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This book explores a seminal topic concerning the Mesoamerican
past: the religious festivals that took place during the eighteen
periods of twenty days, or veintenas, into which the solar year was
divided. Pre-Columbian societies celebrated these festivals through
complex rituals, involving the priests and gods themselves,
embodied in diverse beings and artifacts. Specific sectors of
society also participated in the festivals, while city inhabitants
usually attended public ceremonies. As a consequence, this ritual
cycle played a significant role in Mesoamerican religious life; at
the same time, it informs us about social relations in
pre-Columbian societies. Both religious and social aspects of the
solar cycle festivals are tackled in the twelve contributions in
this book, which aims to address the entire veintena sequence and
as much of the territory and history of Mesoamerica as possible.
Specifically, the book revisits long-standing discussions of the
solar cycle festivals, but also explores these religious practices
in original ways, in particular through investigating understudied
rituals and offering new interpretations of rites that have
previously been extensively analyzed. Other chapters consider the
entire veintena sequence through the prism of specific topics,
providing multiple though often complementary analyses. As a
consequence, this book will attract the attention of scholars and
graduate students with interests in Mesoamerica and early Latin
America, as well as ethnohistory, cultural history, history of
religions, art history, archaeology and anthropology.
This book explores a seminal topic concerning the Mesoamerican
past: the religious festivals that took place during the eighteen
periods of twenty days, or veintenas, into which the solar year was
divided. Pre-Columbian societies celebrated these festivals through
complex rituals, involving the priests and gods themselves,
embodied in diverse beings and artifacts. Specific sectors of
society also participated in the festivals, while city inhabitants
usually attended public ceremonies. As a consequence, this ritual
cycle played a significant role in Mesoamerican religious life; at
the same time, it informs us about social relations in
pre-Columbian societies. Both religious and social aspects of the
solar cycle festivals are tackled in the twelve contributions in
this book, which aims to address the entire veintena sequence and
as much of the territory and history of Mesoamerica as possible.
Specifically, the book revisits long-standing discussions of the
solar cycle festivals, but also explores these religious practices
in original ways, in particular through investigating understudied
rituals and offering new interpretations of rites that have
previously been extensively analyzed. Other chapters consider the
entire veintena sequence through the prism of specific topics,
providing multiple though often complementary analyses. As a
consequence, this book will attract the attention of scholars and
graduate students with interests in Mesoamerica and early Latin
America, as well as ethnohistory, cultural history, history of
religions, art history, archaeology and anthropology.
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