[Aztlan] Mayan chronology not cyclical

[Hoopes, John W]

In his book "The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed
the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels," (Anchor Books, 1999), Thomas Cahill
argued that the combination of a linear chronology in combination with
the notion of progress (a "linear theory of history") and
perfectability:  A unique innovation that altered the course of Western
civilization.

http://www.amazon.com/Gifts-Jews-Changed-Everyone-History/dp/0385482493

Are you asserting, Lloyd, that the ancient Maya may also have had a
linear theory of history?  If so, what is your specific evidence for
this?

I haven't considered the issue carefully before, but one element of Maya
thought may have been belief in a fundamental principal that repetition
results in *intensification*, meaning that cyclical phenomena become
cumulatively "more so" each time they occur.  This concept may be
analogous to Eastern notions of karma and the accumulation of merit, as
occurs in Tibetan Buddhism with the repetition of a mantra (such as "Om
mani padme hum") and the spinning of a prayer wheel.  A given cycle
doesn't "reset to zero," but carries with it an accumulation of meaning
and merit that is passed on to the following cycle, resulting in a
concept of linear progress over time--even as that time unfolds in
cycles.  The repetitive rededication, resurfacing, and encasing with new
construction of multiple plastered plaza floors and pyramidal structures
over time might provide some examples of linear and cumulative--rather
than cyclical--activity.  The Maya reuse and rededication of sacred
monuments and sites, among them largely abandoned temples and shrines of
the Late Preclassic that were reoccupied and rededicated in the Late
Classic, suggests they also were aware of merit that had been lost.
This raises the question of whether the value of the "archaic" could
have been at some times cyclical and at other times linear.

This is another, closely related basic principle that I suspect was
manifest in Chibchan (non-Maya) attitudes towards repetitive,
time-consuming production activities in the manufacture of such items as
polished jade celts and stone balls:  The repetitive action of
duplicated motion (grinding, polishing, and "perfecting") increased the
merit and the perceived metaphysical "energy" accumulated by an object.
This kind of attitude is one that even we recognize today in Western
culture by the special qualities attributed to historical artifacts that
have been used over and over again by auspicious people on auspicious
occasions (the hard evidence for which would be insurance valuations and
increasing bids each time these objects are sold at auction).

On another note:  I have long suspected that the "end times,"
millennialist thinking so frequently (and popularly) attributed to Maya
thought may the result of Christian ideology introduced through
syncretism via post-Contact documents such as the Popol Vuh and Books of
Chilam Balam.  Are there any pre-Contact texts that suggest Maya
proccupations with future annilihilation?

John Hoopes