Twin city tales: a hermeneutical reassessment of Tula and Chichén Itzá

One of the most enduring debates in Mesoamerican archaeology centers on the striking resemblance between the ruins of Tula, Hidalgo, and Chichén Itzá, Yucatan. The author shows how this perceived similarity is more a feature of Western traditions of study than of any real commonalities in Mayan sacred practice. One of the most enduring debates in Mesoamerican archaeology centers on the striking resemblance between the two ruins of Tula, Hidalgo, and Chichen Itza, Yucatan. Surveying the convoluted history of these debates from the perspective of the history of religions, Lindsay Jones provides a new vehicle for exploring more general issues about the politics of knowledge that has shaped and continues to shape the field of Mesoamerican archaeology. By exercising a "hermeneutic of suspicion," Jones contends that most explanations of the resemblance between the two sets of ruins reveals more about Western attitudes toward indigenous American peoples than about the empirical realities of pre-Columbian life. By deploying a "hermeneutic of recovery," Jones then presents a fresh interpretation of the old problem of similitude between Tula and Chichen Itza from the perspective of the history of religions. This approach enables Twin City Tales to address very specific historical problems and to raise much broader theoretical questions about the academic interpretation and comparison of sacred architecture.

"Comparative study of ritual architecture of Toltec Tula (Hidalgo) and Chichâen Itza of the northern Maya lowlands(Yucatâan). Offers new interpretations of architectural symbolism and its relationship to forms of power and rulership that explain formal architectural similarities between these postclassic cities"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 57.

"Comparative study of ritual architecture of Toltec Tula (Hidalgo) and Chichén Itza of the northern Maya lowlands(Yucatán). Offers new interpretations of architectural symbolism and its relationship to forms of power and rulership that explain formal architectural similarities between these postclassic cities"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 57.