Editing World tree (section)

===Indigenous American cultures===
{{Main|Mesoamerican world tree}}
* Among [[Indigenous peoples|Indigenous]] [[Mesoamerica]]n cultures, the concept of "world trees" is a prevalent motif in Mesoamerican cosmologies and iconography. The [[Temple of the Cross Complex]] at [[Palenque]] contains one of the most studied examples of the world tree in architectural motifs of all Mayan ruins. World trees embodied the four cardinal directions, which represented also the fourfold nature of a central world tree, a symbolic ''[[axis mundi]]'' connecting the planes of the Underworld and the sky with that of the terrestrial world.{{sfn|Miller|Taube|1993|p=186}}
* Depictions of world trees, both in their directional and central aspects, are found in the art and traditions of cultures such as the [[Maya civilization|Maya]], [[Aztec]], [[Izapa]]n, [[Mixtec]], [[Olmec]], and others, dating to at least the Mid/Late Formative periods of [[Mesoamerican chronology]]. Among the Maya, the central world tree was conceived as, or represented by, a [[ceiba]] tree, called ''yax imix che'' ('blue-green tree of abundance') by the Book of [[Chilam Balam]] of Chumayel.<ref>Roys 1967: 100.</ref> The trunk of the tree could also be represented by an upright [[caiman]], whose skin evokes the tree's spiny trunk.{{sfn|Miller|Taube|1993|p=186}} These depictions could also show birds perched atop the trees.<ref name="Knowlton & Gabrielle 2010">{{cite journal|last1=Knowlton|first1=Timothy W.|last2=Vail|first2=Gabrielle|title=Hybrid Cosmologies in Mesoamerica: A Reevaluation of the Yax Cheel Cab , a Maya World Tree|journal=Ethnohistory|date=1 October 2010|volume=57|issue=4|pages=709–739|doi=10.1215/00141801-2010-042|doi-access=free}}</ref>
* A similarly named tree, ''yax cheel cab'' ('first tree of the world'), was reported by 17th-century priest Andrés de Avendaño to have been worshipped by the [[Itza people|Itzá]] [[Mayan people|Maya]]. However, scholarship suggests that this worship derives from some form of cultural interaction between "pre-Hispanic iconography and [millenary] practices" and European traditions brought by the Hispanic colonization.<ref name="Knowlton & Gabrielle 2010"/>
* Directional world trees are also associated with the four Yearbearers in [[Mesoamerican calendars]], and the directional colors and deities. [[Mesoamerican codices]] which have this association outlined include the [[Dresden Codex|Dresden]], [[Codex Borgia|Borgia]] and [[Codex Fejérváry-Mayer|Fejérváry-Mayer]] [[codex|codices]].<ref name="Knowlton & Gabrielle 2010"/> It is supposed that Mesoamerican sites and ceremonial centers frequently had actual trees planted at each of the four cardinal directions, representing the quadripartite concept.
* World trees are frequently depicted with birds in their branches, and their roots extending into earth or water (sometimes atop a "water-monster", symbolic of the underworld).
* The central world tree has also been interpreted as a representation of the band of the [[Milky Way]].<ref>Freidel, ''et al.'' (1993){{full citation needed|date=August 2022}}</ref>
* [[Izapa Stela 5]] contains a possible representation of a world tree.

A common theme in most indigenous cultures of the Americas is a concept of directionality (the horizontal and vertical planes), with the vertical dimension often being represented by a world tree. Some scholars have argued that the religious importance of the horizontal and vertical dimensions in many [[animist]] cultures may derive from the human body and the position it occupies in the world as it perceives the surrounding living world. Many Indigenous cultures of the Americas have similar cosmologies regarding the directionality and the world tree, however the type of tree representing the world tree depends on the surrounding environment. For many Indigenous American peoples located in more temperate regions for example, it is the [[spruce]] rather than the ceiba that is the world tree; however the idea of cosmic directions combined with a concept of a tree uniting the directional planes is similar.