[Aztlan] National Geographic Magazine

[Nick Hopkins]

There are more mistakes and/or misleading statements in the NGM Maya  
quiz, not just the "end of the world " booboo.  Cempoalxochitl is  
hardly the Maya word for marigolds, and Coyolxauqui's necklace is  
unlikely to be the origin of the use of marigolds in association with  
the dead, the word borrowed for cigar was not a verb, sicar, but a  
noun, sik'al, the center is not a direction (altho "the vertical  
axis" would have been right), and there may have been others that I  
can't remember.  I guess they don't have fact checkers any more, or  
they aren't concerned about filling the little heads of children with  
garbage.

Nick Hopkins



On Jul 22, 2007, at 5:09 PM, eschele at austin.rr.com wrote:

> Hello All,
>
> As many of you are aware, the National Geographic Manazine's issue for
> the Month of August, has a segment on the ancient Maya and "How a  
> Great
> Culture Rose and Fell". After reading it, just for fun, I decided  
> to go
> online to their companion website for the story and take their online
> quiz about the ancient Maya.  I was amused and surprised to see  
> that as
> an explanation to the question "The Maya’s counting system was  
> based on
> multiples of what?" (Answer of "20") they then included the following
> statement:
>
> "The Maya used Long Count, a system starting at a mythological zero
> date, which can be traced back to August 11, 3114 B.C. According to
> this Maya calendar, the world is supposed to end on December 21,  
> 2012."
>
> http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0708/feature2/quiz.html
>
> I know that NG magazine is designed for popular consumption, therefore
> their stories are often an oversimplfication, but they could have at
> least explained that for the Maya, the end was really the beginning  
> and
> that with the right ceremonies and sacrifices, the calendrical count
> would indeed start anew.  I know that this sounds like a broken  
> record,
> but you might think that at least the NGM could get it right. The
> ancient Maya did not believe that the world would "end on December 21,
> 2012."  The calendar cycle ends yes, but not the world!
>
> lol,
> Elaine
>
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