[Aztlan] 2012 on NPR

[Hoopes, John W]

Mayan Calendar Spurs End-Of-The-World Debate
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111341700 <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111341700> 
 
It was disappointing that Hagerty wasn't more interested in debunking 2012 from a Mayanist perspective, but she is the religion correspondent, after all:
 
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=2100608 <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=2100608> 
 
A former Christian Scientist, she's the author of "Fingerprints of God: The Search for the Science of Spirituality" (2009)
http://www.amazon.com/Fingerprints-God-Search-Science-Spirituality/dp/1594488770 <http://www.amazon.com/Fingerprints-God-Search-Science-Spirituality/dp/1594488770> 
 
It's just a fact that there are a lot of people who are seeking spirituality, not science, in Maya studies. It's often hard to anticipate how certain statements will play in public imagination.   It is essential to be mindful of this as scholarship proceeds on Maya religion, "shamanism," astrology, and the like.  
 
The pursuit of answers to religious and spiritual questions in the record of ancient Mesoamerica goes back to the inception of scholarship and evolved through the contributions of Lord Kingsborough, Brasseur de Bourbourg, Charnay, Le Plongeon, and so forth.  I always make sure my students appreciate just how much kookiness there was in early Maya studies as well as how and why it persists.  It's still there, of course.  More than ever.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayanism <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayanism> 
 
John Hoopes