Sylvia Marcos

Taken from the Lips: Gender and Eros in Mesoamerican Religions (Religion in the Americas Series) Sylvia Marcos

This volume deals with the world of women in Mesoamerica, discussing particularly the religious and ritual aspects of gender. As its sources, it uses colonial documents of the contact period with European cultures, testimonies of the subjugated indigenous during the colonial period, as well as contemporary ethnographic studies. The book starts with an analysis of healing rituals in contemporary Mexico, focusing on the "refunctionalization" of ancient beliefs and practices. From there it moves spiral-like between pre-hispanic and colonial pasts and diverse presents. The section on "orality" is a methodological proposal for the study of indigenous religious traditions. The book is illustrated with reproductions of ancient codices.