Posted on 04/17/2026 5:01:52 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Gerardo Aldana is a professor at University of California, Santa Barbara. Our Living Lands producer Daniel Spaulding spoke to Aldana about Mayan astronomy, Mesoamerican culture, and the importance of Indigenous knowledge.
“If we think of Indigenous cultures and their approaches, especially Mesoamerican cultures and their approaches to astronomy, it wasn't to transform and control nature,” Aldana said. “It was to find ways to open up dialogues with nature so that now your engagement with your environment can be a productive and a healthy one.”
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Perhaps there are clues as to what the ancients were studying in the stars. There is a theory out there that as we advance through the Great Precession—or Precession through the Equinoxes...That certain Zodiac signs are signals for great clamity/changes on Earth. I wonder what the Mayans said about that.
Re “… wonder what the Mayans said about that...”
I’ll tell you exactly what they said… “Look out for Spanish guys in body armor, carrying big swords”
...Treat them like they are gods and they'll never let you live it down.
Mayan civilization had collapsed before contact.
Which is called Animism, primitive religious beliefs predating Paganism, similar to modern Fat Albert Gore environmentalism. It comes with competitive disadvantages, like wasting people's time for no benefit, or getting wiped out during tribal warfare, which is why it eventually fades away to better religions.
LOL! Very clever, Wavy.
Don’t get Aztechnical with me, please?
Aldana said. “It was to find ways to open up dialogues with nature so that now your engagement with your environment can be a productive and a healthy one.”
It’s really astonishing the asshattery these guys throw out.
That’s great
It’s like asking what we can learn from square wheel technology.
Ummm… that it was dumb?
It’s really astonishing the asshattery these guys throw out.
And the common-thread of this asshattery is always [straight] White men bad, everyone else good.
———————-
Well, some or a bunch of people thought the world was ending in 2012 since the Mayan calendar ended then.
From that perspective, a generation in the US was named Gen Z (birth 1997-2012) and was to be the last generation.
*The Mayans are still laughing about that one.
“There is a theory out there ... “
LOL!
Was it? Astronomy and astrology were a technology for them. You needed to know when the planting season and harvest season began. If the constellations and planets revealed your destiny, that was also useful.
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