Ancestors in Cosmologies

Part of the Cosmology in the New World project

Author(s): Linda Cordell; David Freidel; Kelley Hays-Gilpin; Tim Pauketat; Christine VanPool

Year: 2010

Summary

This article discusses the role of ancestors in New World cosmologies. Specifically, it gives examples of how ancestors mediate cosmologies through sensory experiences, things, and places. In Eastern North America, ancestors were engaged in posts, bundles, stars, mounds, and temples. In the American Southwest, “conceptual packages” of wind, water, and breath represented the cosmological force shared by humans, ancestors, and places. Mesoamericans transformed the dead into ancestors by preparing their remains to act as conduits that enabled their spirits to live among the living.

Cite this Record

Ancestors in Cosmologies. Linda Cordell, David Freidel, Kelley Hays-Gilpin, Tim Pauketat, Christine VanPool. 2010 ( tDAR id: 4789) ; doi:10.6067/XCV8JQ0Z25

Keywords

Culture
Ancestral Puebloan • Aztec • Chacoan • Effigy Mound • Hopewell • Maya • Mississippian • Olmec

Site Name
Cahokia • Calakmul • Chaco Canyon • Cozumel • El-Peru-Waka • Paquime • Pueblo Bonito • Rio Azul • San Bartolo • Teotihuacan • Tikal • Yaxuna

Investigation Types
Methodology, Theory, or Synthesis

General
Avenue of the Dead • Big Dipper • breath • bundles • clouds • corn • katsinas • Maize God • Mars • Milky Way • Orion • Pleiades • posts • Pyramid of the Moon • Pyramid of the Sun • Saturn • scrolls • spirals • temples • terrace motifs • Tlaloc • Venus • water • wind • world tree

Geographic Keywords
Central Mexico • Greater Southwest • US Midwest • US Southeast • US Southwest • Yucatan Peninsula

Temporal Keywords
Archaic • Classic Maya • Preclassic Maya • Woodland

File Information

  Name Size Creation Date Date Uploaded Access
cordell-et-al-2010.pdf 71.38kb Oct 16, 2010 10:43:14 AM Public