Download or read book Time and Reality in the Thought of the Maya written by Miguel Leon-Portilla and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 1990-09-01 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this second English-language edition of one of his most notable works, Miguel León-Portilla explores the Maya Indians’ remarkable concepts of time. At the book’s first appearance Evon Z. Vogt, Curator of Middle American Ethnology in Harvard University, predicted that it would become "a classic in anthropology," a prediction borne out by the continuing critical attention given to it by leading scholars. Like no other people in history, the ancient Maya were obsessed by the study of time. Their sages framed its cycles with tireless exactitude. Yet their preoccupation with time was not limited to calendrics; it was a central trait in their evolving culture. In this absorbing work León-Portilla probes the question, What did time really mean for the ancient Maya in terms of their mythology, religious thought, worldview, and everyday life? In his analysis of key Maya texts and computations, he reveals one of the most elaborate attempts of the human mind to penetrate the secrets of existence.
Download or read book Philosophy of the Ancient Maya written by Alexus McLeod and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2017-12-26 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book investigates some of the central topics of metaphysics in the philosophical thought of the Maya people of Mesoamerica, particularly from the Preclassic through Postclassic periods. This book covers the topics of time, change, identity, and truth, through comparative investigation integrating Maya texts and practices—such as Classic Period stelae, Postclassic Codices, and Colonial-era texts such as the Popol Vuh and the books of Chilam Balam—and early Chinese philosophy.
Download or read book Time Among the Maya written by Ronald Wright and published by Grove Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Maya created one of the world's most brilliant civilizations, famous for its art, astronomy, and deep fascination with the mystery of time. Despite collapse in the ninth century, Spanish invasion in the sixteenth, and civil war in the twentieth, eight million people in Guatemala, Belize, and southern Mexico speak Mayan languages and maintain their resilient culture to this day. Traveling through Central America's jungles and mountains, Ronald Wright explores the ancient roots of the Maya, their recent troubles, and prospects for survival. Embracing history, anthropology, politics, and literature, Time Among the Maya is a riveting journey through past magnificence and the study of an enduring civilization with much to teach the present. "Wright's unpretentious narrative blends anthropology, archaeology, history, and politics with his own entertaining excursions and encounters." -- The New Yorker; "Time Among the Maya shows Wright to be far more than a mere storyteller or descriptive writer. He is an historical philosopher with a profound understanding of other cultures." -- Jan Morris, The Independent (London).
Download or read book Aztec Philosophy written by James Maffie and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2014-03-15 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Aztec Philosophy, James Maffie shows the Aztecs advanced a highly sophisticated and internally coherent systematic philosophy worthy of consideration alongside other philosophies from around the world. Bringing together the fields of comparative world philosophy and Mesoamerican studies, Maffie excavates the distinctly philosophical aspects of Aztec thought. Aztec Philosophy focuses on the ways Aztec metaphysics—the Aztecs’ understanding of the nature, structure and constitution of reality—underpinned Aztec thinking about wisdom, ethics, politics,\ and aesthetics, and served as a backdrop for Aztec religious practices as well as everyday activities such as weaving, farming, and warfare. Aztec metaphysicians conceived reality and cosmos as a grand, ongoing process of weaving—theirs was a world in motion. Drawing upon linguistic, ethnohistorical, archaeological, historical, and contemporary ethnographic evidence, Maffie argues that Aztec metaphysics maintained a processive, transformational, and non-hierarchical view of reality, time, and existence along with a pantheistic theology. Aztec Philosophy will be of great interest to Mesoamericanists, philosophers, religionists, folklorists, and Latin Americanists as well as students of indigenous philosophy, religion, and art of the Americas.
Download or read book Circles of Time written by David T. McNab and published by Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Documents the experiences of Aboriginal people, their history and recent negotiations in Ontario, providing insight into the historiography of the treaty-making process in the last 25 years.
Download or read book The Mayan Factor written by José Argüelles and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1987-04-01 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Visionary historian Arguelles unravels the harmonic code of the ancient Maya providing valuable keys to understanding the next twenty years of human evolution.
