As I approach the end of the fascinating bio, Jungle of Stone by William Carlsen, two things have occurred: one - a report on the Mayans found on Yahoo confirms that the most popular theory for the demise of the imperial Mayans is that there were two great droughts, one around 900 and another in about 1100 AD, part of a sudden and dramatic change of climate. This affected, at the very least, the pueblo cities of the Southwest as well, and I believe the Mound Culture of the Mississippi flowage. No one knows why this happened, but it does point out that climate sometimes does change dramatically, and with huge consequences. We know of other great changes as well - from the desertification of North Africa during early Pharonic Egypt, to a perhaps spectacular onslaught of the last ice age, which seems to have left mastodons frozen on the spot with fresh cud still in their mouths. Our world is indeed changing at all times, whether we understand why or not. Something to contemplate on the last of our warm summer days.
And two: that the human world is even more varied and changes even more spectacularly than the climate. In the book, it is not only the Mayans who are strange to us, but the Western protagonists, Stephens and Catherwood, as well. This is due not only to the distinctively patriarchal age in which they lived, but also to the ethos, or inner world, they inhabited. At the time of their explorations @ 1840, it was nearly inconceivable that the savage Indians of the New World could possibly have invented the ways and means of the Mayans. Instead, they were purported to have come from remnants of the Lost Tribes of Israel, or Phoenicians who had brought the genius of the east westward, where it was later crudely copied. While this peculiar racism is interesting, what is more so was the reliance at that time on the Bible for the ancient historical record. Even in the mid-1800's, the final word on the age of the world and the movement of humans was thought to be found in the Bible. It was at the time still thought to be 100% accurate and literal, the final "bible" for all scientific speculation. It was the word of God, and however secular one was, or mindless of morality, it still remained the foundation of truth. How we, less than 200 years later, have changed - not so much morally, but cosmologically. Most of us will never see the world from that perspective again.
The Mayans themselves, of course, were so far 'out there' that few of us can even imagine the particular bible, the basis for their truth, that was floating in their heads. Jaguar - headed serpent gods, a hungry sun god, heavenly wars and divine kings - beliefs the likes of which were left behind by the West in Medieval times.
However, we can imagine that world in a way. As I read the pages of he exploration, I could feel its strangeness, so much so that they temporarily altered my own mental perception of the world around me. Most of us have experienced this, if we think about it: a visit to ancient ruins, or to the Grand Canyon, or to a spectacular cathedral might do the same. Both with works of Man past and present, and with works of nature, we are often drawn out of our daily world into one that is not described by any of our institutions, including our religions. Here we are brought to inner experiences that defy our concepts of reality - not through persuasion, but through an actual, although temporary, change of perspective. Such is not only interesting, but mind-bending. Such proves to us that our world views are only superficial and ephemeral, even those views, such as Stephen's contemporaries had, of a Biblical- based world.
I end with the question I have often had after visiting these mind-altering scenes: if of human origin, did I partake of their vision, or did I instead see a brief universal vision, one that puts the ordinary human dimensions in (small) perspective? That is, were these people as otherworldly as my feelings, or did they only have different beliefs, as did the Bible literalists of past centuries, but who were otherwise as pedestrian as we? Were those of the lost cultures of the past truly alien, or is it our sense of time and our own frailty and mortality that these sightings brings to us that give us such strange emotional insight?
Given that nature, too, can bring us to such heights, it might often be the latter. With all our different beliefs, we just might, mostly, be essentially human, just as essentially day -to-day, as those in every other time and culture. We know now that the Indians could be as ingenious as the Israelites and later Europeans; so could they also have been just as banal?
This was the question I carried with me to fieldwork with Amazon Indians. It was not answered then, and remains unanswered. Still, it is clear to me that all peoples from all times and places have always had a special space - something sacred - to ignite their lives, be it in nature or in temples. If we might all be humdrum, then we are also all called to something greater, something just - so often just - beyond our grasp. FK
And two: that the human world is even more varied and changes even more spectacularly than the climate. In the book, it is not only the Mayans who are strange to us, but the Western protagonists, Stephens and Catherwood, as well. This is due not only to the distinctively patriarchal age in which they lived, but also to the ethos, or inner world, they inhabited. At the time of their explorations @ 1840, it was nearly inconceivable that the savage Indians of the New World could possibly have invented the ways and means of the Mayans. Instead, they were purported to have come from remnants of the Lost Tribes of Israel, or Phoenicians who had brought the genius of the east westward, where it was later crudely copied. While this peculiar racism is interesting, what is more so was the reliance at that time on the Bible for the ancient historical record. Even in the mid-1800's, the final word on the age of the world and the movement of humans was thought to be found in the Bible. It was at the time still thought to be 100% accurate and literal, the final "bible" for all scientific speculation. It was the word of God, and however secular one was, or mindless of morality, it still remained the foundation of truth. How we, less than 200 years later, have changed - not so much morally, but cosmologically. Most of us will never see the world from that perspective again.
The Mayans themselves, of course, were so far 'out there' that few of us can even imagine the particular bible, the basis for their truth, that was floating in their heads. Jaguar - headed serpent gods, a hungry sun god, heavenly wars and divine kings - beliefs the likes of which were left behind by the West in Medieval times.
However, we can imagine that world in a way. As I read the pages of he exploration, I could feel its strangeness, so much so that they temporarily altered my own mental perception of the world around me. Most of us have experienced this, if we think about it: a visit to ancient ruins, or to the Grand Canyon, or to a spectacular cathedral might do the same. Both with works of Man past and present, and with works of nature, we are often drawn out of our daily world into one that is not described by any of our institutions, including our religions. Here we are brought to inner experiences that defy our concepts of reality - not through persuasion, but through an actual, although temporary, change of perspective. Such is not only interesting, but mind-bending. Such proves to us that our world views are only superficial and ephemeral, even those views, such as Stephen's contemporaries had, of a Biblical- based world.
I end with the question I have often had after visiting these mind-altering scenes: if of human origin, did I partake of their vision, or did I instead see a brief universal vision, one that puts the ordinary human dimensions in (small) perspective? That is, were these people as otherworldly as my feelings, or did they only have different beliefs, as did the Bible literalists of past centuries, but who were otherwise as pedestrian as we? Were those of the lost cultures of the past truly alien, or is it our sense of time and our own frailty and mortality that these sightings brings to us that give us such strange emotional insight?
Given that nature, too, can bring us to such heights, it might often be the latter. With all our different beliefs, we just might, mostly, be essentially human, just as essentially day -to-day, as those in every other time and culture. We know now that the Indians could be as ingenious as the Israelites and later Europeans; so could they also have been just as banal?
This was the question I carried with me to fieldwork with Amazon Indians. It was not answered then, and remains unanswered. Still, it is clear to me that all peoples from all times and places have always had a special space - something sacred - to ignite their lives, be it in nature or in temples. If we might all be humdrum, then we are also all called to something greater, something just - so often just - beyond our grasp. FK
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