My Weblog

Post #10 2nd Draft

Carmen Mendoza

     History 300

                         4/23/08

  MEL GIBSON’S FILM APOCALYPTO

MEL GIBSON’S FILM APOCALYPTO

       

The Mayan civilization used hieroglyphics to keep important historical records, made many advancements in mathematics, and had a highly accurate astronomy system.  Throughout their years of existence, the Mayans proved to be one of the most advanced civilizations ever recorded. Their hieroglyphic writing skills have been documented to be some of the most sophisticated in all of ancient

America

. The Mayans also had an amazing understanding of mathematics and the workings of the universe. In addition the Mayans have been recognized by their advanced calendar, astronomy, architecture, arts, and mathematics.

The Mayans was a highly advanced civilization instead Mel Gibson chose to highlight human sacrifices and violence and demonstrated a negative view about the Mayans culture. In the movie apocalypto Mel Gibson is misrepresenting the Mayan culture and demonstrates minor flaws in inaccurate historical facts about the Mayans civilization. This issue is not whether the film demonstrated how accurate it is but how Gibson chose to highlight and focus in a negative image in the Mayan culture. For example the theme of violence and the mass human sacrifices. We know now that Gibson hired scholars who studied the classic Maya to represent an accurate view of the Maya in his film.

And Gibson did overall represent an accurate view of the Mayans.  But their were some technical issues that demonstrated a negative image to the Mayan culture. The problem is rather what Gibson chose to focus on which were violence and mass human sacrifices.

Mel Gibson focus in violence in the Mayan civilization engaged in sacrificial ceremonies a civilization seen as a bloodthirsty and violent. Apart form the theme of violence and human sacrifices Apocalytpo tells a story on a family that lives in a village who lives during the fall of the Mayan civilization. This movie depicts a story of a man fighting to go back to his family and it’s a story of the Mayan downfall civilization and it depicts a negative image on the Mayan culture.

The story begins with Jaguar paw family who lives in a village with other families. Jaguar Paw has a small boy and has a pregnant wife. This family lives in a peaceful village that gets attacked and burned to the ground by a group of warriors. Jaguar Paw manages to hide his pregnant wife and child in a well. Jaguar Paw is captured in his village and taken to the Mayan city to be sacrificed. Arriving to the Mayan city Jaguar sees that the Mayan were suffering from drought and plague. Jaguar is caught up in the mass raids where the Mayans who are desperately trying to save their civilization by human sacrifices to their God.

Jaguar are painted in blue in sign to get sacrificed and other prisoners around him are to be sacrificed in an effort to appease their angry gods A Jaguar  and other slaves were waiting their turn to be sacrificed their were a massive decapitated heads of victims bouncing down the temple stairs. Dozens of heads of with blood training down the temple stairs. And the screaming of the victims and their crowds victims hearts were cut out of their bodies it demonstrated major violence during human sacrifices. Then suddenly when Jaguar Paw took is turn he was saved by a solar eclipse. Jaguar later kills an attacker during a cruel execution game. He manages to flee, wounded, into the jungle. His running for his life and for his family, Jaguar runs back to his village to the site where he left his pregnant wife and child who are trapped in hole that was dried up well Then Jaguar Paw gets to the hole wear his wife are and he saves he family.

Apocalypto has some technical inaccurate flaws about the Mayans culture. The extreme violence is one is one of the technical inaccurate flaws in the Mayans culture. The Mayans were not extremely violent like showed in the movie Apocalypto. While I understand that extreme violence is necessary to keep the plot moving along in an action film and effective in capturing the audience’s attention, I thought the use extreme violence in this film was wrong .The scenes that most stand out in my opinion were those of unjust bloody battles, outright violent murder including of women and children.

