To give a better understanding of the Mayan culture as it only seems fit after the discussion of race, allow me to elaborate on the misrepresentation of the "end of the world"
to begin in the understanding one must realize the reason behind the collapse or decline of Mayan culture.
The method by which a Mayan lord of king would be placed in power is the backing of the temple and the faith of the people. Maya legend explains a debt to be paid back to the gods. The Mayan world was created by blood of the gods, after year one the debt was to be repaid by Maya royalty by an offer of blood, either by piercing a hole in the tongue or genitals by which a rope with thorns was drawn through in order to draw the blood. The blood was than placed on leaves and 'parchment' and burned, so the blood may be offered up to the gods. (If this method was employed today we might see a more honest politicians) The blood offering was given so the sun would rise, the rain to fall and maize to grow... as explained in one of the few remaining Mayan books copied by Bishop de Landa (who later was responsible for burning the originals in a massive converting effort)
One of the jobs of the Mayan King was to make predictions of the future, one king name pronounced 18rabbit, seemed to be very adamant about being the best of all the lords, and made many adamant predictions one, that used the Maya calendar to predict the end of the world.
As we know the soils of Mesoamerica are anything but prime for farming, which would be required to feed the growing population of the Maya. Prior to over population the method for farming involved slash and burn, where by an area is stripped of the natural foliage than burned to replenish carbon into the soil, crops grown, than the land if left fallow and a new area is used in the meantime. This cycle usually replanted an area every 10-20 years, with over population however land was being used more frequently and with increased salt content from irrigation and natural depletion of nutrients from the soil, the cycle only becomes more frequent and less effective. Years of over population lead to famine in the area when natural drought set in, the source of the kings power is only upheld by the faith of the people, when those people see that the kings blood is not enough to allow for the necessities of life, the Maya culture began a natural decline and further abandonment of the small villages. (Note that large temples or monumental architecture such as the "pyramids" in castillo chichen Itza are religious and elite centers, plebe or common folks are not permitted unless to offer labor during a festival or to play the sacred ball game for sacrifice for the gods.)
The Maya State was run as a territorial state, no large walls of defense systems implemented, only forts in the country side that reached out along the valley, during the time of the Maya decline, the Spanish conquistadors, were moving in towards their location. Increased warfare, and famine saw the gradual end of the Maya.
I am sure we are all familiar with the Maya for their remarkable mathematics and astronomy. In fact they were so precise that their calculations today of the solar calendar is only off by .3% from the classic Maya period 900AD. Their solar calendar used 365 days with the equivalents of our leap year. With that said, the Maya calendar consisted of not 1 but 3 calendars, the solar or "Haab", the "Tzolkin" or Sacred calendar, and a third inside of the sacred calendar that listed significant events. Picture it as a Gear or Cog in a circle that listed the 365 days of a year, upon the outside of the circular gear is another circular gear that rotates along the outside rim of the solar calendar this is the sacred, and within the sacred is a small gear that rotates along with all three to give a specific date. The Maya calendar is unlike ours as it is cyclical, not linear, meaning for example, there can be many December 18, 2009, where as in our own calendar there can only be one Dec. 18, 2009. The cyclical nature of the Maya calendar repeats itself every 52 years.
The Maya, began what is called "the long count" which began August 13th 3114BC approximately 5000years ago. The date in Maya culture tells of "three stones planted" (referring to a harth, three stones to encircle a fire) this day the maize (corn) God resurrected and the sky rose, spinning to create "time".
It is only recently that with the help of linguist and archaeologist that the Maya Glyphs were fully deciphered. All this hocus-pocus about the world ending came from one date that was 8 glyphs long and only appeared once, on the side of a monolith at the bottom on the side. These monoliths often have the carving of a leader upon the front and the most pertinent information surrounds them, the less important information is etched into the thin sides of the monoliths. It is destroyed, but what is legible explains the date December 23 2012 and the translated meaning "Black will occur/descend". These words were among other outrageous predictions made by the King of the time, 18rabbit, as part of his job title.
Since the hype about the end of the world in 2012, many books have been published each with there own fix on the maya from aliens, to devil worshipers. A lot of the books talk about harmonic solar convergence or rare alignments such as the sun and earth being in the center of the galaxy, which has happened many times before. Others talk about solar storms, that will rip the planet apart, these solar storms happen every 11 years according to NASA, and so far, we are still here. Other say the magnetic poles will reverse, well… they do, the north pole 1.67 million years ago was really the south and this can be seen in paleomagnetic studies. Paleomagnetics, looks at the Iron in rocks of harth stones. The iron heats up and aligns to face magnetic north; the clock so to speak is set at the last time of extreme heating. (Paloemagnetics also helps in the understanding of the first controlled use of fire)
So while the Maya were excellent timekeepers, and astronomers, their culture has much to do with the influence of this so called end of the world. And for that matter their world consisted of Mesoamerica, they were not sea faring folks, their world was much smaller than how we often view our world today. As a part of the Kings obligations and faith within him certain predictions were made using the sacred calendar in conjunction with events of the past. The Kings line of Blood failed, why not their predictions? We must not forget that we often choose to see what does not exist in patterns, as through the power of wild imagination can make our own predictions that seem to be correct. The prediction was so vague and far away that who could doubt it? the locaion of this evanescent black was placed in neglected location, if it were to be the end of the world would thier be so little emphasis? rahter if it were true, perhapse we might learn from the maya in not worrying about our demise but rather living now, while we are free to do so. Now as it is only two years from now, one supposes that only time will tell, but more likely than not, it will be just another happy holiday.
Merry Christmas Everyone!
