2 ms·
Speaking as an outsider, I grew up near Hispanic cultures in the Southwest. I think there’s a need for better information about the Maya. For one, there’s a bas
by ianai 8y ago
Speaking as an outsider, I grew up near Hispanic cultures in the Southwest. I think there’s a need for better information about the Maya. For one, there’s a basic lack of understanding of time “before America” across the US. Most I've met seem to operate as though human history in the Americas only started with independence. The colonists wiped out a huge amount of history and culture. We might not have the best technology that could ever exist, but we do have a great need to appreciate a shared past. Fifty years from now people will be further from the past and more likely to take it even less seriously.
- vertak 8y ago@ianai you should give the book 1491 a read, it is likely exactly what you're looking for and a well written book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1491:_New_Revelations_of_the_Americas_Before_Columbus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1491:_New_Revelations_of_the_A...
- madhadron 8y agoThis is a general issue with what is taught as world history, from school textbooks to the doorstops of Toynbee and his ilk. They all start with "western Europe and the societies derived from it are the world" with a brief mention that China is over there, too, and then trace the history of the societies that western European mythology claims as predecessors (Rome, Greece, Egypt). If you compare this to the space and time occupied by humanity on earth, it's ludicrous.