The word 'Aztec' conjures up images of warfare and sacrificial gore, yet beauty and pleasure figured powerfully in Aztec culture. Aztec rulers, like great lords everywhere, had well-indulged tastes in amusement and luxury, and invested substantial wealth in leisure facilities. Pleasure parks and palaces and their role in courtly life are here described and interpreted as vehicles for status rivalry between the two great noble lineages of Aztec Mexico, rulers of the two major cities, Tenochtitlan and Texcoco (figure I).
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