Download or read book 13 B aktun written by Gaspar Pedro Gonzalez and published by North Atlantic Books. This book was released on 2010-08-24 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As 2012 looms with its promise of radical cultural and spiritual change, humankind is increasingly seeking strategies to survive and thrive. In 13 B’aktun, Gaspar Pedro González turns to the traditional Mayan belief system to navigate this uncertain future. The term 13 B’aktun refers to the thirteenth cycle of 144,000 days in the Mayan Long Count Calendar. Many scholars believe that this cycle is set to end on December 21, 2012. Framed as a fictional dialogue between a contemporary Mayan father and son, the book explores such questions as “Will life continue on Earth?” and “Will there be another creation at the end of this era?” The father imparts the knowledge of his ancestors and shares his direct mystical experiences that bring alive traditional beliefs about creation and the divine purpose of humanity, the Earth, and the universe. Through the father’s poetic words, the author helps us to critically reflect on our existence, the state of the modern world, and human destiny. In addition to ancient Mayan wisdom, 13 B’aktun incorporates the insights of modern philosophers, scientists, and religious texts concerning consciousness, human behavior, and predictions for the future. What unifies all of these sources is the message that despite our existing world dilemmas, there is still time to change our ways. The only book on 2012 by a Mayan author, 13 B’aktun draws on the storytelling experiences of the author’s childhood and his academic research as an adult. Countering the widespread hype and misinformation surrounding 2012, González blends past and present thought into a persuasive plan for moving into the new era.
Download or read book An Introduction to Mesoamerican Philosophy written by Alexus McLeod and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2023-08-31 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive and accessible introduction to the philosophical traditions of the precolonial Mesoamerican peoples, including the Maya, Aztecs, and Mixtecs.
Download or read book Out of Context written by Daniel Balderston and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 1993-03-12 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Jorge Luis Borges's finely wrought, fantastic stories, so filigreed with strange allusions, critics have consistently found little to relate to the external world, to history--in short, to reality. Out of Context corrects this shortsighted view and reveals the very real basis of the Argentine master's purported "irreality." By providing the historical context for some of the writer's best-loved and least understood works, this study also gives us a new sense of Borges's place within the context of contemporary literature. Through a detailed examination of seven stories, Daniel Balderston shows how Borges's historical and political references, so often misread as part of a literary game, actually open up a much more complex reality than the one made explicit to the reader. Working in tension with the fantastic aspects of Borges' work, these precise references to realities outside the text illuminate relations between literature and history as well as the author's particular understanding of both. In Borges's perspective as it is revealed here, history emerges as an "other" only partially recoverable in narrative form. From what can be recovered, Balderston is able to clarify Borges's position on historical episodes and trends such as colonialism, the Peronist movement, "Western culture," militarism, and the Spanish invasion of the Americas. Informed by a wide reading of history, a sympathetic use of critical theory, and a deep understanding of Borges's work, this iconoclastic study provides a radical new approach to one of the most celebrated and—until now—hermetic authors of our time.
Download or read book The Order of Days written by David Stuart and published by Crown. This book was released on 2012-11-27 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world's foremost expert on Maya culture looks at 2012 hysteria and explains the truth about what the Maya meant and what we want to believe. Apocalypse 2012: An Investigation into Civilizations End. The World Cataclysm in 2012. 2012: The return of Quetzalcoatl. According to many of these alarmingly titled books, the ancient Maya not only had a keen insight into the mystical workings of our planet and the cosmos, but they were also able to predict that the world will end in the year 2012. David Stuart, the foremost scholar of the Maya and recipient of numerous awards for his work, takes a hard look at the frenzy over 2012 and offers a fascination (and accurate) trip through Mayan culture and belief. Stuart shows how the idea that the "end of the Mayan calendar," which supposedly heralds the end of our own existence, says far more about our culture than about the ancient Maya. The Order of Days explores how the real intellectual achievement of ancient Maya timekeeping and worldview is far more impressive and remarkable than any of the popular, and often outrageous, claims about this advanced civilization. As someone who has studied the Maya for nearly all of his life and who specializes in reading their ancient texts, Stuart sees the 2012 hubbub as the most recent in a long chain of related ideas about Mesoamericans, the Maya in particular, that depicts them as somehow oddball, not "of this world," or as having some strong mystical link to other realms. Because the year 2012 has no prominent role in anything the ancient Maya ever actually wrote, Stuart takes a wider look at the Maya concepts of time and their underlying philosophy as we can best understand them. The ancient Maya, Stuart contends, were worthy of study and admiration not because they were strange but because they were altogether human, and they developed a compelling vision of time unlike any other civilization before or since.
