MesoAmerican Art
Discussion Forum: Tihoo To Merida
Answer 3 of the 4 questions
- Why is learning about specific sites important for understanding the Maya as a whole civilization? Use my research and the Coe text to support your thoughts.
- Describe, in your words, the results of contact between the Maya and the Spanish at the site of Tihoo.
- After reviewing both the article and Powerpoint, explain why you think scholars still continued to study this site even though it no longer exists and is buried beneath the modern city of Merida.
- What do you think was the most significant result faced by the Maya after having contact with the Spanish.
The Mysterious Maya- Dr. Norman Hammond presentation
Article: Interpreting the Chilam Balam of Chumayel (Just Read Introduction)
https://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/maya/cbc/cbc05.htm
Short Video: Mesoamerican Through Time- A Visual and Auditory Tour of Select Mesoamerican Capital Cities
Short Video: The Maya of BelizeURL
Discussion Forum: Maya Conquest and Colonization
Directions: Based on our residency meeting, the Chilam Balam information, the Joyce & Schumaker readings, and the supplemental videos, answer the following questions.
Please answer 3-4 questions
- How did both Spanish and English colonization impact the Maya? Use examples from the Yucatan and Belize to support your answer.
- Why do you think Maya writing may be more difficult to understand today than it would have been before Diego de Landa?
- Why have problems with translations impacted the understanding of the precolumbian and historical Maya?
- Do you think Spanish and Maya contact was positive, negative, or both? Use examples to support your answer.
Video: What led to 1492? by Dr. Rhianna C. Rogers
Video: Hispaniola, Columbus, and the Beginnings of Spanish America by Dr. Rhianna C. Rogers
Discussion Forum: Thinking about the Mentalities of Conquest
Critical Thinking Reflections: Thinking through our perceptions of other cultures.
BACKGROUND: I want to use the example of human sacrifice in Mesoamerica to illustrate a point about the mentalities of conquest and control that still exist in culture today, based on the propaganda taught to us about native peoples. One thing that we will have to keep in mind in this course is that some of the perceptions you have about Mesoamerican cultures have been shaped by popular culture.
In order to understand why ancient cultures did what they did, we have to take ourselves out of our contemporary ethical notions of right and wrong and try to think of why people did what they did based on the current culture of the time. It is a hard thing to do, but it gives us a better understanding of what and why natives did what they did.
Many ancient and modern civilizations practiced some form of sacrifice (e.g., some forget that in ancient Israel, they often had animal sacrifices throughout the year and early in the Old Testament/Tanakh Abraham was asked to sacrifice Isaac…though, as the story/scripture continues, he did not.) Other cultures as well practiced human sacrifice. Take a look at some listed here, including the Romans, Chinese, Mesoamericans, Incans, Greeks, and possibly the early Isrealites and Christians: http://www.britannica.com/topic/human-sacrifice
NOTE: I asked a baited question earlier in this course to one of your classmates: Why do we focus on human sacrifice so much in Mesoamerican cultures? More specifically, why do we do this when many cultures also took part in this practice, even cultures that some of us in this class may have religious, cultural, or familial connections to?
There are no right or wrong ways to answer this question, but I want to give you my academic take on it. Here is one answer: it is easier to demonize/look down on the practices of others when you do not feel akin to that particular culture. (For example, when I taught classes in Mexico, human sacrifice was not a major focal point when learning about Mesoamerica. Many people in the class had familial connections to that history and they did not want that as their focus for fear it would distract from the many accomplishments of Mesoamerican people. This usually doesn’t happen in US versions of Mesoamerican courses. Many US students are interested in the sacrifice and warfare first…I have seen this fact over the 10 years I have taught this course in the US. The question is why the different focus: warfare/sacrifice vs. Mesoamerican accomplishments? The same practice can be seen in US mainstream culture. Some parts of Judeo-Christian heritage and perceived historical connections to ancient European cultures- Germanic, Roman, and Greek are glossed over in order to focus on the accomplishments of these groups (e.g. the bloody impacts of the Crusades, religious conflicts, and warfare.) As history has taught us, when you, as a person or group, feel connected to another person or group, you don’t want to make them look bad…this happens in both my Mexico and US examples above. So how do we deal with this? Well, this could be an entire discussion about how history is the interpretation of those who create it or how propaganda is built in history to push a particular agenda, but I don’t want us to get too far off topic.
The point of this baited question was to get you all to think a bit deeper about how you are constructing your knowledge about Mesoamerican peoples…do you think you have been influenced by pop culture? Have you focused on the human sacrifice/warfare elements first, before Mesoamerican accomplishments, like their pyramids, science, writing, and math?
To keep you thinking, I want to provide you all with a student post from another college about Aztec Human Sacrifice…take a look at what they wrote and what the students brought up about sacrifice in ancient and contemporary culture…it is quite fascinating!
http://anthropology.msu.edu/anp264-ss13/2013/04/25/aztec-human-sacrifice/
Now to the questions.
DIRECTIONS: Answer 2 of the 3 questions
- How did the concept of La Reconquista impact the Spanish settlement of the New World? How does this relate to your readings in Joyce and Shumaker?
- Do you think that if the Mesoamerican populations defeated the Spanish we would have a different interpretation of their histories?
- After reading Joyce and Shumaker and watching these Spanish mentality videos, has your perception of certain people/groups changed (e.g. Columbus, the Spanish, and others)?
