communications were intended to be interpreted as a multisensory blending. Researchers then searched primary sources with the aim of reconstructing Aztec spiritual interpretations and cosmology to provide insight on how texts were meant to be interpreted. Lastly, the team applied recent theories of embodied knowledge to the question. It seems that Aztec ideographic (iconic, non-phonetic) writing was better equipped to express the complex, multisensory Aztec cultural worldview than phonetic writing systems. The work concluded that Aztec communication was sophisticated and that European notions to the contrary have been incorrect. PICTORIAL HISTORY contributed new understanding to several important scholarly debates. Furthermore, the work helped to break down Eurocentric colonial mentalities, while promoting understanding of non-European cultures in general, which is important in the context of globalisation. Keywords Aztec, writing, pictographic, cosmology , visual communications, multisensory
