Mayan Technology

You had me until you said “We largely rely on technology handed to us in little shrink-wrapped packages” contrasted with the Mayans “invent[ing] their own technology.” I think your logic is a bit off. Not every single Mayan citizen created their own calendar. Their calendar was created by a few and used by all, handed down gen to gen. Not every Mayan created his/her own tools - they were created by a few and used by all (and improved on as time went by). I’m not sure I follow what the contrast is you’re making. Just because YOU yourself use other people’s tools doesn’t mean that somehow the Mayans are better than you. Trust me… plenty of Mayans “used” tools invented by other Mayans and didn’t make their own. And contrasting today’s highly interconnected modern world with a largely isolated and agricultural Mayan culture is a bit apples and oranges, isn’t it? By the way, the weather may be a “matter of convenience” for you and me, but it’s most certainly a “matter of survival” for farmers, ranchers, fishermen, pilots, truck drivers, etc.

Glad you liked Mexico - It’s a beautiful country. But stop beating yourself and us up for living in “modern times.”

So you think human sacrifices were just a “cultural difference”. Would you also say the same about slavery or sati? My mother used to say “Better to be silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt”.

Easy there…I think we get the general idea of what Chris was saying. Anyway, just don’t go to Chichen Itza, play a game of basketball with the locals and win.

The Mayans were Unique for our time. There was a spectacular film produced in the 70’s/80’s by Moody Science entitled, “Empty Cities”. It swept through History, Sociology, Science, and Religion(s) so completely that it left the thinking viewer breathless. I would like to see it re-released, but the other reason for my posting is that I find that we in the “Occidental” world tend to rationalize (if we rationalize at all … ) that ours is the only thinking culture past, present, or future; and that our “laws of nature” are the only ones in existence.

Thor Hyerdahl made two trips in reed boats to prove that “South America” was/could have been settled by “Modern Egyptians” centuries ago; the “mysteries” of the Easter Islands were proven to be much easier by the “natives” who have the traditions (read “myths/legends” by Western Society, but “history” by the “natives”) and were able to reconstruct their ancestors works for the camera (motion), but it is largely discredited.

I remember being taught - repeatedly - that Stonehenge had no purpose other than “secret Druid rituals”, … until Western Society invented the Astronomical Computer, … then - and only then - did they figure out the precise placement(s) of certain of the formations and begin to understand the design and decipher what is left of the writings previously ignored.

Perhaps for your “second honeymoon”, you (Chris & Ponzi) can visit El Tajin and Machu Pechu, and (gasp!) thet funni sit of runweez down’ere in South Amurka.

To Brian: Yeah, Basketball may be claimed to have been invented in the US, but the C.A. folks considered it life and death! A real blood-sport.

only one comment.

one does not use the word MAYAN or MAYANS,,, the word is MAYA.

NADA MAS

please read…

“MAYA COSMOS” by David Freidel, the late Linda Schele and Joy Parker….

Maybe with some education you will be a bit more articulate on this subject….

The Olmec culture predates the Maya culture and it was “far” more advanced then the Maya’s ever thought to be during its history..

We have a great deal of conjecture and little proof of anything the Maya culture was about or based on, we can draw an infinite number of conclusions about how they lived, and only receive a smattering of answers back as the spanish tried to wipe the “heathens” version of a society for the sake of “uniformity” of a catholic based version…

The only sure thing we can have little doubt of, is that at some point in there history, an event (wither gradual or sudden) happened that caused the abandonment of the cities they worked so hard to build and in return, demolished the remains of there society..

We know of a single king that had affected there culture and way of life more then any other king after, his name was Pakal,but beyond finding his Tomb at the bottom center inside one large stepped pyramid holding a cubed piece of obsidian in one hand, and a sphere in the other made of the same material.. we have truly nothing else to go on but rumors and hearsay which cannot be completely confirmed “nor” denied..

We only understand less then 1/3rd of the language of the Maya written in both stone and parchment , and even then it is not clear if the translations are correct because they used a unique system of hieroglyphic, motion, numerical, and diagrammatically designed art renderings as a means to convey a story as they were interchangeable and had different meaning depending on the situation it was applied in.

It is akin to a very complex encryption methodology that has long since lost the “master key” by which to do a full translation from and to..

We as a society in todays world have taken as much advantage as any other culture and society has in any previous civilization to which the ends of the previous societies was always marked not by a destabilization due to internal strife and lack of order, but by a lack of forethought and vision as those that were in a specific class sought to imbue the will of the people to a “single” focus point, one that forced all others to abide by..

The end results are always the same, for the greater the desire for control, the less likely it will happen as the means to control become more entangled until it becomes the very rope the culture hangs itself by…

In plain english as a simple scientific experiment:

If you observe a snail moving along with just your eyes, the snail is moving very slowly, yet has a predictable pattern of motion and events, but when one seeks a greater understanding of the mechanism’s involved in such a movement, the idea is to “focus” upon a specific category of motion, and try to define it, this is relativity at its best and worse, for in order to focus more upon a single goal to accomplish, many avenues available must be “ignored” or written into the goal in such a way that it supports the primary goal.. the problem is that the greater the focus upon a single goal (no matter the goal) the greater the ignorance of the events that surround the goal one is focusing upon (such as the movement of the snail itself) ..

To the snail, it matters not a whit, the snail is just moving along at its own pace regardless of us as the observer, but if I was to use a microscope to examine the snails movement more closely, I would soon lose track of the snail as I would in “relative” terms, have seen the snail “speed up” because my focus became too “refined” .. jet pilots call it tunnel vision, where they see nothing but a small penlight of what is directly in front of them, there senses are being ignored for the sake of a single event..

This is us as a society and it has been repeated many times before (such as the Maya) as it will continue to be until we learn to quit trying to control everything about what is around us and find a means to us what “is” around us to our own advantage.. we start out as a culture each time understanding this, soon we forget, and that is were the fall begins..

James