Keywords
axes mundi, Mesoamerica, Book of Mormon, ritual activity
Abstract
Places are made sacred through manifestations of the divine or ritual activity. The occurrence of a theophany or hierophany or the performance of particular rituals can conceptually transform a place into an axis mundi, or the center of the world. A variety of such axes mundi are known from the archaeological record of Mesoamerica and the text of the Book of Mormon. I compare and contrast several distinctive types of such ritual complexes from Mesoamerica and the Book of Mormon and argue that they served functionally and ideologically similar purposes.
Recommended Citation
Wright, Mark Alan
(2014)
"Axes Mundi: Ritual Complexes in Mesoamerica and the Book of Mormon,"
Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: Vol. 12, Article 7.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/interpreter/vol12/iss1/7
