7 January 2012
2012 Silliness- Some Hard Facts
Posted by Dan Satterfield
Kudos to astropixie for finding this! The History Channel could be SO great, but unfortunately it has turned into junk (not the first word I thought of). They more than deserve the criticism in this video.
Dear Dan, I have studied the Mayan culture and I agree that doomsday is highly unlikely in 2012. I do not like the way that astropixie presented the Mayans. Most of their video was Myan bashing. They spent 75% of the video showing how backward the Mayans were. Examples of the backward Mayans included that they could not predict the arrival of the Spanish, did not have a wheel, did not have telescope, used thorns for tongue piercing, etc. Astropixie should have instead focused on the fact that the Mayans never meant for their calendar to be used to predict the end of the world. instead of Mayan bashing, the Discovery magazine article at the following site addresses the facts:
http://news.discovery.com/space/the-2012-mayan-calendar-doomsday-date-might-be-wrong.html
Discovery might be a better site for you to post on your blog. The Mayans were building an advanced civilization when Europe was in the Dark Ages. Mayan civilization went into decline long before the Spanish arrived in the Americas. They may have gone into decline because of disease, internal strife, loss of wars to the Aztec, destruction of Their cities by hurricanes, loss of water in
vital cenotes that kept the people alive, or a combination of difficulties. Their decline had nothing to do with lack of the wheel or telescope, tongue piercing, or inability to predict the Spanish arrival. In a way the Astropixie video just struck me as racist. I have fought a war in Central America and have great respect for it’s people and what little that survives of it’s history. The Spanish destroyed Mayan history by rounding up and burning all but four Mayan codexes. The Spanish claimed Mayan history books were works of the devil. The Mayans were great astronomers and mathematicians. We will never know
what Mayan knowledge was lost, but I am certain that some of their lost knowledge would have enriched the world. Your number one fan.
Some exc. points and well made!
Dan
Dear Dan, thanks so much. Here is a link to a website that explains the Mayan system of writing, what little was left after the book burning and what may have been lost.
http://www.crystalinks.com/mayanwriting.html
Be safe. There is a winter storm coming. Your number one fan.