Mayans demand an end to 2012 doomsday myth

[Judi Lynn]

Mayans demand an end to 2012 doomsday myth
By Agence France-Presse
Wednesday, October 24, 2012 20:39 EDT

GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemala’s Mayan people accused the government and tour groups on Wednesday of perpetuating the myth that their calendar foresees the imminent end of the world for monetary gain.

“We are speaking out against deceit, lies and twisting of the truth, and turning us into folklore-for-profit. They are not telling the truth about time cycles,” charged Felipe Gomez, leader of the Maya alliance Oxlaljuj Ajpop.

Several films and documentaries have promoted the idea that the ancient Mayan calendar predicts that doomsday is less than two months away, on December 21, 2012.

~snip~
Experts say that for the Maya, all that ends in 2012 is one of their calendar cycles, not the world.

Gomez’s group issued a statement saying that the new Maya time cycle simply “means there will be big changes on the personal, family and community level, so that there is harmony and balance between mankind and nature.”

More:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/10/24/mayan-demand-an-end-to-2012-doomsday-myth/

[PoliticAverse]

1. They only have to wait 2 months for it to be over, one way or another... n/t

[AndyTiedye]

2. Probably Something Like This

[flamingdem]

3. One of my favorite cartoons!

Well it's a bit late to do anything about the prophecy there are already tons of tours and celebrations scheduled, and who knows they might be right ... Rachel Maddow said if the vote is split and blah blah that John Boehner could be President, so..

[Baitball Blogger]

4. As much as I believe their sincerity, it is a bit of a stretch thinking

that the Mayans, who took human sacrifice to an art form, were thinking of a balance between mankind and nature.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Maybe burning people at at the stake was more merciful.

Possibly the array of torture devices, some which have been kept alive to the present, employed in the Inquisition were more refined, more thoughtful.

Who can forget the lovable Crusades?

[Baitball Blogger]

10. Certainly not I.

But they weren't brilliant enough to invent the Mayan calendar, were they?

[tama]

9. Mayans are with us

They never went away. For some reason they abandoned highly hierarchic societies long before European invasion and returned to more horizontal social organization. The Zapatista uprising is a Mayan uprising, and has influenced greatly current global horizontal revolution against capitalist hierarchy.

It is also evident, that the religious meaning of Mayan practice of human sacrifice, which ceased with abandoning hierarchic social organization, was about balance between mankind and nature. Which in world of change is not static but dynamic.

[Baitball Blogger]

11. I did happen to tour a civilization off the coast of Mexico.

Very sophisticated. And I believe the flaw in the system, was that they kept the rich, wealthy and educated enclosed, separated from the masses. So, when the Spaniards came in, all they had to do was wipe out the center and whala! There's your horizontal, agrarian society.

The decline of the Mayan culture, could it have coincided with the appearance of the Spaniards?

[tama]

13. Much earlier

between the 8th and 9th centuries. There has been much speculation about the reason (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_Maya_collapse) but what ever it or they were, adopting non-hierarchic and decentralized social organization has made the Mayan resistance possible to continue to this day from Guatemala "civil war" (practically against US) to Zapatistas of Chiapas and to the whole global revolution inspired by Zapatistas. You could say that OWS is a child of the Mayan resistance.

[Bacchus4.0]

16. nope, the decline was at least 500 years before the Spaniards

the Mayan people obviously were still there but not their great cities. I believe they also lost the formidable knowledge of their ancestors and were unable to interpret ancient Mayan writing.

[a la izquierda]

17. No, no, no...

When the Spanish encountered Mayan peoples, they were living in small farming communities. The Mayans who built the enormous cities, and "took sacrifice to an art form" had collapsed and dispersed into the jungles centuries before Spain ever existed.

Whatever harmony existed between Indians and nature is way overstated. Read Mann's 1491. Indigenous people impacted their environment.
And understanding human sacrifice requires a deep understanding of the way native people's viewed their universe. Westerners not trained in this stuff rarely get it. Mesoamericans of most sorts practiced sacrifice in some form or another.

[DCKit]

5. I've got one at home (a Myan) and there aren't any demands yet.

I'll keep you posted. Right now, he just thinks the doomsayers are full of shit.

"It's a cycle, it repeats, forever."

[DollarBillHines]

6. I have never cottoned to this

This is an ages-old projection, one that was not based on anything but the Mayans' teeth on the knife.

It is simply an end of a cycle, one that which they saw from a long, long time ago.

But, as the old song says, there will be a change gonna come.

Much to you, Judi Lynn,
DBH

[Judi Lynn]

8. Hope the change coming part is right. It's badly needed.

On edit: thanks for reminding us of that song. It is absolutely tremendous.

[naaman fletcher]

12. "Guatemala’s Mayan people"

Every single one of them? This guy needs an Editor.

[tama]

14. Collectively so

They are still using the Mayan calendar, and those who are preserving and keeping the Mayan calendar today are saying this. Old news actually, I first heard this from an Aztec temascalero few years ago.

[naaman fletcher]

15. Sure,

Just that first sentence wouldn't have passed my high school newspaper editor.