Apocalypto depicts the Mayans as being violent. Ricardo Cajas,

Guatemala

's presidential commissioner on racism said "It's a case of Western civilization imposing its view about other civilizations.  It shows the Mayans as a barbarous, murderous people that can only be saved by the arrival of the Spanish,"[1] Cajas told the Associated Press. Cajas's criticism followed the comments of Ignacio Ochoa, director of the Nahual Foundation that promotes Mayan culture, who slammed Gibson's film for purveying "an offensive and racist notion that Maya people were brutal to one another... and thus deserved rescue"[2]

Gibson demonstrates the Mayans violent scenes through using massive human sacrifices using a negative view of the Mayan culture. According to an UC Riverside archaeologist Zachary X. Hruby who wrote recently in the San Francisco Chronicle: “There exists no archaeological, historic or ethno historic data to suggest that any such mass sacrifices  numbering in the thousands, or even hundreds - took place in the Maya world. The fundamental problem with Apocalypto’s depiction of Maya culture is that, it imposes violence.”[3]

In a Spanish article Los Mayas “De Verdad” demonstrated a negative reaction of the Spanish community towards the movie Apocalypto. In this Spanish newspaper the author Canario has the opinion that the Mayans were demonstrated as a violent culture and all they did was killing like if they were videos games that repeatedly killed and killed. Canario says: “Que Barbaridad esta no es solamente un pelicula mala sino….Nunca habia visto tanta sangre en una pelicula…Seguro que Mel Gibson esta pensando en transformar a los mayas un uno de esos videojuegos de Violencia…Que forma de presentar a los mayas como unos salvajes que se la pasaban mate y mate…La verdad  es que la pelicula le va a hacer dano a quien no conoce la cultura maya”.[4] Translated: “How ridiculous not only this film is bad ……But I bet that Mel Gibson is thinking to transform the Mayans in this film as a video game of Violence…I never saw so much blood in a movie…What kind of form to present the Mayans like if they were savages and that only thing they do is killing and killing…The truth is the film is going to do harm to those who don’t know about the Mayan culture.”

According to Gibson, the film focuses on the director’s negative view that the practice of mass ritual human sacrifice which the movie depicts as having been performed on a massive scale was one of the primary reasons for the downfall of the Maya. There is however no evidence that Maya practiced human sacrifices on a massive scale.

In the movie hundreds of people appear to be sacrificed at once. According to the article, titled Apocalypto tortures the facts, expert says “The Aztecs were known to have sacrificed large numbers of people, though according to the archaeological record, we are unsure of how many would be sacrificed at one time. There are no data to support that the Maya carried out sacrifice on such a large scale. The evidence we have suggested that sacrifice was a very personal thing, and so even the captives were personal objets.Another form of sacrifice to the Maya is auto-sacrifice, or bloodletting ….”[5]

The treatment of sacrifice is also misleading. Much of what we see recorded by the Maya is a form of sacrifice known as auto sacrifice meaning self sacrifice for example bloodletting involving piercing eats lobes, fingernail, and tongues. This practice was often the duty of ruling families on behalf of the people to the gods. Animal sacrifice was common in fact Gibson villagers would have conducted such sacrifices for their household and agricultural rites, although we never see them do so in Apocalypto.             

Hhistorians suggest that in many Mesoamerican societies, was based on the interdependence of the human and divine realms. “Blood was the vehicle of life energy, circulated within ecology among humans, nature, and the gods. Because blood was the most sacred substance a human could offer to the gods, Maya nobles were often depicted in scenes of solemn bloodletting, giving of their own blood through piercings through the tongue, lips, genitals, and other quick-healing parts of the body, usually in private ritual. Sacrifice was a spiritual practice.”[6] In Apoclayoto the human sacrifices demonstrated a negative view about the Mayan and sacrifice scenes in Apocalypto, in contrast, are meant to horrify the audience and not seen as a spiritual practice.

Historically, Charles George and Linda George suggest that “Among the Maya, human sacrifice was not a common occurrence as it was among the Aztec. Only major rituals, such as the coronation of a new ruler, a natural disaster, or dedication of a new temple or ball court, required human victims….The Maya often offered captured prisoners, as human sacrifices for their gods.”[7]

           Another minor technically inaccurate flaw demonstrated in Apocalypto towards the end of the movie was the scene of the arrival of the Spaniards. In addition to how Mel Gibson portrayed the arrival of the Spanish here was a negative theme in the end of the Mayan culture and civilization. Gibson portrayed the Mayans as a civilization that needed to be saved through Christianity. The theme that violence and human sacrifices will come to an end is the message Mel Gibson portrays because Christianity will save them. This portrayal that the Mayans need to be saved is very offensive to any culture.   

