"Published to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the museum's founding, this volume explores both the museum's collection and its role as a national cultural institution. Included among the more than 450 illustrations, many of them new photographs taken especially for this book, are pre-Columbian masterpieces such as Mixtec gold pendants worn to evoke the souls of fallen warriors, two-headed clay figurines associated with the Mesoamerican concept of the duality of life, utilitarian vessels carved from obsidian in the form of indigenous animals, and intricate jade masks placed in burial sites. An array of curators and scholars contribute essays on the Mexica (Aztec), Maya, and Toltec Nahua peoples; clues about life in the ancient Toltec metropolis of Tula, and in nearby Teotihuacan; the contemporary ethnography of Mexico; and the historical background of the site, construction, and architecture of the museum itself. This publication is both an introduction to and a complete documentation of one of the world's great museums."--Jacket.