But the Maya and these unknown people, Brady said, did seem to share a similar cosmological view. In both cultures, “there is a focus on the sacred, animate earth, which is the most important force in the universe.” In contrast to the Old World idea that the dead live on in the heavens, in Mesoamerican belief the dead live within the earth and mountains. Caves are sacred, as they are a direct connection to that underground spiritual world. The ancestors living underground continue to take care of the living, watching over them. The living can contact the dead by going deep into the caves,
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