Abstract This article explores how the 260-day divinatory calendar changed over the course of Mesoamerican history. I begin with a description of the day-count in an ethnographic context, twentieth-century highland Guatemala. I then examine the day-count as recorded in sixteenth-century historical documents from central Mexico. Ceramic motifs on Early-Middle Postclassic period pottery from Xaltocan, Mexico, guide an examination of the day-count in the eleventh through sixteenth centuries. This study concludes that despite its reputation as an exclusively elite institution, the tonalpohualli has served commoner purposes for at least a millennium. Commoners were more knowledgeable and more active agents regarding cosmology than most Mesoamericanists have previously believed. This study concludes that comparative historical analysis, that is, the systematic search for differences , as well as similarities , in the ethnographic, ethnohistorical, and archaeological records, enhances the contributions of ethnography and ethnohistory to Mesoamerican archaeology.
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