Although I certainly have the option of doing something much more fun (hang with my girls Samantha and Shelby) I am actually excited about what Im doing tonight. As many friends know, I have a certain affection for the Maya culture because my spiritual journey began its first steps at a Maya site in Guatemala named Tikal. I visited Tikal again this summer on my moms birthday and it was yet again filled with mystical experiences. So with that, I thought I would share my nights endeavors, which is to explore what happened when the Maya came in contact with Christian colonizers. This can be a particularly touchy subject that can spark great passion but for me, my research speaks to the fallibility of man in his embrace of religious ideology. This fallibility can also easily be applied to the modern day contact between Christians and non-Christians and If theres one thing I can spot a mile away is a person who has had contact with a pushy Christian in the past who doesnt respect that we all think differently. Therefore, the result of this research, for me, represents a journey towards greater humility and a greater embrace of the idea that the cornerstone of my faith is solely grounded in how I treat others...not how much I try to convince them that Im right. So with that, heres my introductory statement for the research paper I will be spending long hours over the next 36 writing LOL: The field of anthropology can present some significant challenges for the modern day would be scholar. From the first moment any student endeavors to study indigenous cultures from the past, one cannot help but hear one common theme through-out their studies. That theme is the horrible fate indigenous cultures suffered at the hands of evil Christian colonizers. For any student that happens to embrace the Christian faith, this is a hard pill to swallow, yet swallow it we must. Yet every story has grey areas, ones that do not adhere to either the innocent version of long dead Christian colonizers or the version of the evil Christian colonizers. It is in that view that any well rounded student must question those black and white descriptions and this is where anthropology shines brightest and the study of the Maya is a great place to begin. Therefore, in order to get a clearer picture of the colonial period of contact with indigenous people, this paper will explore not only some of the basic components of the Maya beliefs, what occurred during the times of colonial contact as well as how that contact has affected the Maya today. and as Shelby so astutely commented, when it comes to intellectual endeavors, I AM Spock from Star Trek LOL
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 01:39:33 +0000
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