Well, there you have it: a worldview so absolutely different from our own that it has defied analysis for several hundred years by some of the best intellects available. It appears to me that the fundamental reason for this failure is that modern Europeans had not experienced impact events for a considerable period of time, and certainly nothing so devastating as the impacts the Maya experienced twice.
One of the most interesting aspects of this difference between peoples is their view of the afterlife. The Europeans retained but dim memories of the sky gods, and most peoples placed their afterlifes either in heaven, living comfortably with the sky gods, or in hell, consumed by the dimly remembered flames of a land impact. In contrast, the Maya had experienced a massive impact produced mega-tsunami, and they placed their afterworld under the sea, and described death as going into the water.
The differences are actually that great, and dealing with them has been exhausting. As for myself, this is simply as far as I am able to take this survey from hell for the indefinite future, a future in which I am looking forward to going into the water at some sandy beach. I plan to come back out of that water as well.
EP
http://FAMSI.Saiph.com:80/dataSpark/schele/preview/05/IMG0093.jpg
@copyright 2001 e.p. grondine
For further online reading about the peoples of this area, see:
http://www.ukans.edu/~hoopes/bookmarks.html
With many thanks to Munro, as well as to Mukta Antz Chingon and her friends
The ship at sea,
now old and without strength to navigate,
be it with two or three masts,
will list and turn over.
The Priest Xupan Nauat
The diviners of birds,
The diviners of stones, (tun)
The diviners of flat stones,
The diviners of jaguars, (balamob)
are weak spirits.
Sixteen hundred years is the end of their lives,
And three hundred years follow.
And so their lives are ended:
Because they know the Count of Days among them.
Returned is the month;
Returned is the year;
Returned is the day;
Returned is the night;
Returned is the wind,
And gone again.
Returned is the blood also:
It has arrived,
And divined,
On the nobles mats,
And on the thrones.
They have measured to learn the best hours;
They have measured to find the best day;
They have measured there to see the arrival of the best stars in ascendancy;
They have measured to observe the arrival in ascendancy of the best stars:
The best tun altogether.
And so they form their opinions. (Ca tun u takbes y al ob.)
Author unknown
,br.
Why? Do the Bilderburgers not approve?