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A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF RITUAL PRACTICES OF TIME

I have undertaken a comparative methodology explicating the ritual practice of time organised and systematised in a variety of Mesoamerican calendars—the Long Count calendar of the classic Maya, the 260-day calendar and the 365-day calendar of the postclassic Yucatec Maya, and the 52-year calendar of the postclassic Aztec.

Various calendars and their associated temporal ritual practices serve diverse functions and have several meanings according to the linguistic, cultural and religious context. The concept of time and related world-view are reflected by the ceremonial practice of a specific calendar of a cultural system. The ritual practice of time has been analysed concerning the ritual’s relation to the cosmogony (cosmological time) and the past (historical and pre-historical time), space (spatial-temporal time), its social meaning and function (the sociology of time), power (the politics of time), the future (eschatological/apocalyptical time), and the philosophy (ontology) of the order and the quality of divine/sacred time.

A comparative summary of theoretical perspectives of the symbolic meanings and ritual practices of the calendar time are in the concluding part synthesised in an analytical model based upon the theoretical framework (and arguments) of the previous four parts of the book. Furthermore, a section examines accessible information of whether several ritual practices of time of the various calendars were simultaneously performed within a culture.

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Comparative Methodology of a History of Religions Explication of Ritual Practice of Time
Due to the limited access to pre-European/pre-Christian primary and secondary sources to the ritual practices of calendar time, I intend to explicate the ritual practices of the noted four major calendars—The Long Count calendar, the 260-day calendar, the 365-day calendar and the 52-year calendar—of...
(The Ritual Practice of Time: Philosophy and Sociopolitics of Mesoamerican Calendars)
Ritual Practice of Time as an Analytic Theoretical Concept
What constitutes and how can the concept “ritual (practice) of time” be defined? An enormous literature has been produced about the notions of “ritual” and “time”, which cannot be given simple definitions.12 A substantial disagreement exists among scholars concerning the meaning and function...
(The Ritual Practice of Time: Philosophy and Sociopolitics of Mesoamerican Calendars)
Cosmogony and Ritual Practice of Time
Rituals can be authorised and be given meaning through stories about past events, which can be ceremonially imitated and/or commemorated (Dumezil 1935-1936: 242-243). The ritual practices of time might therefore be associated with actions of the remote past when the time of the calendar was initiated...
(The Ritual Practice of Time: Philosophy and Sociopolitics of Mesoamerican Calendars)
Cosmology (Space) and Ritual Practice of Time
The cosmology is outlined at the creation of the world, which explains the primordial ordering of time and space. Time may be associated with space in some calendars. In the chronovision and cosmovision of Mesoamerican philosophy it is important to consider whether the various categories of time were...
(The Ritual Practice of Time: Philosophy and Sociopolitics of Mesoamerican Calendars)
Eschatology and Ritual Practice of Time
Eschatological and apocalyptical conceptions and anxieties of a final termination of time can motivate the celebrating of rituals. Potentially, a ritual of time may function as a “crisis ceremonial” for the community, involving a profound psychological aspect. In such a case the survival of the world...
(The Ritual Practice of Time: Philosophy and Sociopolitics of Mesoamerican Calendars)
Sociology and Politics and Ritual Practice of Time
The ritual practice of time are to be analysed not only as an intellectual or philosophical but also as a social and political phenomenon. The nature and character of the ceremonial performance, comprising participant performers and observers of various social groups, affect the social meaning and function...
(The Ritual Practice of Time: Philosophy and Sociopolitics of Mesoamerican Calendars)
The Religious Quality and Order of Ritual Practice of Time
A calendar is not only a chronometrically instrument. The quality or ontology, i.e. the religious significance and meaning, of time has extraordinary importance, as opposed to the quantity of time or scientific time where calendar time is simply abstract mathematical duration with no historical, socio-political,...
(The Ritual Practice of Time: Philosophy and Sociopolitics of Mesoamerican Calendars)
THE RITUAL PRACTICE OF TIME OF THE LONG COUNT CALENDAR OF THE CLASSIC MAYA CIVILISATION
The constructed denomination “Maya” comprises c. seven or eight million people who speak a Mayan language today (there are 29 extant Mayan languages). The various contemporary Mayan peoples constitute cultural and linguistic minorities in the Mexican states Veracruz, Tabasco, San Luis Potosf Chiapas,...
(The Ritual Practice of Time: Philosophy and Sociopolitics of Mesoamerican Calendars)
Methodology of Analysing the Ritual Practice of Time of the Long Count calendar
Despite David Stuart’s (1995; 1996) and Jessica Joyce Christie’s (1995) research, a systematic investigation of the ritual practice of time of the classic Maya Long Count calendar has not been conducted within a theoretical model of history of religions. Stuart’s recently published book summarise...
(The Ritual Practice of Time: Philosophy and Sociopolitics of Mesoamerican Calendars)