Posted on 03/24/2007 12:56:07 PM PDT by forty_years
Political correctness has so disemboweled academic standards that Ph.D. truly means "pile it higher and deeper." Case in point: Alicia Estrada, an assistant professor of Central American studies at California State University, Northridge, Thursday night accused Mel Gibson "of misrepresenting the Mayan culture in the movie" Apocalypto. Estrada, in a superior display of historic ignorance, stated "that representations in the movie that the Mayans engaged in sacrificial ceremonies and had bloodthirsty tendencies were both wrong and racist."
Quite to the contrary, archeological evidence of Maya "sacrificial ceremonies" and "bloodthirsty tendencies" are ubiquitous. It all started with the discovery of murals at Bonampak:
In this scene, Muan, the highfalutin king of Bonampak, indulges in egomania, proving to his subjects what a great conqueror of neighboring Maya city-states he was. Muan's prisoners have obviously been tortured -- blood dripping from their bodies -- before being carted off to be sacrificed (killed). Other murals at Bonampak show "warriors descend on farmers working in the field." Isn't that special. Egalitarian? Hmmm...
After the discovery of the murals at Bonampak, archeologists kept finding more and more evidence of Maya "sacrificial ceremonies" and "bloodthirsty tendencies." A hastily-built defensive wall was discovered at Chunchucmil: "...the stones used to create the barricade were clearly robbed from nearby structures (rather than freshly quarried)." This wall, certainly not the only one of its type discovered (e.g., Dos Pilas), bares evidence of Maya culture going up in flames as city-states destroyed each other, just a Gibson portrayed in Apocalypto. From Science Daily:
Translation of recently unearthed hieroglyphic stairs on an ancient Maya pyramid in Guatemala provides dramatic evidence that two great Maya city-states and their allies were locked in a brutal superpower struggle that may have set the stage for the later collapse of the classic Maya civilization.The newly translated stone hieroglyphs - complete with references to piles of skulls and flowing blood - were partially exposed last summer during a hurricane at the site known as Dos Pilas, deep in the Guatemalan rain forest.
So adds CBS:
Human sacrifice among the Mayans has been well-documented in recent years and is accepted as fact by most anthropologists, knocking down a previous theory that the culture did not take part in such bloody rituals.
Heard enough? Apparently Alicia Estrada, "assistant professor of Central American studies," hasn't. She's heard what she wants to hear. Her "thesis" is not based on science, rather pure emotion. But this is now par for the course in academia, where you can get your Ph.D. by telling your professors what they want to hear -- and G#d forbid you stray from the party line.
I myself have traveled extensively in Mesoamerica, and was truly awed by the great achievements of the Aztecs, Maya, Olmec, Teotihuacánacos, Toltec, etc. But, even as a child being dragged from archeological site to site by my archeologist mom, I could not help being troubled by the scenes of ultra-violence encoded by Los Indios in their murals, steles, and frescos. As these civilizations reached their zeniths, their rulers became terrorists, terrorizing their own peoples and neighbors, all in pursuit of greater and greater power. Any student of history knows this is a common human theme, not distinct to any one race. People are people, capable of the human foibles which a certain non-Mesoamerican, Shakespeare, so eloquently studied and elucidated.
To forget history is a mistake. To sanitize history is plain stupidity.
http://netwmd.com/blog/2007/03/24/1497
But it doesn't fit HER template!!!
"To sanitize history is plain stupidity"
Did the Professor also deny the hallucinogenic enemas that the Mayans got into?
True, he was honest to the dark side of the culture.
But there were noble Mayans depicted as well.
"Hey! Alicia! F**k off!"
More:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1805928/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1805671/posts
I would very much like to hear Alicia's response to this.
But, being a lib, she'd prolly just change to subject. Typical.
Alicia Estrada needs to be sacrificed with all the proper ceremony, to propitiate the gods of stupidity and as a lesson to others.
Exactly! Like I said...
Medved said Gibson's movie is somewhat sanitized--he said they were much worse than depicted.
Well, then, per Classical Antiquity, have her buried alive, or toss her to lions. No need for a time machine.
Perhaps she burned all the books that talked about Mayan sacrifices and cruelty. Most likely that would be about 95%.
Giles Healy was my neighbor in Big Sur. His big claim to fame was discovering Bonampak. Pleasant, ubane, scholarly fellow. Even in '46, controversey raged around his discovery.
"Bonampak's unique importance comes from the vivid portrayal of Classic-era court life in its murals -- the finest mural paintings so far found in Middle America. The murals were discovered by an American, Giles Healy, who was sent to Chiapas in 1944 by the United Fruit Company to make a nature film. Having established a good relationship with the Lacandon, they took him to Bonampak in 1946, which was then overgrown and unknown to archaeologists. Wandering about the site, he saw nothing special until he poked his head into a small temple. Lighting a torch for a better look, he was awestruck by the interior paintings. Their discovery caused huge controversy among Mayan experts -- since the murals clearly depicted war, torture and bloody rituals at a time when it was believed the Maya were a peace loving people."
http://mayaruins.com/bonampak.htm
"Mel didn't even depict all Mayans as wicked and bloodthirsty.
True, he was honest to the dark side of the culture.
But there were noble Mayans depicted as well."
Exactly. And even the "savages" who pursue the hero get mighty upset when they killed a panther, begging for forgiveness.
Two thousand years ago, so of my Irish and British ancestors may have been Druids and they practices human sacrifice until the Romans made them put a stop to it.
Yeah baby! Do tell. Just like Woodstock. Woo Hoooo!
___________________________________________
"Herr Professor Doktor Weiss' reputation was made when he conclusively proved the fraudulency of the Mayan codex that claimed to show that that ancient people knew the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter to an exactitude unknown until modern times, in his article, "Bye, Bye, Mesoamerican Pi."
LOL! Excellent job of keeping the punchline till the last few words.
:)
Just because she has been hired as an assistant professor doesn't necessarily mean she has a Ph.D. True, most faculty at four-year colleges and universities above the rank of instructor or lecturer are Ph.D.'s nowadays, but the rules may be different in a new field like Central American Studies.
"propitiate the gods of stupidity:
I thought the lottery was how worshipers of the god of stupidity were attempting to propitiate their god.
Or both.
Lottery is like a daily prayer, as it were; and sacrificing this Alicia Estrada would be akin to a ceremonial procession on a feast day.
Don't forget the arm length rubber gloves when attending that ceremonial procession.
;-)
Everbody knows about the Mayan Hallucingen Enema thing, dont they?
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://research.famsi.org/uploads/kerrfolio/hires/_tn_5078.jpg&imgrefurl=http://research.famsi.org/portfolio_thumbs.php%3Fsearch%3D*Esquintla*&h=99&w=150&sz=7&hl=en&start=13&um=1&tbnid=2ViBC9w0lTwSWM:&tbnh=63&tbnw=96&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmaya%2Benema%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DISO-8859-1%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN
Mayan Enema Bandit!
(It must be just what they all need).
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1134/is_6_110/ai_76550319
Hey, is that Mayan? No, it's urine!
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