A Comparative Research On Chinese And Mexican Jade Culture

This is a comparative research on Chinese Jade Culture,and Mexican(and Mesoamerican)Jade Culture.The aim of this research is to find similarities and differences between the meanings,religious,and humanist concepts,etc.given to the jade by these two civilizations;in addition to explain the reasons behind them.In this study,jade not only refers to nephrite and jadeite,but also to the cultural jade as each civilization conceived it.In the first section I briefly review previous works done in this field.The second section is about the ritual uses,humanistic concepts,meanings,etc.associated to the jade in China,and in Mexico.For the Chinese part,I focus mainly in the Classic of Mountain and Seas,Dream of the Red Chamber,as well as other historical sources;for the Mexican part,I mainly rely on the works of archaeologists,and 16 thcentury codices such as The Florentine Codex,and Los Cantares Mexicanos.The third section is the analysis I made on the similarities and differences.The conclusions are in the last section.