Chapter II

History and Cosmovision

European Origins for Native Americans

Where are they from (because they can’t be from America)? Egypt, Asia, Atlantis, Lost tribe of Israel,

Outerspace [Bering Strait]

Origin stories, Creation Myths are all indigenous

Plants and the Dead

Control of agriculture and Urbanism Imagination of Matter

From Olmec to contemporary people

Olmec (1500-300 BCE)-”Mother Civilization”

giant basalt heads of ancestors body was earth--dead rulers in contact with the

living interior architecturePyramid

temple and mountainBallgame

action of solar dramabuildings aligned with the rising sun at

equinox Religion a Orientation

Charles H. Long

”(Religion) . . . will mean orientation--orientation in the ultimate sense, that is, how one comes to terms with the ultimate significance of one's place in the world. . . . . The religion of any people is more than a structure of thought; it is experience, expression, motivations, intentions, behaviors, styles, and rhythms.” Significations (1986), vii.

Teotihuacan (200-700 CE)“City of the Gods”

Temple of the Sun 4 directions Street of the Dead

Tlaloc and Quetzalcoatl

Place of origins for the Aztec

First Impirial city of Central Mexico

Reproducing the landscape

Me in another lifetime

Temple of the Moon

Tlaloc and Quetzalcoatl

Tollan/Tula (900-1100 AD)

Reinvented Mesoamerican culture after the fall of Teotihuacan Priest/King Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl Tezcatlipoca--Trickster

Cortes was mistaken for Quetzalcoatl returning