This edited volume aims to demonstrate the diversity and adaptability of precontact and colonial Mesoamerican Indigenous cosmologies, contrasting the more traditional model of a homogenous cosmology constructed through a European lens. Contributions include case studies from Maya, Zapotec, Nahua, and Huichol cultures, focusing on the dynamic nature of cosmology influenced by historical events and human action. More specifically, the authors address: “(1) a reevaluation of precolumbian vis-à-vis colonial sources, (2) a critical revision of the idea of a multilayered universe composed of 13 and nine vertically arranged layers or levels, and (3) the proposal of new cosmographic alternatives to understand the structure of the Mesoamerican cosmos” (5).

In Part I, the contributors examine how sixteenth-century Mesoamerican cosmology was constructed through a colonialist framework that is not supported by pre-Columbian sources. In Chapter 1, the authors reject the idea that a Mesoamerican cosmology based on a 13-layered underworld and a nine-layered heaven (13/9 model) is a result of syncretism between Indigenous traditions and Euro-Christian and Dantean cosmology. In Chapter 2, the author examines how influential documents such as the Codex Vaticanus A were interpreted by antiquarians to conclude that Mesoamerican cosmology “should be included and subordinated to a global order, within which a universalized notion of religion pursues the legitimization of European culture and Christianity” (91). Díaz, in Chapter 3, investigates visual sources and how colonial scholars incorporated Christian imagery and ideology into reconstructions of Mesoamerican cosmology.

In Part II, authors examine continuity and change in Indigenous cosmology through pre-Columbian, colonial, and ethnographic research. Chapter 4 compares precontact Maya codices with colonial written sources (for example, Chilam Balam) to examine how Franciscans in sixteenth-century Yucatan converted individual Maya gods into angels and demons. Although Tavárez, in Chapter 5, espouses a correlation between the 260-day Zapotec cycle and a multilevel cosmological model, it is different from the 13/9 model and reveals the diversity of Indigenous worldviews. Chapter 6 is an examination of the contemporary Ch'orti’ cosmovision from eastern Guatemala and focuses on the importance of water to everyday life. This case study peels back layers of colonial veneer to reveal a rich tradition connecting back to Classic Maya heritage.

In Part III, the authors attempt to understand Mesoamerican cosmology through new paradigms emphasizing ritual, lived experiences, and the supernatural sphere. Chapter 7 examines how sacred geography was linked to actual places and political legitimization in Classic Maya texts. Tokovinine demonstrates that the same mythological places could be perceived quite differently across time and space, arguing against a uniform Mesoamerican view of the cosmos. Mikulska addresses the 13/9 model in Chapter 8 and argues that this division is not supported in pre-Columbian imagery but rather a division between the mundane—a well-ordered and predictable place—and a dark primordial world with divine/creative forces that was full of danger. In Chapter 9, Neurath reveals the diversity in Mesoamerican cosmological models through an ethnographic examination of the Wixarika (Huichol), showing that the underworld was not created but had always existed; the sky, on the other hand, had to be ritually constructed.

Although this volume might appear to have a narrow focus on the universality of Mesoamerican cosmology, this volume will be useful for continuing the investigation into how subjectivity has been and still is introduced into scholars’ methods of understanding past cosmology around the world, not just in Mesoamerica. It provides a starting point for researchers to continue these investigations and explore how colonial documents do or do not reinforce the idea of a 13/9 model cosmos. The nature of how investigators understand past belief systems is explored and says just as much about these ancient people as it says about the investigators’ desire or need to understand their “subjects.” This volume would be a useful and important read for any scholar, student, or other person interested in Mesoamerica.