Aztec Cosmology and Contemporary Climate Wreckage

• In Event: Climate Wreckage and Indigenous Philosophies

Abstract

This paper draws from a book underway on the role lived western cosmologies have played in both producing and concealing modern climate wreckage until late in the day. It argues that some “pagan” cosmologies, muted by two Euro-American defeats first in Europe and later in the Americas, showed more promise in this respect. This paper, drawing upon recent research into Aztec cosmology, explores its promise and limits in this respect by comparison to the providential and secular cosmologies insinuated into the culture of settler societies. The latter lived cosmologies are bound up with variants of western capitalism, imperialism, Christianity, and secularism. Such a close comparison, it is argued, helps us to tap into limitations of the latter two cosmologies, to modify them in ways that better address the time of climate wreckage, and to cultivate existential orientations to respect the grandeur and uncertainties of a world not inherently predisposed either to human mastery or organic belonging.

Author

• William E. Connolly, Johns Hopkins University