Las nobles semejanzas y diferencias entre la cosmovisión mesoamericana y andina han ofrecido a los estudios inquietantes incógnitas que merecen una cuidadosa atención científica. Como bien hace notar Pedro Carrasco, la localización de rasgos individuales comunes a ambas culturas no proporciona una suficiente solidez a las comparaciones etnológicas de esta región.Notable similarities and differences between the Mesoamerican and the Andean cosmologies have offered researchers important questions deserving careful scientific attention. As Pedro Carrasco points out, the identification of common individual traits of both cultures does not provide a solid enough ground for ethnological comparison. In search of stronger premises for a comparative study, this work proposes a research methodology based on cosmic paradigms taken from mythology. This type of study aims to trascend isolated ethnographic data in order to reach a larger interpretative framework, which will in turn add sense to the elements being compared. The proposal includes a way to detect paradigms, giving five examples from current studies of Mesoamerican mythology.