In Place of Gods and Kings presents a new reading of an important manuscript that has long been considered the foremost colonial-era source for information related to the indigenous inhabitants of the Mexican state of Michoacan.

Drawing on recent trends in literary studies that call into question the universal validity of notions such as the unitary author and the primacy of alphabetic writing over oral and pictorial traditions, Cynthia L. Stone shows how this early relacion (c. 1538-41) weaves together narrative strands representing the distinctive voices of four...