Steve and Megan Dragswolf - Our life

2012 isn't the end of the world, Mayans insist

Found at an obscure ruin in southern Mexico during highway construction in the 1960s, the stone tablet almost didn't survive; the site was largely paved over and parts of the tablet were looted.

It's unique in that the remaining parts contain the equivalent of the date 2012. The inscription describes something that is supposed to occur in 2012 involving Bolon Yokte, a mysterious Mayan god associated with both war and creation.

However - shades of Indiana Jones - erosion and a crack in the stone make the end of the passage almost illegible.

Archaeologist Guillermo Bernal of Mexico's National Autonomous University interprets the last eroded glyphs as maybe saying, "He will descend from the sky."

via apnews.myway.com

Saw this article which I'm crossposting to my Indigen blog about Mayans not believing 2012 is the end of the world, but I thought this particular section of the news story concerning a Mayan god was interesting.

findout:

Mazhua school - M Yampolski

The Mazahua indians live in the north of the state of México and small areas in Michoacán. In the Mazahua area there are also nonindigenous populations, and Otomí Indians live in some municipalities.

Owing to migration, it is now possible to find Mazahua living in the cities of other states, for example in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, and Mexico City.

findout:

At the beginning of 1994 when NAFTA started, a rebellious group of indigenous people in Chiapas raised in protest as an army, the EZLN.  A this time many indians (who weren’t part of the conflict) had to go into the jungle so that they could be safe.

Angeles Torrejon, photographer.

yvynyl:

theworldpulse: if you haven’t heard the album R Gordon Wasson recorded in 1956 of her chants (Mushroom Ceremony of the Mazatec Indians of Mexico, Folkways Records, FR 8975), be sure to seek it out!

findout: Maria Sabina

Mazatec medicine woman who lived her whole life in a modest dwelling in the Sierra Mazateca in Oaxaca. Her practice was based on the use of the various species of native psilocybe mushrooms. Sabina was the first contemporary Mexican curandera, defined in New Age parlance as a native shaman.

It is rumored, without validation, that many important 60s celebrities visited María Sabina, including rock stars such as Bob Dylan and John Lennon.

(via iwasframed:typewrittenwhimsy)

Ancient Gem-Studded Teeth Show Skill of Early Dentists

The glittering “grills” of some hip-hop stars aren’t exactly unprecedented. Sophisticated dentistry allowed Native Americans to add bling to their teeth as far back as 2,500 years ago, a new study says. Ancient peoples of southern North America went to “dentists”—among the earliest known—to beautify their chompers with notches, grooves, and semiprecious gems, according to a recent analysis of thousands of teeth examined from collections in Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (such as the skull above, found in Chiapas, Mexico).

via (National Geographic)