Lunar agriculture in Mesoamerica

Abstract

Though the moon's role in choosing the proper time for planting, harvesting and woodcutting is widely attested in ethnographic reports, the cultural logic and structure of actions by which this celestial body is perceived and used has not been satisfactorily explained. The aim of this paper is to offer such an explanatory framework within which the role of the moon in the agricultural cycle may be explained. My examples of the beliefs about lunar agriculture derive from the Mesoamerican cultural tradition.