A Comparative Research Based on a Study of the Ancient Mexican Religious, Sociological, and Calendrical Systems.
Honorary Special Assistant of the Peabody Museum; Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; Member of the Philosophical Society, Philadelphia; Honorary Member of the Archaeological Association, Univ. of Pennsylvania; Corresponding Member of the Antiquarian and Numismatic Society of Philadelphia; of the Anthropological Society of Washington; of the Societá Italiana d'Antropologia; of the Société de Géographie de Genève; of the Sociedad Cientifico "Antonio Alzate," Mexico; and of the Société des Américanistes de Paris.
Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology.
Editorial Note. Author's Preface. The Fundamental Principles Of Old And New World Civilizations. Appendix I. Comparative Table of some Quechua, Nahuatl and Maya Words. Appendix II. A Prayer-meeting of the Star-worshippers. Appendix III. Comparative Lists of Words. Index. Note. Footnotes
The author of this volume explains in her preface how she came to be led beyond her special field of research into a comparative study of the early civilizations of the Old World; and how she traced the origin of the swastika, in Mexico, to an astronomical source and, in all countries alike, found its use as a sacred symbol accompanied by evidences of a certain phase of culture based on pole-star worship, and the recognition of the fixed laws of nature, which found expression in the ideal of celestial kingdoms or states organized on a set numerical plan and regulated by the apparent revolutions of circumpolar constellations.
The results of the author's researches seem to justify her summary of conclusions; but she distinctly states that she does not wish to propound any theory. She invites further study and discussion by Orientalists and Americanists before drawing final conclusions from the facts she has gathered. The publication of this paper will open anew the consideration of pre-Columbian visits to the New World, shown, as many have believed, by identities too many and too close to be considered as mere resemblances or as the natural results of independent intellectual development.