"Anthology of 29 brief articles addressed to the organizing theme of the book and originating in a scholarly gathering in Mexico City in 1990. Articles of interest to ethnohistorians of Mesoamerica include: a short study of confession among the Mexica; a study of the symbolism of conches in prehispanic central Mesoamerica; Barba de Piña Chan's analysis of Mexica beliefs connected with childbirth and death in childbirth; a thoughtful consideration of evangelical efforts to instruct the indigenous people of central Mexico about salvation by impressing them with images of tormented sinners; an analysis of the use of medicinal plants by Catholic missionaries in the northwest, as well as commercial trade in these commodities; Quezada's study of colonial curanderos and their manipulation of Christian saints and the devil; and a comparison between prehispanic and colonial indigenous beliefs in the relationship between illness and sexual deviance and similar beliefs in modern Pachiquitla, Hidalgo"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.