This is a greatly updated version of a column of some years back on an unusual and intriguing people. Maya civilization was not 1850 Vienna, but neither was it the primitive horror lovingly imagined by the ill-mannered and barely informed of the web.
Inasmuch America has a large population of Latin Americans, it seems to me that people, or some people, might want to know about them, and what they are, and where they came from. Most Latinos of the south are either a mixture of Spanish and Indian, or sometimes pure Indian. We have some idea of the Spaniards. They were European. But what were the Indians? What is their contribution to the great numbers of–whether you like it or not–new Americans? In particular, what are their blood lines? Are they, as insisted by web louts hostile to Mexicans, of very low IQ–83–and has their Asian blond enstupidated the Spanish? Were they horrendously primitive?
More @ Fred On Everything
1. Human sacrifice / cannibalism is pretty horrendous. Mayans and Aztecs and Toltecs did that.
ReplyDelete2. Mayan civilization ended about 1400 years ago. Calling modern Indians Mayans is like calling me a Viking.
3. Measurements of mental ability, like IQ tests, are not matters of opinion. They are measurements.
4. You cannot elevate the social status of any group, by ignoring their conduct.
5. You cannot elevate the social status of any group, by fiat.
Good list. Thanks.
DeleteUnsolved mysteries?
ReplyDeleteNo, the BOOK OF MORMON explains all this.
The Mayans do not represent Indians any more than the Celts represented all Europeans. I found most of Fred's arguments superficial to say the least. In this he is true to form. No animals to pull carts, Laps use reindeer, everyone uses Oxen, dogs are used but the Indians couldn't find anything suitable.
ReplyDeleteSo much for Indian genius. As for building, having visited Mayan ruins they are not what finds in Istanbul, Rome, or even the low rent districts of Germany. They are akin to the efforts of moderately talented slave drivers who couldn't figure out what roads, aqueducts, or bridges were for. But the Mayans were such shining stars-maybe among Africans but they weren't much competition for the Greeks or Romans.
The Mayans civilization never developed real urban centers. There were no centers like Rome or even Athens. The Incas were much the same. Yes they had written languages, which pretty much qualifies them among civilizations as ahead of New Guinea and the Congo. Yes the Indians developed crude metal working, yet they were unable to utilize iron or steel. Guess they went straight to plastics.
So Fred runs true to form.
Thanks.
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