What can an ancient Mesoamerican culture teach the global community in the 21st century? I pondered on these question on my 2.5+ hours bus ride between Cancun and the Chichen Itza’s ruins. With no pretensions or pressure to come up with something, the trip would prove thought-provoking and inspiring. In this blog, I’ll share my findings and a bit about how I ended up there two weeks ago. While being a sucker for exploring new cultures, what I found here went beyond the usual history lesson. With their rich history, delicious cuisine, advanced technology, the Maya surprised me while also challenging me to care for this earth.
An Invitation to a Journey
Like rivers flowing into oceans, so are the unplanned encounters of the soul in unexpected journeys of discovery. I didn’t set out to the Yucatan peninsula in a quest to learn about the Mayas. Quite the contrary, I was there to rest and celebrate with my wife our 20th anniversary. Away from kids, work, and the many demands of our life at this stage, we yearned for the gentle soothing sounds of the sea.
Even so, places have a way to whisper. They often carry with them stories untold of a past waiting to be discovered. I knew some important monuments and Mayan ruins were nearby and that was enough to pique my interest. In the hotel I learned about my options, only wanting to spend a day I chose the most visited site: Chichen Itza, only a 2.5-3 hour drive from the area we were staying.
My wife, seeking to avoid the crowds and rest up for a day, decided to stay while encouraging me to go. Being one day away from each halfway through our stay sounded like a good compromise from the wisdom of 20 years of marriage. In an interesting twist, when learning I was from Brazil, the hotel agent booked me with a Portuguese-speaking guide. I would join Brazilians and Portuguese natives who were also discovering this Mayan Jewel.
Re-enchanting the World through Native cultures
Modernity’s move toward secular science has borne out many achievements. Even so, it also resulted in tremendous loss. For one, people in the West lost their sense of connection with nature and with it also their reverence and respect for it. Nature went from an object of worship to raw material to be exploited. The call to subdue earth meant more than taming nature but ultimately came to justify a massive amount of destruction, pollution, and degradation.
Hence, it is no surprise that westerners like me would have a renewed interest in pre-Modern cultures like the Mayas. They point us to a time when connection and reverence to nature were the order of the day. Rejecting prevalent attitudes that would either see it as a competing religion or dismiss it as primitive superstition, we can now look at Mayans with a humble attitude to listen. What does their story of advancement, exuberance, warfare, and decline teach us today as we live in our age of environmental crisis? It is with this posture, that I approach and reflect on my recent visit to Chichen Itza.
The STEM side of the Maya
As I rode the bus on the way to Chichen Itza, I was bracing for a real-life history lesson. What I did not expect was a math class early morning on my 3rd day of vacation! Yet, since we had a long drive there, our guide Mauricio Dzul, proceeded to explain the very elaborate yet elegant numbering system the Mayas created. Using only dots, dashes, and a shell-like symbol they can represent any number! I must say that my curious mind was intrigued and made me wonder, shouldn’t we teach this more as a way to diversify teaching mathematics? I might teach it to my kids just for fun.
Why did they develop their number system? While there may be other reasons, The Maya people were astute observers of the skies. They used the movement of the Sun, Moon and Venus to devise the most elaborate calendar system in the world. In this calendar, they counted time that went back thousands of years and needed a way to express these long dates. It was a misunderstanding of this calendar that led to the paranoia with the 2012 date. That was not a good use of Maya technology!
Their historical witness challenges us to look up and consider the stars anew with keen curiosity and reverence. Their astronomy did not only lead to a number system but also greatly influenced their engineering. The Yucatan peninsula is dotted with the remains of buildings oriented towards the movements of the Sun and Moon. They continue to attract thousands to witness intriguing light patterns on Solistice dates. In my visit to Chichen Itza, our guide showed how when clapping from designated place we could hear multiple echoes and even the sound of a bird.
Mysterious Abandoments
Since my visit, I have become obsessed with all things Maya and their technology. Browsing materials on it and now listening to a course on their history, I learned of the vastness and richness of the field. Mayan studies continue to expand as many ruins are yet to be discovered and properly understood. In this thriving field, one of the most daunting questions has been the cities’ abandonment. By the time the Spanish arrived, many of the great Mayan cities were already ruins covered by the rainforest.
I asked our knowledgeable guide about this. While there was warfare involved, in many cases, the population simply left migrating to other cities or smaller settlements in the forest. He indicated that it was most likely because of weather changes, some of which may have been precipitated by agricultural practices to feed growing populations in the region. Changes in rain patterns disrupted harvest yields leading to political instability and warfare.
If this is indeed the case, then the Maya story through technology also offers a cautionary tale for our time. It re-inforces the message scientists have been warning us about in the last decades on climate change. We must revisit our way of life and how we sustain our growing populations or see our big skyscrapers become ruins overtaken by forest.
Conclusion
Contrary to what it seems, I don’t purposefully look for reasons to blog on my vacation. Yet, they occur from time to time. All it takes is a willingness to enter into the story of a place. Even in a digitally connected world, physical spaces matter. We sit on land that was re-settled by many before us. They, in turn, lived in ecosystems that took millions of years to form. Attending to the story of both the land we inhabit and the people that lived before us is our duty and call for this time.
I cannot see a more theological task than this. If we believe in a timeless God who created the earth, surely we must learn to hear God’s voice in the ground we step on and the cultures that preceded us. If we slow down to listen, we’ll be amazed at the wisdom that surfaces. These are the very whispers of God speaking truth through time and space.
With that posture, I am grateful for the Mayans and their land which I had the privilege to visit. In my time of rest and recreation, I also found new nuggets of wisdom to take along the journey.
Which story is the place you live in telling you? If you haven’t pondered on this question maybe now it is time to start searching.