|
|
|||
Gods |
Years ago a couple of neighbors were watching me work at backyard gardening (no, I don't have glaucoma) and the one I'd been trying to nail, the schoolteacher as it turned out, got around to saying what a tragedy slash-and-burn ag is. The other woman had literally grown up in the rain forest of Ecuador, and asked her what she was talking about. Bravo for life's random juxtapositions. |
||
|
· Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists · |
|||
I was under the impression, having read a good bit about it, that the Mayans used the ‘invade your neighbors and take them as slaves’ method. Except when they were sacrificed...
I am now reading Colapse by Jared Diamond and he is a proponent of Man’s ecologiacal ruination of the world. This woman has a different perspective...cool
Save the tree kill the people..
Sacrifice symbolized the renewal of the divine cosmic energy and the continuation of life. Its ability to do so is based on two intertwined concepts that are common to most Mesoamerican belief systems (in one form or another). The first is the notion that the gods had given life to mankind by sacrificing parts of their own bodies. The second is that blood, which often signified life among Maya belief systems, was partially made up of the blood of the gods (who sacrificed it and gave it to humans when creating life). Thus, to maintain order in their universe, the Maya, as well as most Mesoamerican groups, believed that blood and life had to be given back to the gods.
To the Mayans, the ritual of blood-letting was the most effective way to appease their gods to bring good luck or plentiful crops. An example of this can be seen in the limestone relief Shield Jaguar and Lady Xoc found in Mexico dated around 725 C.E. where Lady Xoc pierces her tongue with a thorny rope.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacrifice_in_Maya_culture
30 years ago in Mexican East Coast we spent time with the Indians there. They took us to their gardens. Indeed, they were indistinguishable from the forest until you knew what to look for. Peppers and tomatoes were planted variously about in small openings from fallen trees. Tending the plants amounted to a couple of machete chops to keep back the wild vegetatian. It was cooler and moister than would have been in an open, cleared field.
Attributing the lack of the use of draft animals to a love for the environment is stupid. Thats not evidence for motivation. Maybe they did not know HOW to use animals in that role?
Didn’t we just read an article published here that the Mayan’s became a dwindling few and were attacked by their enemies?
They discovered this when they found a bunch of arrowheads (made by their enemies) in the Mayan living area.
She’s daydreaming, IMO. Crop rotations or fertilizations don’t require re-forestation. Some archeologists and other anthropologists—especially feminists—often tend to idealize and embellish about peoples of the distant past for lack of evidence for substantially informed debates. ...warrior women and the whole kooky paradigm.
Possible Role of Climate in the Collapse of the Classic Maya Civilization
Drought may have done them in...?