She links the orientation of buildings to the rising and setting of the sun on specific dates, connecting architecture to the solar cycle.
Cosmovisión, ritual e identidad de los pueblos indígenas de México
| | Key Themes | Where to Find the PDF | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | "Cosmovisión y observación de la naturaleza: El ejemplo del culto de los cerros" (1991c) | Mountain worship; relationship between ritual, agriculture, and calendar; sacred geography; ethnohistoric methodology. | Academia.edu | | "Cosmovisión y estructuras de poder en el México prehispánico" (1978) | Ideology and state power; ritual legitimization of Mexica empire; class analysis of pre-Hispanic religion. | AntropoWiki | | "Astronomy, Cosmovisión, and Ideology in Pre‐Hispanic Mesoamerica" (1982) | Archaeoastronomy; use of celestial observations for political and religious purposes; how science and religion intertwined. | AntropoWiki / NYAS website / Semantic Scholar | | Cosmovisión, ritual e identidad de los pueblos indígenas de México (2001, co-coordinator) | Contemporary Indigenous identity; survival and transformation of pre-Hispanic worldviews; case studies from various regions. | Mesoweb (excerpts); available for free on Mesoweb.com in PDF format, making it an invaluable resource | | "Political Expansion and the Creation of Ritual Landscapes" (2015) | Comparative study of Inca and Aztec cosmovision; how empires use religion to organize and control conquered territories. | Cambridge Core website, often accessible via university libraries | | Graniceros: Cosmovisión y meteorología indígenas de Mesoamérica (2003, co-coordinator) | Indigenous meteorology; rain-makers ( graniceros ); the connection between ritual specialists, agriculture, and climate. | IMTA website | | Religión mexica: el culto del estado mexica, cosmovisión y ciencia en Mesoamérica | Overview of Mexica state religion; relationship between worldviews, science, and astronomy; synthesis of her core ideas. | UNAM legal archives (Archivos Jurídicas) | | "Ritualidad y cosmovisión: procesos de transformación..." (2007) | A comprehensive article on how worldviews and rituals change over time, analyzing transformation processes in Mesoamerican communities from pre-Columbian times to the present. | INAH journals website (Revistas INAH) |
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Her work has been recognized with numerous prestigious awards, including the Premio Universidad Nacional in Social Sciences Research (UNAM, 2008), the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Recognition (UNAM, 2007), and the Et Artibus et Litterae (1st Class) from the Austrian Republic (2004). Her profound influence on the field was most recently honored with a homenaje titled "Cosmovisión Mesoamericana: Homenaje a Johanna Broda" by Mexico's National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH) in 2022.
If you are looking for specific PDF write-ups, these are her most influential academic contributions: johanna broda cosmovisi%C3%B3n pdf
Another key concept is the ( paisaje ritual ). Broda argues that for the Nahuas of central Mexico, features of the natural environment—especially mountains and caves—were not inert geographical elements but living entities, "perceived as large vessels full of water". These locations were considered altepetl , or "water-mountains," and served as the settings for crucial rituals, including offerings to rain deities, effectively turning the geography of the Basin of Mexico into a sacred cosmogram or ritual map.
Broda fue pionera en impulsar la en México. Su libro pionero The Mexican Calendar (1969) y las posteriores compilaciones colectivas exploran cómo la orientación de las pirámides y templos ceremoniales obedecía a un calendario de horizontes. Las estructuras arquitectónicas prehispánicas actuaban como marcadores que indicaban con precisión los equinoccios, solsticios y los días de paso cenital, regulando las fechas críticas de la siembra y la cosecha. 3. Las Fiestas del Calendario Mexica como Aparato de Estado
Broda’s frequent allusions to the Kabbalistic Ein Sof (the endless) reveal a cosmology that sees the universe as an . In her poem Spinnenfaden (“Spider‑Thread”), she writes: She links the orientation of buildings to the
| | Editors/Coordinators | Publisher & Year | Key Focus | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Cosmovisión, ritual e identidad de los pueblos indígenas de México | Johanna Broda & Félix Báez-Jorge (coords.) | CNCA / FCE, 2001 | Provides ethnographic and historical perspectives on the persistence and transformation of indigenous worldviews. Includes foundational essays by Alfredo López Austin on the "hard core" of Mesoamerican tradition. | | Cosmovisión mesoamericana y ritualidad agrícola | Johanna Broda & Alejandra Gámez Espinosa (coord.) | BUAP, Puebla, 2009 | Explores the relationship between agricultural cycles and ritual practice across different regions of Mesoamerica. | | La montaña en el paisaje ritual | Johanna Broda, Stanislaw Iwaniszewski & Arturo Montero (coords.) | UNAM / CONACULTA / INAH, 2001 | A key text on sacred geography, analyzing the ritual role of mountains as a central axis of Mesoamerican cosmovision. | | Deidades, paisaje y astronomía en la cosmovisión andina y mesoamericana | Juan Pablo Villanueva, Johanna Broda & Masato Sakai (coord.) | Univ. Ricardo Palma, Lima, 2019 | A comparative work that highlights the parallels and divergences between Andean and Mesoamerican worldviews. |
The convergence of these strands yields a cosmovisión that is simultaneously (concerning being), epistemological (concerning knowledge), and ethical (concerning responsibility). This essay proceeds in three parts: (i) a historical‑cultural background; (ii) an analysis of the core components of Broda’s cosmovisión; and (iii) an assessment of its contemporary relevance, particularly to ecological philosophy.
She identifies a "longue durée" (long duration) in Mesoamerican thought, showing how pre-Hispanic rituals have persisted or transformed into modern indigenous identity. | AntropoWiki | | "Astronomy, Cosmovisión, and Ideology
El medio natural como estructurador de la cosmovisión: el caso mexica Revistas INAH (PDF)