Download or read book The Actual Star written by Monica Byrne and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-09-14 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas meets Octavia Butler’s Earthseed series, as acclaimed author Monica Byrne (The Girl in the Road) crafts an unforgettable piece of speculative fiction about where humanity came from, where we are now, and where we’re going—and how, in every age, the same forces that drive us apart also bind us together. "A stone-cold masterpiece."—New Scientist The Actual Star takes readers on a journey over two millennia and six continents—telling three powerful tales a thousand years apart, all of them converging in the same cave in the Belizean jungle. Braided together are the stories of a pair of teenage twins who ascend the throne of a Maya kingdom; a young American woman on a trip of self-discovery in Belize; and two dangerous charismatics vying for the leadership of a new religion, racing toward a confrontation that will determine the fate of the few humans left on Earth after massive climate change. In each era, a reincarnated trinity of souls navigates the entanglements of tradition and progress, sister and stranger, and love and hate—until all of their age-old questions about the nature of existence converge deep underground, where only in complete darkness can they truly see.
Download or read book Language Thought and Reality written by Benjamin Lee Whorf and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1956 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Writings by the pioneering linguist Benjamin Whorf, including his famous work on the Hopi language as well as general reflections on language and meaning.
Download or read book The Ritual Practice of Time written by Lars Kirkhusmo Pharo and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2013-11-28 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Calendars of Mesoamerican civilisations are subjected to what is categorised as “ritual practices of time”. This book is a comparative explication of rituals of time of four calendars: the Long Count calendar, the 260-day calendar, the 365-day calendar and the 52-years calendar. Building upon a comparative analytical model, the book contributes new theoretical insights about ritual practices and temporal philosophies. This comprehensive investigation analyses how ritual practices are represented and conceptualised in intellectual systems and societies. The temporal ritual practices are systematically analysed in relation to calendar organisation and structure, arithmetic, cosmogony and chronometry, spatial-temporality (cosmology), natural world, eschatology, sociology, politics, and ontology. It is argued that the 260-day calendar has a particular symbolic importance in Mesoamerican temporal philosophies and practices.
Download or read book Thought and Faith Revelation redemption salvation time and the triadic approach to the godhead written by Vassilis Vitsaxis and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 556 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Order of Days written by David Stuart and published by Doubleday Religion. This book was released on 2011 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world's foremost expert on Mayan culture takes a hard look at the frenzy over 2012 and offers a fascinating (and accurate) trip through Mayan culture and belief.
Download or read book The First Maya Civilization written by Francisco Estrada-Belli and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-11-08 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the Maya kings of Tikal dedicated their first carved monuments in the third century A.D., inaugurating the Classic period of Maya history that lasted for six centuries and saw the rise of such famous cities as Palenque, Copan and Yaxchilan, Maya civilization was already nearly a millennium old. Its first cities, such as Nakbe and El Mirador, had some of the largest temples ever raised in Prehispanic America, while others such as Cival showed even earlier evidence of complex rituals. The reality of this Preclassic Maya civilization has been documented by scholars over the past three decades: what had been seen as an age of simple village farming, belatedly responding to the stimulus of more advanced peoples in highland Mesoamerica, is now know to have been the period when the Maya made themselves into one of the New World's most innovative societies. This book discusses the most recent advances in our knowledge of the Preclassic Maya and the emergence of their rainforest civilization, with new data on settlement, political organization, architecture, iconography and epigraphy supporting a contemporary theoretical perspective that challenges prior assumptions.
Download or read book The Collective Uprising written by Kayt Bryans and published by FriesenPress. This book was released on 2022-10-28 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michael has been captured by the Clippers and brought to the evil Pruner who removes his internal clock and banishes him to a remote and desolate time-space reality. Weak and injured, Michael knows he needs to find help to stop the Pruner, not only for his own survival, but for the Collective as a whole. Thirteen-year-old Maya hears someone calling her name ... from inside her mind! Michael has succeeded in communicating with Maya and she is drawn into his treacherous story. He coaches her in meditation, setting intentions, and shifting to different time-space realities in order to evade capture. Soon Maya is practising daily, awaiting the moment she will send out a Mayday message to unite the Collective and to come face-to-face with the Pruner. Will Maya be able to contact the Collective and transmit the Mayday message before she gets caught? Will it be too late for Michael?
