There is plenty of evidence that the Aztec government replaced the Mayan government. If you ever get a chance to go to Yucatan in Mexico, you’ll find a lot of Mayans still there. They are very nice people. Many of them still live in the same little oval-shaped houses they lived in a thousand years ago. You can fly to Merida and then rent a car and drive to Chichen Itza and Ushmal.
The book by Harvard's Orlando Paterson,
Slavery and Social Death, has a lot about slavery practices by Native Americans. Some Northwest Coast Indians and South American Indians were among the most brutal slave-owning cultures that ever existed. Members of other tribes were sometimes not even considered to be human beings.
Many other Indian tribes did not hold slaves. It is a complex picture.
We are probably all descendants of both slaves and slaveowners, if we go back in history far enough.
Fred – My only clam to knowledge on the Mayan was an elective in anthropology some 30+ years ago. But I do remember I thoroughly loved the subject. I learned later that the Aztec (a bellicose race) move in behind the Mayan, but not until hundreds of years after the fall of the Mayan. The Aztec DID meet the incoming white man – and the rest is history.
This is one of the most enjoyable threads I’ve read yet!