The Heart of Tenoch

A Story of Aztec Cosmotechnics

DOI: https://doi.org/10.35765/pk.2026.5302.09
Keywords: cosmotechnics, storytelling, Aztec cosmology, migration, archive

Abstract

This article frames storytelling as cosmotechnics, as a culturally situated technical activity that unifies cosmic order and moral dimensions through technical activity. Drawing on Yuk Hui’s concept of technodiversity and on anthropological critiques of universal technology, it reads Nahua/Aztec narrative practices, especially amoxtli codices and their performative re‑narration, as world‑making interfaces that store memory, coordinate movement and sustain collective identities when official archives are fragmented or destroyed. A short circular story, based on readings of migration codices, invites the reader to join the journey from Aztlán to the founding of Tenochtitlan and into contemporary Indigenous and Chicano mobilities across the U.S.–Mexico border. By treating the codex not only as an archive but as a technology of migration, the article argues that narrative remains a transportable counter‑archive capable of reconfiguring cosmos, morality, and technics under conditions of displacement.

Author Biography

Heidi Sohn, Technische Universiteit Delft

Associate Professor of Architecture Theory at the Architecture Department of the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, TU‑Delft. She received her doctoral degree in Architecture Theory from the Faculty of Architecture, TU‑Delft in 2006. She is academic coordinator and head of the Architecture Philosophy and Theory Group at the Architecture Department. She is member of the Ecologies of Architecture and of the Borders & Territories research groups. Her research interests are multiple and eclectic, ranging from the topological spectrum (utopia‑heterotopia‑dystopia); monster theory; the turns and shifts in postmodern theoretical landscapes; migration, border phenomena and related processes of material and spatial becoming; diverse cartographic practices and symptomatology; to worlding, geophilosophy and the convergence of new materialism, posthuman agencies and material discursive practices.

References

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Published
2026-06-30
How to Cite
[1]
Sohn, H. 2026. The Heart of Tenoch: A Story of Aztec Cosmotechnics. Perspectives on Culture. 53, 2 (Jun. 2026), 133-144. DOI:https://doi.org/10.35765/pk.2026.5302.09.
Issue
Vol. 53 No. 2 (2026): Movement(s) and Identity
Section
Movement(s) and Identity

Copyright (c) 2026 Perspectives on Culture

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Autor, zgłaszając swój artykuł, wyraża zgodę na korzystanie przez Wydawnictwo Uniwersystet Ignatianum z utworu na następujących polach eksploatacji:

  1. utrwalania utworu w formie papierowej, a także na nośniku cyfrowym lub magnetycznym;
  2. zwielokrotnienia utworu dowolną techniką, bez ograniczenia ilości wydań i liczby egzemplarzy;
  3. rozpowszechniania utworu i jego zwielokrotnionych egzemplarzy na jakimkolwiek nośniku, w tym wprowadzenia do obrotu, sprzedaży, użyczenia, najmu;
  4. wprowadzenia utworu do pamięci komputera;
  5. rozpowszechniania utworu w sieciach informatycznych, w tym w sieci Internet;
  6. publicznego wykonania, wystawienia, wyświetlenia, odtworzenia oraz nadawania i reemitowania, a także publicznego udostępniania utworu w taki sposób, aby każdy mógł mieć do niego dostęp w miejscu i czasie przez siebie wybranym. 

Wydawca zobowiązuje się szanować osobiste prawa autorskie do utworu.