Flower Worlds: Religion, Aesthetics, and Ideology in Mesoamerica and the American Southwest (Amerind Studies in Archaeology) - Softcover

Michael Mathiowetz (editor) & Andrew Turner (editor)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816548471 ISBN 13: 9780816548477

Publisher: The University of Arizona Press, 2022

Synopsis

The recognition of Flower Worlds is one of the most significant breakthroughs in the study of Indigenous spirituality in the Americas. These worlds are solar and floral spiritual domains that are widely shared among both pre-Hispanic and contemporary Native cultures in Mesoamerica and the American Southwest. Flower Worldsis the first volume to bring together a diverse range of scholars to create a truly multidisciplinary understanding of Flower Worlds. During the last thirty years, archaeologists, art historians, ethnologists, Indigenous scholars, and linguists have emphasized the antiquity and geographical extent of similar Flower World beliefs among ethnic and linguistic groups in the New World.

Flower Worlds are not simply ethereal, otherworldly domains, but rather they are embodied in lived experience, activated, invoked, and materialized through ritual practices, expressed in verbal and visual metaphors, and embedded in the use of material objects and ritual spaces. This comprehensive book illuminates the origins of Flower Worlds as a key aspect of religions and histories among societies in Mesoamerica and the American Southwest. It also explores the role of Flower Worlds in shaping ritual economies, politics, and cross-cultural interaction among Indigenous peoples.

Flower Worlds reaches into multisensory realms that extend back at least 2,500 years, offering many different disciplines, perspectives, and collaborations to understand these domains. Today, Flower Worlds are expressed in everyday work and lived experiences, embedded in sacred geographies, and ritually practiced both individually and in communities. This volume stresses the importance of contemporary perspectives and experiences by opening with living traditions before delving into the historical trajectories of Flower Worlds, creating a book that melds scientific and humanistic research and emphasizes Indigenous voices.

Contributors: Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos, James M. CÓrdova, Davide Domenici, Ángel GonzÁlez LÓpez, Kelley Hays-Gilpin, Michael D. Mathiowetz, Cameron L. McNeil, Felipe S. Molina, Johannes Neurath, John M. D. Pohl, Alan R. Sandstrom, David Delgado Shorter, Karl A. Taube, Andrew D. Turner, Lorena VÁzquez VallÍn, Dorothy Washburn

About this title

About the Author

Andrew D. Turner is a senior research specialist at the Getty Research Institute. He is trained as an archaeologist and art historian. His research focuses on art, identity, and cross-cultural interaction in ancient Central Mexico, and he has also written articles on the Classic Maya and the ancient Andes. Turner previously held positions at the Yale University Art Gallery and the University of Cambridge in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.

Michael D. Mathiowetz is a lecturer at University of California, Riverside. His research is focused on the archaeology, ethnohistory, and ethnology of Indigenous societies in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, including the art, religion/ritual, and nature of pre-Hispanic interregional interaction.

Edition details

• Publisher: The University of Arizona Press
• Publication date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0816548471
• ISBN 13: 9780816548477
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368