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Jungle Lowlands - Worldview
The physical landscape was a focal point for relationships between the living and their ancestors who had passed on to the afterlife. Relationships with the land, similar to ayllu organization in Andean history, were a reflection of their jungle heritage and were incorporated into time honoured rituals involving feasting, dancing, music and other religious activities. While the various sites in the lowlands all felt the influence of the surrounding landscape in common, variations in geographic location and the political environment of the time generated a wide spectrum of local interpretations of shared cosmological beliefs.
Image: Late Classic Period cylinder vase with incised spider monkey decoration. G83.1.135