Money and Metaphysics Among the Maya and Nahua

Among whom, when, and where did money and metaphysics first emerge? This chapter addresses Richard Seaford’s conjecture that the answer to these questions can only be found in the ancient civilizations of Greece, India, and China. Evidence from two ancient American civilizations, the Nahua and the Maya, shows that although the same kinds of money and philosophy that Seaford recognized may not have emerged in the Americas, similar kinds of relationships among self, society, and the cosmos did.