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A new future for Mexico depends upon unearthing what colonialism has buried below the ground. Using Yuk Hui's twin concepts of Cosmotechnics and Technodiversity as a departure point, Lou Manuel Arsenault attempts to uncover, through a detailed study of the sacrificial and symbolic practices of Warfare and Hunting, what could be called an Aztec Cosmotechnic.
In the cosmology and way of life of the demographic hereby referred to as the Aztecs—Nahuatl-speaking populations of the Valley of Mexico and the surrounding regions during the post-classical period—it is difficult to differentiate between warfare and hunting, as both are ritualised practices wherein a sacrifice is captured and brought to slaughter; both Warfare and Hunting are means of paying tribute to the sun in the sky above. Yet, when an enemy or prey are transformed into sacrifices, they become blood, they become, ceremonially, Aztec. In the search for what Guillermo Bonfil Batalla called "Deep Mexico"—a way of life trampled into the earth under colonial feet—one finds within these ancient practices a veritable ground into which our hands can dig.
The author, "hellbent" on ditching European "destiny", brings to the surface the very fossil record needed to prove, once and for all, that these Aztec people had a 'Spirit' and a destiny of their own, one that lies dormant, buried in literature, buried in the ground, buried in history, buried in the folds of our cortices and our flesh. As the old Technique of identification with the Other, seeing yourself in your opponent, has given way to the industrial mass murder of the Euro-American war machine, the Sun has seen enough. If we do not learn to love our Other, Helios will kill us all.
About the author:
Raised between Guadalajara and Lower St. Lawrence region in Quebec, Lou Manuel Arsenault contends with a split identity: Mestizo on one side, French-Canadian on the other. With a specific focus on technology within "the ontological turn", Lou Manuel is a Ph.D candidate at Institut national de la recherche scientifique, in Montréal, into which he channels his unconsolable contempt for the Western destiny, enshrined in a conditioned understanding of Technology, that has been imposed upon the Americas, and the World at large.
Of Enemies & Venison: First Materials for an Aztec Cosmotechnic (2026)
Author: Lou Manuel Arsenault
Afterword: Victor G. García Castañeda
Editors: 0nty, Alessandro Sbordoni, Claire Elise
Layout & Design: Becoming
Edition: 1st
Date: April 2026
CatNO: (becoming)016A
ISBN: 978-9925-8207-5-7 (Print)
Language: English
Pages: ~164
Format: Softcover
Binding: Sewn Binding
Dimensions: 11cm x 18cm
Umschlag: 170g/m2 Munken Pure Rough
Innen: 70g/m2 Holmen Book Cream
Printed by: Tallinn Book Printers, Estonia
To be cited as:
Arsenault, L. M. (2026) Of Enemies & Venison: First Materials for an Aztec Cosmotechnic. Berlin: Becoming. 978-9925-8207-5-7.