South and Meso-American Native Spirituality: From the Cult of the Feathered Serpent to the Theology of Liberation.

From the Mayas pondering zero, to the Incas chasing evil out of their kingdom or the Aztecs listening to ancient words about proper behavior, to a contemporary Lacandon funeral rite in the Chiapas rain forest, to a two-day healing ritual by a Bribri shaman in Costa Rica, the native spiritual practices in Meso- and South America provoke wonder, awe, and perplexity.

Under the editorship of Gary Gossen, this collection of essays makes a substantial contribution to the Crossroad series, "World Spirituality." Gossen's aim is to make available "the inner states, worldview, and cosmology of practitioners and believers." His brief but effective introduction places religious development in a geographical, social, and historical setting from the Paleo-Indian period up to the present. Roots of Amerindian religions are as deep and complex as those of Old World religions, Gossen says, and the multiplicity of religious traditions in the region made it a crucible for the formation of fundamentally new religious expressions.

In the first of the volume's five sections, the beliefs of the great traditions at the time of the European conquest are sketched out: the Nahuatl-speaking Aztecs or Mexica, as they were called; the Maya in southeastern Mexico, Yucatan, and Guatemala; and the Quechua-speaking Incas of the Central Andes. These belief systems represented the official ideology of the ruling elites and priesthoods of empires that controlled millions of people at the time of the first contacts with Europeans, A.D. 1521-60.

In the first essay, Miguel Leon-Portilla takes us right into the heart of the impressive and complex Nahua/Aztec spirituality. While their practices provoked contradictory responses (even from the same individuals) ranging from horror to admiration, the beliefs as outlined by Leon-Portilla convey a sense of order and humble attentiveness to the universe. The basic concept of Nahua spirituality is to be deserving or worthy of life through offerings, sacrifice, and penance. In this the Nahuas were imitating the gods who had sacrificed themselves so that humans might be worthy of existence. Leon-portilla portrays the Nahuas as concerned with appropriate moral behavior vis-a-vis their world and their gods. Their supreme god, Ometeotl, also addressed as "You Who Are Near and Close," was a male-female or dual god. Most gods appear either in pairs or have a dual nature.

If the Aztecs were concerned with appropriate behavior, the highest aspiration of the Maya was the conquest of time, and "to an astounding degree they succeeded," says Munro S. Edmonson. The presence of zero in Maya thought is related to the Mayan understanding of nothingness and of creation ex nihilo. The Maya pondered deeply the concept of zero, but were never satisfied about whether it was the beginning or the end. They thought that the mystery of the transition from 0 to 1 was the essence of god, and the mechanism of creation was the word. While the Mayan idea of god was unitary, Edmonson points out, the name (hunab ku or unified god) shows that god was plural as well as singular -- and dual in that god was addressed as mother and father.

Understanding the Andean religion from the point of view of its practitioners presents a difficulty because they had no writing system, notes Manuel M. Marzal, S.J., head of the anthropology department at the Catholic Pontifical University of Peru. Material about Incan beliefs comes primarily from Spanish chroniclers who often had other agendas and worked under various limitations. Marzal cites several of these chroniclers. Among the many details are descriptions of penitential rites and of the cloister or "house for chosen women" built next to temples dedicated to the Sun. Virgins (called "esteemed mothers") brought in from the provinces as young girls dedicated their virginity to the worship of the gods.

Elsa Cecilia Frost, of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, introduces the actors involved in the initial contacts between the European and native American cultures and lets them speak their own words as recorded in the abundant documentation. Spanish conquerors and their theologians called the Indians they taught and baptized "the wisest of human beings" and "natural serfs." Indians were regarded simultaneously as under the wholesale domination of the devil and as exceptional human beings who were beyond the common vices. Indians were always regarded, officially at least, as having souls; yet the question for the Spaniards was, how capable were they of reason?

J. Jorge Klor de Alva, professor of anthropology at UC Berkeley, outlines the process of what initially looked to the friars like conversion, but resulted in a version of Christianity that the Indians perceived as a continuation of their own beliefs. Indians who did not acculturate, and especially those who were pushed back into rural areas, developed a sort of "Christo-paganism." Klor de Alva holds that the missionaries' view of native religion as the devil's trickery gave the Nahua religion a negative validity--it was still within the system, albeit the devil's work--and allowed for bridges, between the two belief systems. The Nahuas' flexible pantheon allowed them to adopt new gods and discard defeated ones. Their primary relationship was to local deities, and this encouraged adoption of the cult of the saints. Klor de Alva also points out that while church teachings on salvation had little meaning for the Nahuas, they did understand worship and ritual from their own religion--but as a means of averting evil and obtaining this-world objectives. Their prime moral imperative was keeping in balance all forces in the cosmos, the community, and in themselves.

Contributing to the collection's broad scope are several other essays, including one by Louise M. Burkhart tracing the development of the cult of the Virgin of Guadalupe, two essays on the Maya-Christian synthesis among the Tzeltals and Yucatec Maya, and, especially interesting, "The Last Time the Inca Came Back: Messianism and Nationalism in the Great Rebellion of 1780-83" by Jan Szeminski. Szeminski examines the religious symbols in this Indian revivalist and separatist movement led by Jose Gabriel Thupa Amaro, a descendent of the last ruling Inca. The rebellion came to embody the spirit of Peru much as the veneration of the Virgin of Guadalupe does in Mexico.

Szeminski, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, sketches the prevailing social structure of eighteenth-century Peru where Indians were governed by local rule in communes or settlement groups, and where the Inca aristocrats mediated the escalating economic demands of the growing European population. The Inca nobles, most trained in Jesuit schools, read works by sixteenth-century intellectuals of Indian descent, wore tunics with ancient symbols of power, and traveled to Spain to present their grievances to the king. Frustrated by the lack of response or redress, they conspired to rebel against the Crown. The movement, which Thupa Amaro took leadership of by proclaiming himself the Inca King of Peru, was based on ancient religious precepts, and had the restoration of moral well-being on earth as its objective. In its depth, passion, and complexity, the rebellion was an attempt, according to Szeminski, to alter an intolerable social order in ways that made sense to the Indians in terms of their own cosmology. Thupa Amaro was executed in 1781 and the rebellion officially defeated in 1783; yet, says Szeminski, Thupa Amaro was transformed into a founding hero of modem Andean social reform.

Also of note are four essays concerned with Indian spirituality in the Chiapas area where recent military action by indigenous groups has drawn international attention.

Jacqueline Bell Mosio is a translator and writer living in New York. She lived and worked in Mexico for many years.