"The problem for the Aztec oral culture, based as it was on a ritual and cyclic interpretation of reality, was that there was simply no place in its scheme of things for the unpredicted arrival of Cortez...Aztec communication is always between man and world, because knowledge always proceeds from a reality which is already fixed, ordered, and given. On the other hand European communication is between man and man.
      ...Montezuma's problem was that no basis existed for an adequate understanding of the information he recieved about the conquistadores because no place existed for them in Aztec reality - the Other was always that which could be foreseen...When he receives information from spies about Cortez, 'Montezuma lowered his head, and without answering a word, placed his hand upon his mouth.' Faced with the inexplicable, the only recourse of the oral system is silence." - from The Empire Writes Back