Research Catalog

Title

Twin city tales : a hermeneutical reassessment of Tula and Chichén Itzá / Lindsay Jones ; photographs by Lawrence G. Desmond.

Author

Jones, Lindsay, 1954-

Publication

Niwot, Colo. : University Press of Colorado, 1995.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xii, 482 pages : illustrations; 29 cm

Summary

• One of the most enduring debates in Mesoamerican archaeology centers on the striking resemblance between the two ruins of Tula, Hidalgo, and Chichen Itza, Yucatan. Surveying the convoluted history of these debates from the perspective of the history of religions, Lindsay Jones provides a new vehicle for exploring more general issues about the politics of knowledge that has shaped and continues to shape the field of Mesoamerican archaeology.
• By exercising a "hermeneutic of suspicion," Jones contends that most explanations of the resemblance between the two sets of ruins reveals more about Western attitudes toward indigenous American peoples than about the empirical realities of pre-Columbian life. By deploying a "hermeneutic of recovery," Jones then presents a fresh interpretation of the old problem of similitude between Tula and Chichen Itza from the perspective of the history of religions.
• This approach enables Twin City Tales to address very specific historical problems and to raise much broader theoretical questions about the academic interpretation and comparison of sacred architecture.

Subject

• Indian architecture > Mexico
• Indians of Mexico > Religion
• Indians of Mexico > Antiquities
• Tula Site (Tula de Allende, Mexico)
• Chichén Itzá Site (Mexico)

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Introduction: The Similitude Between Tula and Chichen Itza as a Problem in the History of Religions -- Ch. 1. Dramas of Polarity: A Historical Review of the Tula-Chichen Itza Problem -- Ch. 2. Insignificant Organization: Reflections on the Study and Comparison of Mesoamerican Architecture -- Ch. 3. Significant Alternatives: The Hermeneutical Interpretation and Comparison of Sacred Architecture -- Ch. 4. Deceptions in Form: The Ritual-Architectural Events of Tula and Chichen Itza Reconsidered.

ISBN

0870814036 (cloth : alk. paper)

LCCN

95012731

OCLC

• 32430779
• ocm32430779
• SCSB-14408926

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries