Image: Flickr/Joseph A. Ferris III (Aztec stone of the sun, left), Amaury Laporte (Maya statue, right)
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It's a bright summer day at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. Outside, in the sprawling front plaza rimmed by palm and willow trees, young couples cuddle by the steps, vendors sell wrestling masks and tacos, and five men dressed in traditional Totonac garb slowly spin upside down in the death defying "Dance of the Flyers" for the tourists.
Inside the museum is a wonder of culture and history. Each wing is dedicated to a separate civilization in Mesoamerican culture—one for the Toltecs, another for Teotihuacan. But the largest spaces are reserved for the Aztecs and Maya. And in the center of the building is the stunning Aztec Stone of the Sun—often erroneously called the "Aztec Calendar"—perhaps the most recognizable symbol in Latin America. Diana Magaloni Kerpel, the museum director, peers at the stone.
"It is not a calendar. It's really the image of space and time. It's an image of how the Aztecs conceived themselves as in the center of time and space," she says. "Look at that. There is face in the middle—that is the cosmos. The Maya wouldn't do that—ever."
If you have not been paying attention to doomsayers or John Cusack movies, December 21, 2012, is the day that many say the Maya predicted the world would end. Internet stories regularly detail the Maya calendars although displaying the Aztec Stone of the Sun (including one, we regret, that was published on Scientific American Online). Looking at the reality of ancient Mesoamerica, it quickly becomes clear that much of the uproar rose out of a confusion of two distinct cultures that lived 500 years apart.
"There's a lot of conflation between these two cultures. It would almost be like comparing England at the time of the War of the Roses to the Romans or the Romans to the Greeks in the age of Pericles," says Stephen Houston, a Mayanist at Brown University. "They are vastly different periods, separated by considerable distances. The societies had many shared features but they were organized in very different ways."
To the average tourist, all the magnificent art here may blend together, and indeed they share many themes. But the Maya and Aztecs were very different cultures, analogous in many ways to the Greeks and Romans. Like the Greeks, the Maya were the older civilization to the east. Rather than a unified empire, they were more a collection of powerful city-states like Tikal and Calakmul, who occasionally fought each other. They also had highly realistic art and a form of mathematics far beyond that of ancient Europe.
The Aztecs (properly called the Mexica), on the other hand, ran a Romanesque, centrally organized empire with a powerful origin story for their all-powerful central city. They believed their people began in a mythical place to the north, called Aztlán. Like the Romans or the Jews before, they wandered through the wilderness, eventually reaching a giant lake in the mountains where they built Tenochtitlan—the largest city in the world at the time, now called Mexico City.
That was A.D. 1325, four centuries after the end of the great Maya era. The differences between the cultures can be seen in their art, politics and especially the way they perceived time.
Mexica mythology was full of wrath, death and enough cataclysmic destruction for a Hollywood movie. Their art evolved from highland people like the Toltecs through a tradition of sculpture. The Mexica regularly discussed the end of the world and sacrificed people to prevent it. Pieces like the Stone of the Sun or the Tlaltecuhtli monolith, discovered in 2006, were highly representational and filled with intimidating monsters. Tlaltecuhtli, the largest Mexica icon ever discovered, has claws, blood spurting from her mouth and skulls for knees. People were blocky with generic faces, almost like communist or nazi propaganda.
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34 Comments
Add CommentToo true. However, there will be a major consciousness shift at the end of the year. The Maya were keenly aware of how the universe works.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI beg your excuse, but are you suggesting that... Ahm... I mean... Are you suggesting that, for some unknown reason, the human mind will change simply because the Earth completed another trip around the Sun?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this12/21/12 is not the "end" of the Old World.
It is the beginning of the New World, i.e., the new understanding between Man and Nature.
Robert L. Oldershaw
Discrete Scale Relativity
Fractal Cosmology
http://www3.amherst.edu/~rloldershaw
Excellent article! The best explanation of the controversy I have read; thank you. Nice to know there will be a Christmas 2012, at least the retailers can go ahead and process those xmas orders. I hope that other aspects of these two great cultures will rise to the level of social awareness that this false issue did.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere is much more to the 2012 Mayan story, read about the 1000 Mayan Codices discovered last year in the basement of a museum. Some of the Mayan Elders said one of the codices was essential for life. Until now there were only 7 partial codices known!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.educatinghumanity.com/2011/10/2012-calendar-mayan-calendar-1000-rare.html
A minor complain... none of those figures are mayan.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe first is the Sun Stone by the meshica (or aztec) from the nahua culture, which is much more recent than maya.
ahhh!...the "1000 Mayan Codices " is a fake notice. Just a publicity stunt for a movie.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGlad to see that this story didn't evoke any lunatic comments.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt hasn't been ignorance on the part of "the public"; it's been the avarice and greed, coupled with a total disregard for any facts as usual, on the part of the "main-stream media" anxious to peddle their wares to the gullible and unwary. PT Barnum "there's a sucker born every minute, and two to take 'em".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisalan6302...not a Christan....so...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMoreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
Love the internet and the vast amount of info there...
Where did you get the rest of the crap that you predicted...
The worst were going to see in the near future aside from all the crap we've brought upon ourselves is Syria, Iran, and North Korea....good luck to us all....
gotta watch what they want to correct sometimes;-)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thischristan -> Christian
According to my (2008) mythology course, and translations of myths read therein, this cycle will end on 20121221, and because the day is labeled motion, it is supposed that earthquake will be the cause. The Maya not the Mexica believed this. There will, however, be another incarnation of the world so there is yet hope that the half-educated may learn to spot propaganda when they see it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe subtitle went too far. It should have just read: "This year's doomsday angst owes much to public ignorance".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI used to think that public ignorance was due immaturity of science and lack of education. Given that neither exist today, I must conclude that public ignorance about all manner of things is due to simple and often voluntary stupidity and laziness. It's far easier to make things up than spend the time and effort learning the truth.
Well, we experience a consciousness shift when going to sleep, and those who remain awake too long experience rapid consciousness shifts called microsleeps.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe whole spectrum of association is an interesting one in the study of conspiracy theorists, paranoia, dissociative disorders, and schizophrenia, among other cognitive dysfunctions. Schizophrenic episodes appear to be correlated with some neural damage.
Many other aberrations from normal cognition have what we might call habitual components: As Canadian psychologist Donald Hebb wrote in 1948, "neurons that fire togethe, wire together." We seem to seek explanation for our anxiety in salient events, rather than our beliefs, and often fail to distinguish that generalized anxiety may come from personal habitual sources.
Instead we externalize sources and confabulate reasons from whatever external source cannot be disproven, especially by our own particular thought processes.
Literacy does NOT mean rigorous thought (a perusal of accepted postgraduate theses in many universities in many disciplines will almost certainly cause you to agree with me on this); many enjoy fiction and construct enormous import from soap operas, politics, fragments of news reports, or other anonymous sources.
There may be variable capacity for rigorous thought in our species in any case, and the issue above elicits the unrelieved anxiety now common in the worldwide culture, most of which constituents do not practice either critical thinking, nor understand stasticalmethods, nor practice introspection.
There is a psychological trait in which the human too often wallows,called confirmation bias. This alone should give sufficient explanation for what is above termed hysteria.
Larry,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNear 1/4 of recent high school students do not graduate. Education and learning to think can be avoided in numerous ways.
Some avocations like certain mass communications have led to acquisition of extremely short attention periods; twitter replaces news which replaces in-depth study.
Social networks replace work and study when the tools reward our social nature, as do facebook, twitter, et alia.
Exogenous neurotransmitter analogues and modulators are heavily indulged. While the Mexica only had chocolatl in quantity, the list of drugs used by the majority of the participants in present-day culture is too long to repeat here. I identified them generally as neurotransmitter analogues and exogenous; to mention some which are used daily by as much as 80% of the population would merely cause dispute as to effect, but the studies and experiments showing short- and long-term change are available, from the popular drugs, whether legal, not commonly regarded as drug among a dependent populace, or other.
