Gods of thunder : how climate change, travel, and spirituality reshaped precolonial America / Timothy R. Pauketat

Author: Pauketat, Timothy R.
Published: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2023]
Physical Description: xiii, 330 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

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Contents

Introduction : in search of medieval America -- Temples of wind and rain -- Lost in ancient America -- Dark secrets of the crystal maiden -- Mesoamerican cults and cities -- Across the Chichimec Sea -- Ballcourts at snaketown -- A place beyond the horizon -- The other corn road -- Paddling north -- Smoking daggers -- First medicine -- Wind in the shell.

Summary

"The earth's climate warmed from the 9th through the 13th centuries CE. Named the Medieval Warm Period, it was a time of great historical change in precolonial North America, as evidenced through archaeology. While scholars have previously suggested the existence of long-distance ties between the civilizations of Mesoamerica, the American Southwest, and the Mississippi valley, no one until now has argued that climate change and religion-not trade-were the reasons for these far-flung connections. Pauketat argues that a common supernatural being-a Wind-that-brings-rain or "Thunderer" deity-emerged because of climatic factors to drive the development of a series of interrelated religious movements across the continent. These movements were based around a common circular shrine or pyramid in or on which people worshipped the powers of the wind and rain-the essential life-giving forces of global climate"--

Subject(s)

Genre(s)

History

ISBN

9780197645109 hardcover
0197645100 hardcover

Bibliography Note

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Endowment Note

Benzak Foundation American Environmental History Collections Endowment at the Penn State Libraries

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