According to history, “the fall of the Mayan Empire was during the late Classic period, during some time between 700-900 AD.”[8] Instead, towards the end of the movie of Apocalypto when it showed the arrival of the Spanish ships, this scene was inaccurate.Gibson included the arrival of clearly Christian missionaries in the last five minutes of the story while the Spanish arrived 300 years after the last Mayan city was abandoned. .Apocalypto historically is inaccurate but the negative message that Mel Gibson portrayed about the Mayans is incorrect.  

In conclusion, the Mayans were a great civilization. Instead, Mel Gibson’s movie Apocalypto demonstrates a negative image towards the Mayan culture. For example, the themes of mass human sacrifices and violence in the Mayan culture demonstrate a negative view on the culture.   Mel Gibson misrepresents certain themes inaccurately, but the message that he chooses to focuses on in Mayan culture is that they were negatively viewed.  Gibson overall represented the Mayans accurately but the message about the culture should have been demonstrated differently. In my opinion, even though the movie does highlight some positive images of the Mayans (architecture and clothing styles), I believe Mel Gibson should have highlighted other areas in the culture.  For instance, he could have focused on the Mayans’ advanced calendar, arts, and mathematics.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Apocalypto Tortures the Facts, National Geographic News, (6 December 2006)                                http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news 8 February 2008

Canario, Apocalypto Criticado por Racista, La Opinion Apocalypto (12 April 2005)              http://www.laopinion.com (3 March 2008)

Charles and Linda George, Exploring Mesoamerica, Library of Congress (

New York

:               Oxford University Press Inc, 2001), p. 39.

Peter Ackroyd , Cities of the Blood: Voyagers Through Time, Library of Congress (

New                      York

: Chelsea House Publishers, 2005), p. 84

Ricardo Cajas, Ancient Mayan News Scientist Environment (5 December 2001)                                  http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn1650 (5 March 2008)

Zachary X. Hruby, Betraying the Maya, Archaeology (27 November 2006)                           http://wwww.archaeology.org 3 March 2008

---

[1] Ricardo Cajas, Ancient Mayan News Scientist Environment (5 December 2001) http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn1650 (5 March 2008)

[2] Ricardo Cajas, Ancient Mayan News Scientist Environment (5 December 2001) http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn1650 (5 March 2008)

[3] Zachary X. Hruby, Betraying the Maya, Archaeology (27 November 2006) http://wwww.archaeology.org 3 March 2008

[4] Canario, Apocalypto Criticado por Racista, La Opinion Apocalypto (12 April 2005) http://www.laopinion.com (3 March 2008)

[5] Apocalypto Tortures the Facts, National Geographic News, (6 December 2006) http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news 8 February 2008

[6] Peter Ackroyd , Cities of the Blood: Voyagers Through Time, Library of Congress (

New York

: Chelsea House Publishers, 2005), p. 84

[7] Charles and Linda George, Exploring Mesoamerica, Library of Congress (

New York

: Oxford University Press Inc, 2001), p. 39.

[8] Charles and Linda George, p. 40.

Post# 9 Revison

Progress Report

This week I have been revising and editing my paper on Apocalypto. On my paper I am  trying to narrow down becuase last time it was to long and their was lot of things in my essay that needed to be fixed. I will be watching again the movie if I get more ideas and things in the research paper. I will be fixing my bibliography and it needs to be in chicago style and not the MLA Format. Im doing my secound drapft and I am still doing more research and I have gone to the library of Congress many times. I found the research on the Mayan and the film apocalypto interesting and fun. And though my research I have learned alot of the Mayan culture. In conclusion this was my progress Report.

By Carmen

April 16,2008

Post#8 Critique on Apocalypto

Critique on Apocalypto

MY Research Paper Apocalypto

MEL GIBSON”S ULTRA-VIOLENT‘APOCALYPTO’

       

The Mayan civilization used hieroglyphics to keep important historical records, made many advancements in mathematics, and had a highly accurate astronomy system.  Throughout their years of existence, the Mayans proved to be one of the most advanced civilizations ever recorded. Their hieroglyphic writing skills have been documented to be some of the most sophisticated in all of ancient The Mayans had an amazing and accurate calendar and a complex hieroglyphic writing .The Mayans also had an amazing understanding of mathematics and the workings of the universe. Many historians and researchers to compare the Mayan civilization to those great civilizations like Egypt and Greece and Rome.