In a population released from predation, successful reproduction is not limited by natural selection.Upon this basis, I would differ from assertions that lack of education or voluntary stupidity are correct.
But hey! Science must always remain immature, as do I, being merely one of us! I pursue that rigorously, so in private laugh at the nutty comments - I hope you will recognize the humor in walking around presuming that the others you encounter are thinking beings, after reading the commentary.
Well written, but it still does not elaborate on the continueation of the long count. Show me where the Mayan calander continious and does not end.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy would anyone think the prediction of a culture that didn't see their own demise 900 years before Columbus got there to hasten it along would hold any weight?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDefine "world" and "end". The present financial world, for instance, could end if enough people believe and divest, or invest, accordingly.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Every day is the first day of the rest of your life." And it's the last day of your former life.
Though we are living in 21Th century and our scientific knowledge is tremendously advanced our psyche till lingering old religious dogma.We till blindly believed in doomsday and resurgence of Messiah and his miracle. In my opinion psyche of mankind never die.it is emotional urge of mankind to deliverances from this most sorrowful life.This tendency you can see all over the world.Material comfort and lavish lifestyle never made man permanently happy, he want to go beyond the mundane life.I don't think science can change or kill this emotion urge of mankind
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@knightmage
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOn that date, the maya calendar will be in the same status when the Gregorian calendar went from 999 to 1000.
Simply it will need to add an extra zero. Maya counting is positional, the only difference is their system was vigesimal and not decimal.
Museums help, but ignorance about pre-Columbian civilizations remains at a very high level. Through ethnocentrism. We know relatively little about the Inca, Chimu and exterminated populous people of Paria (in Venezuela) in Latin America. Columbus described the Parians as white, wearing pantaloons and turbans. Ditto for our low-grade understanding of the mother-culture Olmecs in Mexico, with their Indonesian craniofacial features. We are still gathering info on the Aztecs and Mayas and related peoples. Bit by perplexing bit. We have never properly answered the question of how they got here, since the Beringian theory is rotting on the vine. Nor can we explain why the Cherokee were the most European-traited people in Indian North America, and the most advanced, or how the Beotuk in Newfoundland seemed even more European yet. We are still pondering the very special Clovis spearheads that first appeared in the Solutrean era in Western Europe c 20,000 ya. How did they get to New Mexico c 8,000 years later?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe most interesting aspect of this is not the details of the calendars or civilizations but of the human mind.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThroughout history there have been many "prophecies" of the end of time, including Christ's own prophecy. To the best of my knowledge, none has proven to be true.
In my own lifetime and just here in the USA I can remember at least a dozen that were taken very seriously by many people. They quit jobs, gave away all their possessions, and did whatever the "prophet" requested in preparation for "the end".
And then sat there looking like total fools on the day after.
And yet we continue to engage in this ridiculous ritual again and again.
The question is not "will the world end" but "why does any person believe this nonsense"?
In the meantime, if you happen to be a true believer and are preparing to divest yourself of your worldly possessions would you please give me a call? I would be more than happy to assist you.
The Maya explained and measured time by observing the repetitions movements of the sun, stars and planets. Nothing has changed. We continue to number, perceive and graphically represent the same repetitions. Only the number systems and the presentations used are different. Man was attempting to explain and exploit time long before he invented the wheel and we are still attempting to do so. Einstein has made this more difficult by pointing out that time is relative, changes with the velocity of the observer and slows down in strong gravitational fields, but our practical use of time, to coordinate events, record the past and predict the future is still much like the Maya, but with less mysticism.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI find it curios that in this factual age so many are seduced by hints of magic or fascinated by a predictable Armageddon. Even Sir Isaac Newton, who came up with a temporarily correct explanation for gravity while on a short absence from Oxford, continued for a lifetime to search the Bible for the exact date for the end of time.
