Night and darkness in ancient Mesoamerica

Includes bibliographical references and index.Incorporates how aspects of the natural world were imbued with deep cultural meanings and expressed by different peoples from different time periods in Mexico and Central America. Material culture, iconography, epigraphy, art history, ethnohistory, and ethnographies are used to illuminate dimensions of culture often neglected in reconstructions of the past.--Provided by publisher.Introduction to night and darkness in Ancient Mesoamerica / David M. Reed and Nancy Gonlin -- Classic Maya social distinctions and political power: inserting a nocturnal dimension into the hierarchy of consumption / David M. Reed, W. Scott Zeleznik, and Nancy Gonlin -- Mesoamerican plants of the night: ethnographic and paleoethnobotanical perspectives / Venicia Slotten -- Extending the notion of night and darkness: volcanic eruptions in ancient Mesoamerica / Rachel Egan -- Light, darkness, and luminosity in the ancient Maya world: illuminating nocturnal case studies from Copan, Honduras and Joya de Cerén, El Salvador / Nancy Gonlin and Christine C. Dixon -- Teotihuacan at night: a Classic period urban nocturnal landscape in the Basin of Mexico / Randolph J. Widmer -- The sounds in the dark of the Temazcal at Cerén, El Salvador / Payson Sheets and Michael Thomason -- The heat of the night: duality in Aztec health and nocturnal healing activities with a focus on the Temazcal / Jan Marie Olson -- The cave and the skirt: a consideration of Classic Maya Ch'een symbolism / Jeremy D. Coltman -- Night and the underworld in the Classic period Ulúa Valley, Honduras / Jeanne Lopiparo -- The light burned brightly: Postclassic new fire ceremonies of the Aztec and at Xaltocan in the Basin of Mexico / Kirby Farah -- Under cover of darkness: blindfolds and the eternal return in late Postclassic Mexican art / Cecelia F. Klein -- Nighttime and darkness: activities, practices, customs, and beliefs / Julia A. Hendon