In addition the Mayans have been recognized by their advanced calendar, astronomy, architecture, arts, and mathematics. The Mayans was a highly advanced civilization instead Mel Gibson chose to highlight human sacrifices and extreme violence and demonstrated a negative view about the Mayans. In the movie apocalypto Mel Gibson is misrepresenting the Mayan culture and demonstrates many inaccurate historical facts about the Mayans civilization. Mel Gibson demonstrates a civilization engaged in extreme sacrificial ceremonies a civilization seen as a bloodthirsty and extremely violent. My research is set during the time period of the Classical period. The Movie Apocalypto drama unfolds in the last days of the Mayan civilization in Central America Mel Gibson starts the movie with the arrival of the Spanish.

Apocaltpyto story begins with a peaceful village that gets ransacked and burned to the ground by a group of warriors; its inhabitants killed or carried off as captives. One young man, Jaguar Paw manages to hide his pregnant wife and child in a well before he too is captured and taken away. After a terrifying journey, the warriors and their captives arrive in a large Mayan city in an area suffering from drought and plague. In the main temple the prisoners are to be sacrificed in an effort to appease the angry gods. After a natural miracle barely saves Jaguar Paw from this fate, he manages to flee, wounded, into the jungle. The fearsome warriors give chase. Then Jaguar paw and his wife are saved. Their two elements dominated in the film extreme violence and mass human sacrifices.

Apocalypto has many inaccurate in the historical facts about the Mayans. The extreme violence is one of the inaccuracies in the historical facts of the Mayans. The Mayans were not extremely violent like showed in the movie Apocalypto. While I understand that extreme violence is necessary to keep the plot moving along in an action film and effective in capturing the audience’s attention, I thought the use extreme violence in this film was so wrong .The scenes that most stand out in my opinion were those of unjust bloody battles, outright violent murder including of women and children with heavy and sharp weapons., and of course,.

However, the movie also depicts the Mayans as being extremely violent. Said the level of bloodshed is historically inaccurate and makes the Mayans seem savage. Ricardo Cajas, Guatemala

's presidential commissioner on racism said "It's a case of Western civilization imposing its view about

other civilizations," he said. "It shows the Mayans as a barbarous, murderous people that can only be

saved by the arrival of the Spanish," Cajas told the Associated Press. Cajas's criticism follows the

comments of Ignacio Ochoa, director of the Nahual Foundation that promotes Mayan culture, who

slammed Gibson's film for purveying "an offensive and racist notion that Maya people were brutal to one

another... and thus deserved rescue".(1)

The mass human sacrifice Mel Gibson useses human sacrifice to get the attention to the audience. This is one example of many inaccurate historical facts that Mel Gibson uses the description of scenes that projects a civilization that has masses of human sacrifices. I my opinion Gibson made his point after I saw one head falling from the steps of the central Mayan pyramid. The several scenes of sharp blades plunging into human flesh to extract pulsating hearts followed by  decapitations of sacrificial victims all  while onlookers of the Mayan king’s loyal subjects cheered and demanded more. The killers were portrayed as sadistic and bloodthirsty while the victims were other frightened. This nonstop extreme violent carnage throughout the movie combined with the highlighting of human sacrifice portrayed the Mayans as bloodthirsty savages.

Instead of demonstrating a highly advanced civilization Gibson demonstrates the Mayans violent, uncivilized and savages. , According to an UC Riverside archaeologist Zachary X. Hruby wrote recently in the San Francisco Chronicle: “There exists no archaeological, historic or ethno historic data to suggest that any such mass sacrifices  numbering in the thousands, or even hundreds - took place in the Maya world.” The fundamental problem with Apocalypto’s depiction of Maya culture is that, it imposes violence.”(2). According to Gibson, film focuses on the director’s view that the practice of mass  ritual human sacrifice  which the movie depicts as having been performed on a massive scale, was one of the primary reasons for the downfall of the Maya. That is what raises the eyebrows of archaeologists and scholars since there is absolutely no evidence that Maya practiced human sacrifice on a massive scale.

