Author: Tompkins, Ptolemy
Title: This Tree Grows Out of Hell : Mesoamerica and the Search for the Magical Body
Description: San Francisco, Harper, 1990. orig.boards, dustwrapper.. 22x14cm, xv,189 pp. Minor rubbing. VG. ¶ Ptolemy Tompkins' spellbinding plunge into the history and meaning of Mesoamerican civilisations - first published a decade ago - is more compelling now than ever. Combining scholarly knowledge with visionary perception and sensitivity, he examines the Mayan, Aztec, and other related cultures from the perspective of each region's shifting understanding of the human soul. A profoundly spiritual and ecological thread runs through this enlightening work: despite their amazing achievements, these civilisations eventually crumbled because they lost touch with their sense of community, their true natures, and their environments. Above all, Tompkins vividly reveals how violence became a deeply flawed but powerful strategy for accessing the ever-retreating realm of the spirit, which had once guided and directed human life" - Publisher's description.

Keywords: History of Religion, Maya Mythology, Native Americans, American Indians, Central America, Mexico, Aztec Mayas, Anthropology, Ethnology, Mesoamerica