Article published November 14, 2009
Forget armageddon: 2012 marks end of era, not the world, experts say
Scenes of disaster in the movie '2012' have more to do with Hollywood's imagination than with Mayan prophecies, according to scholars.
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COLUMBIA PICTURES
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By DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR
The significance of the Mayans' "Long Count" calendar coming to an end on Dec. 21, 2012, has gotten lots of people talking about the end of the world.
Hollywood jumped into the conversation yesterday with the release of 2012, a star-studded action movie that uses the buzz over the Mayan calendar as a jumping-off point for a series of slam-bang, computer-generated disaster scenes.
The end of days begins when massive solar eruptions pummel the planet with neutrinos, according to the movie script. These normally harmless subatomic particles suddenly begin "acting like microwaves," one scientist explains, heating up the Earth's core to levels that literally begin tearing the planet apart.
"The world as we know it will soon come to an end," actor Danny Glover, playing U.S. President Thomas Wilson, tells the world leaders in a deadpan delivery.
Aside from tying in with the 2012 phenomenon, the movie makes only brief references to Mayan civilization. The first mention comes from TV news in the background of a scene, the reporter describing a mass suicide at Tecal National Park in Guatemala. Later, a scientist explaining the destabilization of the Earth's crust comments: "With all our fancy machines, the Mayans saw this coming thousands of years ago."
Did they really?"That's a bunch of garbage," said Dale Smith, professor of physics and astronomy and director of the planetarium at Bowling Green State University.
Mr. Smith, who has studied Mayan culture, said the Mayans never predicted that the world will end in 2012. The date simply marks the end of a man-made time division, much like the end of a century or a millennium.
Prudence Rice, an anthropologist and Mayan scholar at Southern Illinois University, said people who study the Mayan culture have had to deal with "a lot of crazy theories" over the years, fueled by everything from Indiana Jones' Hollywood adventures to Erich Von Daniken's Chariots of the Gods.
"There are a lot of people who are searching for meaning, but they seem to be doing it by not looking at the facts," she said. "I think the facts about the Mayan calendar, what we do know and what we don't know, are far more interesting than some of these stories going around."
She said the Mayans recorded key events, such as the succession of a ruler, with carvings on limestone stela that included as many as 15 time "anchors" or references.
The Mayans were the dominant civilization in Mexico, Guatemala, and other areas of Central America primarily from 250 to 900 AD.
Although they were advanced in mathematics and astronomy, the ancient Mayans had no concept of a round Earth or rotating planets, Mr. Smith said.
They believed there were layers of pancake-shaped tiers in an overworld and an underworld and were able to calculate astronomical events, such as eclipses, with great precision.
They also developed complex linear and cyclical calendars with units that overlap, much like our days, months, and years overlap.
"The Mayans were obsessed with time," Mr. Smith said. "We use time keeping in a clinical sense; it lets us organize our schedules. The Mayan calendar was imbued with meaning."
Each day on the calendar had a ritual meaning for the Mayans and they followed the astronomical cycles very carefully. It would be as if Americans today considered Saturday to be "Saturn's Day" and worshipped the ringed planet to ensure that nothing bad would happen, Mr. Smith said.
But the fact that the Mayan Long Count calendar, which spans 5,126 years, will run out on Dec. 21, 2012, has no special meaning, he asserted. It's just the turning of a page and nothing more.
"A good analogy would be the odometer on your car rolls over. And so a new epoch begins," he said.
In mythical history, this is the fifth Long Count calendar for the Mayans, Ms. Rice said, adding that the Mayans consider the end of one cycle to simultaneously mark the start of a new one.
Despite their scientific achievements, the Mayans were brutal warriors who often fought against enemy Mayan city-states. They would torture, mutilate, and sacrifice the conquered to appease their gods, including gods of the sun, moon, Venus, rain, and corn.
Mr. Smith said he believes the current fascination with the Mayans and their calendar is due to the fact that their culture is mysterious in many ways. Adding to the perception that 2012 is significant is the fact that their calendar happens to end on a winter solstice.
"People are looking for something to hold on to," Mr. Smith said.
Some New Thought observers believe that when the Long Count ends 778 days from today it will not bring an apocalypse, but rather a new era of enlightenment and a "consciousness shift" for humanity.
The Rev. Gloria Moorehead, pastor of Angel's Landing Spiritual Center in Toledo, said she is hopeful that the current interest in the Mayan calendar will awaken people to their own spirituality.
"What the Mayans' 2012 means to me is that time is running out to make a difference in the world. We need to start with our own daily walk. It's time to identify who we really are. It doesn't matter what your religion is, it matters that you realize you are here for a reason. You're here to light up the world," Ms. Moorehead said.
Contact David Yonke at:
dyonke@theblade.com
or 419-724-6154.
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