They’re not comparing the Maya to our culture, they’re comparing them to the other ancient cultures of the world. Many of the Mayan finds are new because of the use of Lidar and geophysics. It wasn’t known until recently just how extensive and ancient the Mayan civilization was.
As somebody pointed out, brutality was pretty common in the ancient world on every continent. Human sacrifice was practiced in Europe and Asia. Other forms of killing were common. Nobody says the ancient Romans weren’t a great civilization because they commonly murdered babies.
“...Nobody says the ancient Romans weren’t a great civilization because they commonly murdered babies...”
Also true.
But my further point is that Christianity was a sea change in western culture.
The Old Testament was about justice... everyone got that... even the Romans....
But the New Testament was about ‘mercy’ and brought the idea of compassion into the forefront of theology and western belief systems.... it DID change the world. From that point forward, it viewed ritual death and sacrifice as, not only brutal (as they always had been) and the conduct of very backward barbarians.... but also sinful.
‘Romans’ for example... understood brutality for what it was and used it constantly to subdue and coerce people. So, though they understood their brutality and torture were beastly practices and efficient ‘tools’... they didn’t regard brutality as a sin. ‘Sin’ for Pre Christian people was more like bad form than actual moral failure.
Christianity made murder and brutality an individual and societal failure to be seen as the lowest and worst of human conduct. With Christianity, murder and brutality were never again seen in the same way...in western culture.