In the movie hundreds of people appear to be sacrificed at once according  the article Apocalypto tortures the facts, expert says “The Aztecs were known to have sacrificed large numbers of people, through according to the archaeological record, we are unsure of how many would be sacrificed at one time. There are no data to support that the Maya carried out sacrifice on such a large scale. The evidence we have suggested that sacrifice was a very personal thing, and so even the captives were personal objets.Another form of sacrifice to the Maya is auto-sacrifice, or bloodletting ….”(3)

According to historians the sacrifice among the Maya, as in many Mesoamerican societies, was based on the interdependence of the human and divine realms. Blood was the vehicle of life energy, circulated within ecology among humans, nature, and the gods. Because blood was the most sacred substance a human could offer to the gods, Maya nobles were often depicted in scenes of solemn bloodletting, giving of their own blood through piercings through the tongue, lips, genitals, and other quick-healing parts of the body, usually in private ritual. Sacrifice was a spiritual practice. The sacrifice scenes in Apocalypto, in contrast, are meant to horrify the audience. They aggrandize the power of the rulers and humiliate their sacrificial captives, who are slaughtered in numbers with gory heart extraction and decapitation. What is left of the body is tumbled down the stairs, onto the ground level of the temple, and the severed heads were skewered upon poles and left to decay. The Mayans human sacrifices were given more respect than seen in this film. The living human sacrifice was the embodiment of a god, and he or she was due that reverence even unto death. Instead in Apocalypto the viewer gets dehumanizing, scenes in the movie.

            According to Peter Ackroyd he remarks that

The Maya may not have practiced human sacrifice to the same extent as the Aztecs, but it was still a part of the ritual calendar. They killed women and children as past of their ceremonies. The Mayan tortures their victims before killing them….In a city called Bonampak Murals were found some unique murals, dating from about 800 CE, the images of music and dancing and dancers wore monstrous masks but there were sense of torture and decapitation. There were prisoners with bleeding hands, their fingernails having torn out. (4)

In addition the Mayans had many religious ceremonies some religious rituals took place every day in peasant homes and on the steps of great stone temples. I n many huts a mother would offer a tortilla to their god Ixhel for the health of her child. Another example that the Mayan farmer fouls before going to work in the fields would be to burn incense and pray to the god Chac to bring rain. In some ceremonies involved the most precious of offerings their own life itself.  The sacred essence of life what the may called kul was the blood of living things were offered in only special occasions. Like sacrificing a small bird and human blood. But these religious ceremonies were not a mass amount of human sacrifices.

According to Charles George and Linda George suggest that “Among the Maya, human sacrifice was not a common occurrence as it was among the Aztec. Only major rituals, such as the coronation of a new ruler, a natural disaster, or dedication of a new temple or ball court, required human victims….The Maya often offered captured prisoners, as human sacrifices for their gods.” page 39.(5) Some were bent over a stone or alter and had their heats removed.

In 1566 Diego de Landa reported that another technique often used by the Maya was to have a large group of individual’s fire arrows into the body of the sacrificial victim:

            The people went through a solemn dance …around the wooden pillar

            [Where the victim was tied] . . . .[When] the . . .priest [made] a sign to

            the dancers, they began in order as they passed rapidly, dancing, to shoot

            an arrow to their victim’s heart, and quickly made of this chest a s ingle

            point, like a hedgehog of arrows(6).

Other inaccurate facts about the Mayans were the interpretation between heaven and Hell. Apocalypto should not have used "hell" in its subtitles. Traci Ardren is an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Miami. Dr. Arden has studied the Maya for over twenty years and has directed excavations at Chunchucmil, an ancient Maya trading center in the northwestern Yucatán peninsula that dates to the Classic period (200 - 900 A.D.) said “Aside from the mainstream ideas of Hell as a realm of eternal torment, presided over by the masters of evil, the defining feature that most clearly distinguishes it from Mesoamerican concepts of the underworld is that Hell is a place to punish the guilty for their choice to do wrong. In most of the world religions, one's afterlife depends on how that person lived. In ancient  Mesoamerica , this depended on how that person died.”(7).

The Aztecs had an especially elaborate geography of the netherworlds. People who died from drowning, lightning, or other water-related accidents would come to the watery paradise of Tlalocan... “Human sacrifices were ensured the supreme honor of the highest heavens, where the spirits of warrior men brought the sun into the sky and deified women who died in childbirth would carry it into the underworld at dusk. Most deceased commoners had to pass through a series of trials along a path taking four years on foot, ending at the 'land of the dead' that was Mictlan.”(8).

