Of body and blood: A cross-cultural comparison of texts and images of Mexica and Lakota ceremonies.
Item
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Title
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Of body and blood: A cross-cultural comparison of texts and images of Mexica and Lakota ceremonies.
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Identifier
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AAI3239308
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identifier
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3239308
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Creator
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Vallilee, David.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Eloise Quinones-Keber
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Date
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2005
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Art History | Anthropology, Cultural | Native American Studies
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Abstract
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This dissertation examines sacrifice imagery in the Americas through a comparative analysis of the Tlacaxipehualiztli (Flaying of Men) ceremony of the Mexica of Mesoamerica and the Sun Dance ceremony of the Lakota people of the Great Plains of the United States. By examining the narrative and visual records, this study explores: how ceremonial participants constructed and interacted with sacred space; why sacrifice was vital to their religious practices; and the ways in which ritual histories reveal values, ideologies, and social structures. Comparing the records of Tlacaxipehualiztli (sixteenth century manuscripts, colonial accounts, pre-Hispanic sculpture, and archeological sites) and the Sun Dance (drawings, paintings, photographic material, Native and ethnographic accounts) reveals striking structural and ideological similarities.;This thesis lends particular attention to the circulation of spiritual energies resulting from ceremonial activities, the importance of specially consecrated ceremonial objects, the energetic effect of individuals moving through (and beyond) sacred space, and transformations made possible by ritual performance.;In both Tlacaxipehualiztli and the Sun Dance a carefully delineated and consecrated space provided the setting for elaborate ceremonies in which shedding blood re-enacted aspects of their respective origin myths. Central to these ritual spaces was an axis mundi that occupied the place at the center of their universe: the temple for the Mexica and the Sun Dance tree for the Lakota. In both cultures the interconnectedness of warfare and ceremony was prominent, with ritual spaces serving as locations for ceremonial battle enactments. The surface of the body served as the focal point for core ceremonial activities, human sacrifice for the Mexica and piercing of the body for the Lakota.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy Restricted.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.