Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl
The Once and Future Lord of the Toltecs
Mesoamerican Worlds Series
"This book is significant, as it is the first edited volume in more than two decades to focus on the Postclassic and Colonial period Maya. It brings together a diverse body of literature, useful for scholars studying all periods of Maya history. It also provides excellent comparative case studies to be used by Colonial period scholars working around the globe."
—Journal of Anthropological Research
"The multidisciplinary combination of essays and case studies makes this a unique and valuable contribution."
—Journal of Latin American Studies
"Maya Worldviews at Conquest contributes a renewed perspective on the anthropological concept of worldview by focusing on the articulation of multiple worldviews: past and present, familiar and foreign, conflictive and collaborative. This contribtion is best seen as a collective rather than as a singular argument from any one individual chapter."
—Cambridge Archaeological Journal
Maya Worldviews at Conquest examines Maya culture and social life just prior to contact and the effect the subsequent Spanish conquest, as well as contact with other Mesoamerican cultures, had on the Maya worldview.
Focusing on the Postclassic and Colonial periods, Maya Worldviews at Conquest provides a regional investigation of archaeological and epigraphic evidence of Maya ideology, landscape, historical consciousness, ritual practices, and religious symbolism before and during the Spanish conquest. Through careful investigation, the volume focuses on the impact of conversion, hybridization, resistance, and revitalization on the Mayans' understanding of their world and their place in it.
The volume also addresses the issue of anthropologists unconsciously projecting their modern worldviews on the culture under investigation. Thus, the book critically defines and strengthens the use of worldviews in the scholarly literature regardless of the culture studied, making it of value not only to Maya scholars but also to those interested in the anthropologist's projection of worldview on other cultures in general.
