3 out of 4 stars
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The Aztecs and Nature by Diana Schott tells a tale of the Aztec people and some of their beliefs surrounding herbal medicine. The book has each page in English and then again in Spanish so that more readers may be reached. I found this to be a thoughtful gesture, and perhaps easier for an author when starting out as opposed to listing separate copies of the book in English and Spanish.
Schott begins with a brief history of the Aztecs, explaining their nomadic beginning. She describes them as creative, agricultural, as everyone always does, but pointed out that they also had a history of having warriors and cruelty within their ranks. Schott’s need to point out this fact made me uncomfortable as I feel that all peoples have or have had some level of cruelty inside of them.
Schott details the different flowers that Montezuma kept, and for what purposes. She goes on to describe how herbal medicine is making a comeback in these modern times. She includes a few specific examples of different plants and how she believes the Aztecs were correct in their belief about the healing benefits stored within. Schott even provides us with a recipe for an ointment made from tomato roots.
I found The Aztecs and Nature to be interesting. I studied biomedical sciences in college, and have always had a great deal of interest in alternate medicines, though I don’t personally believe in most of them. Schott quotes many reference materials in this account, which some readers may find verbose, but I found them to be rather insightful.
Overall, I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. On page seventeen there were a number of errors. One of these errors was a picture of a marigold labeled as a tomato, which made me wonder if it was possible that that page alone had missed an editor. The book was also in an odd format on my Kindle, it was like someone took a page of a textbook and scanned it, and then uploaded it as a pdf on my kindle. The size of text was very small, couldn’t be adjusted, and at times I had to squint even while up close to try to make out the words on the page. If page 17 had been edited properly, and if it was formatted for e-readers, I would have given The Aztecs and Nature 4 out of 4 stars.
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The Aztecs and nature
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