I suggest the establishment of an Armageddon Bank in which believers can deposit all their worldly goods. If Armageddon occurs the bank will continue to hold their deposit in an interest accruing account. If it doesn’t, they can withdraw their deposit, less a small handling fee. OOPS,
I just realized that this has been tried many times before and is still at the core of many religions.
The genetic bomb is in the same chapter Isaiah 30. The cattle feed is seasoned with sorel.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLoosely tanslates to .....people are very upset
Don't forget that the time is marked by a slaughter of the towers
Yes, it is not possible to destroy the world. Lot of reasons are there. So, do not think about it. Maya is other subject, all times it will not correct, not follow the rule of nature.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWillful ignorance is the province of the gullible and lazy. Belligerent ignorance, as displayed on this thread, is the province of religious believers.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs all right-thinking Real Americans know, the end of the world refers to the re-election of Obama. This in turn is proof that the Maya/Aztecs/Mexica were early Tea Party followers, though this does raise disturbing questions regarding immigration.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSome hilariously sarcastic/very insightful comments(the lass said about some of the others the better lol(a degrasion of the english language right there...but it is time saving...well apart from this rant of course!) Anyway i would like to(if i may) broaden the discussion...the amount 0f times the world(as we know it!)has nearly been wiped from existence in the last 80 years alone boggles the mind,the cuban missile crisis and numerous others as an example(and that's just man made!!!)(as agent k says in Men in Black"the only way that people get on with their tiny little lives is THEY DO NOT KNOW ABOUT IT!") Yet against the odds we're still here...So why as a species are there those that revel in the thought in our distruction? Is it a suicidal feeling on a massive scale,is it subconcious guilt by the masses for the atrocities we have commited as a species in getting this far? Or is it simply a big adrenaline rush for some people...When you think about it between what Chaos theory,multi dimensional theory and Quantum physics tells us a version of earth/earth's solar system
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thismay end every single day/minute/second/quantum second(is that a measure?...either way it sounds cool haha)!!!
Next subject:I'd like to bring up the idea of premonitions! In our understanding of physics chaos theory tells us that events played out over and over again lead to different results...so it should be IMPOSSIBLE to predict the future(beyond what we plan out and even then...)...so why is it that many people i know have premonitions...including myself!!!(i only found out this fact about the people i met because i was very open with my experiences...i was agoraphobic for several years because i found it difficult to handle...)But i have always subscribed to john connor's belief(The terminator!)"there is no fate" indeed before it started to really develop in me(to the state where i now experince them every single bloody day!...which makes it difficult to stay unbiased i have to admit haha)i believed that being able to predict(something i still can't do easily,seeing the future and interpreting it before it happens are very diffirent haha)the future was incredibly dangerous! I intend in a few years to go into quantum pyhsics to attempt to figure out how it works,i even have some theories i have developed on my own to explain it...revolving around the idea that time isn't linear at all and that we merely perceive it that way...maybe particule events travel forwards and backwords in time from all moments in time creating our present!(my model is a sphere...)
I am happy Scientific American is correcting these silly opinions about the Maya calendar. In the text however there is a reference to human sacrifices, which has been treated by my friend Peter Hassler of Zurich University as a doctoral theses, where he shows that this is not true, it has been invented by the conquerers in order to get permission (of the church) to treat mesoamerican indigens as slaves.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHansmartin Bächler, Zurich, Switzerland
God to read a report putting things correct. The mentioned human sacrifices however have never been made, as demonstrated in the thesis of Peter Hassler of Zurich University.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@ hm.baechler
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisdo you have any contact information for peter hassler?
i would like to speak to him.
thank you
I find the whole 2012, end of the world thing similar to Y2K. Nothing happened then.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisexcellent article that completely debunks this media created nonsense - i'm amazed that people even bother to take this 'apocalypse' bunkum seriously.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAll of the fuss about the Mayan calendar is nonsense. Check out this enlightening piece from a fantastic blog I follow: "The final countdown has begun...or has it?"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://divinesimplicity.wordpress.com/2012/11/19/the-final-countdown-has-begun-or-has-it/