Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Cosmology Performed, The World Transformed: Mimesis And The Logical Operations Of Nature And Culture In Myth In Amazonia And Beyond, Deon Liebenberg Dec 2017

Cosmology Performed, The World Transformed: Mimesis And The Logical Operations Of Nature And Culture In Myth In Amazonia And Beyond, Deon Liebenberg

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

By analyzing myths from around the world to build an argument regarding the relation between cosmology and community, Amazonian myths are set within a broader set of mythic imageries. Lévi-Strauss showed how a structural description of myth should fully incorporate the entire set of variant arrangements through which its elements or terms could be related to one another. Despite the criticism to which his approach has been subject, the notion that certain kinds of logical operations could be gleaned in the organization of myth continues to yield valuable insights. In this paper, I contend that the mimetic representation of empirically …


Public Ritual Sacrifice As A Controlling Mechanism For The Aztec, Madeline Nicholson May 2017

Public Ritual Sacrifice As A Controlling Mechanism For The Aztec, Madeline Nicholson

Honors Scholar Theses

For decades, archaeologists have researched the fascinating finds of Aztec sacrifice. Evidence of their sacrifices are seen on temple walls, stone carvings, bones, and in Spanish chronicler drawings. Although public ritual sacrifice was practiced before the Aztecs, with evidence from the Olmec civilization (1200-1300 BCE) and Maya (200-900 BCE), Aztec sacrifices are among the most extensively documented. How does such a practice survive in different civilizations through different rulers? This thesis will analyze the phases of Aztec public ritual sacrifice (specifically the location, length, and number of sacrifices) and the close relationship to their origin myths, or founding stories. It …