This Tree Grows Out of Hell: Mesoamerica and the Search for the

ISBN: 1402748825 EAN: 9781402748820

Publisher: Sterling (View Publisher's Titles)

US SRP: $ 14.95 US

Binding: Paperback

Pub Date: March 01, 2008 Publisher Marketing: Ptolemy Tompkins's spellbinding plunge into the history and meaning of Mesoamerican civilizations--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 that region's shifting understanding of the human soul. A profoundly spiritual and ecological thread runs through this enlightening work like a river: despite their amazing achievements, these civilizations 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.