The Maya underworld was Xibalbá, the place of fright, a vast underground realm with houses of bats, knives, darkness, and cold, inspired by impressions of deep caverns as portals to the land of the dead within the earth. Even the rulers descended into this realm upon death. “The Maya did not expect to reunite with their loved ones upon death. This is a Christian interpretation. Which could be said for most of the Maya religion in Apocalypto.” (9)Their were many scenes in Apocalpyto that had many Christian ideas and interpretation and not the interpecatation in the Mayans gods.

           Another inaccurate historical fact demonstrated in Apocalypto towards the end of the movie was the scene of the arrival of the Spaniards. The fall of the Mayan Empire was during the late Classic period, during some time between 700-900 AD. Instead towards the end of the movie of Apocalypto it showed the arrival of the Spaniard ships this scene was inaccurate.Gibson includes the arrival of clearly Christian missionaries in the last five minutes of the story the Spanish arrived 300 years after the last Maya city was abandoned. The message towards the end of the movie was historically inaccurate. 

The movie ends with the Spaniards coming which didn’t happen in

Mexico until long after the Classic Maya collapse. So basically were looking at a 400- year difference in

architectural style and history. “The movie is mixing two wastly different time periods. This Classic

form of Kingship ended around 900 A.D” (10).

In other inaccurate facts is that movie suggest that there were several reasons for the Mayans collapse. There are many causes for the fall of that form of Classic –period social organization. Multiple historical, economic, and environmental factors were in play simultaneously at that time. It was a time of particularly bad drought. There was heavy deforestation. The ancient Maya overused their land and were no longer producing the amount of food they needed.

            At the same time, populations were going through the roof. There were too many people, and the pie simply wasn’t big enough. There was also increased warfare in some areas. Royals were trying to kill off each other. The appeared to have occurred over a 100-to 150 period, so it wasn’t one single event. And it occurred largely in the southern Maya lowlands. “In some areas in the north, the construction of pyramids and other buildings continued unimpeded after A.D. 900.It is important to remember that the Maya didn’t disappear. They reorganized. So we should think of it more as a social reorganized than a collapse. By the time the Spaniards arrived, the social problems associated with the Classic period collapse, as portrayed in Apocalypto did not exist”. (11)

In conclusion the Mayans were a great civilization. Instead Mel Gibson movie Apocalypto demonstrates a civilization did mass human sacrifices and that were extremely violent. Apocalytp demonstrates a negative view about the Mayans.  Mel Gibson misrepresents the Mayan culture and demonstrates many inaccurate historical facts about the Mayans civilization. Gibson demonstrates a Mayans as a civilization engaged in extreme sacrificial ceremonies a civilization seen as a bloodthirsty and extremely violent. Instead the Mayans  should have been portray differently .Instead of been highlighted by the mass human sacrifices and violence Mel Gibson  should of highlighted  there advanced calendar, astronomy, architecture ,arts, and mathematics of the Mayans.

                                    BIBLIOGRAPHY

(1)News Scientist Environment. (2001, December 05).Ancient Mayan

Retrieved March 02, 2008, from http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn1650

(2)Archaeology (2006, November 27). Betraying the Maya

Retrieved March 03, 2008, from http://wwww.archaeology.org

(3)(9)(10)National Geographic News. (2006, December 06).Apocalypto Tortures the facts.

Retrieved February 12, 2008 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news

(4)(8)Library of Congress, Peter Ackroyd ,  Ancient Civilization The Mayas 2005 Published by Chelsea House Publishers.

(5)(6)Library of Congress, John MD Pohl Exploring Mesoamerica 2001 Published by

oxford University Press Inc New York , 100016-4314

(7)Beyond Chron News(2007,February 23).Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto

Retrieved March 05, 2008, from http://quartz.he.net

(11)La Opinion Apocalypto (2005, April 12). Apocalypto Criticado por Racista

Retrieved March 03,2008,from http://www.laopinion.com

Apocalypto Pictures

I will be using some pictures in my powerpoint presentation.

Post #6 OUTLINE

                                 

                                           OUTLINE

I. Introduction -Mayan cilivization

   A. The mayans had the highly advenced writing system and an advanced calendar, astronomy , architecture ,arts, mathematics. But Mel Gibson chose to highlight sacrifices and extreme violence and demonstraded a negative view about the mayans.

Thesis statement:In the movie apocalypto Mel Gibson is misrepresenting the mayan culture and demonstrates many inaccurate historical facts about the Mayans cilivization. Mel Gibson demonstated a cilivization engaged in extreme sacrifical ceremonies a civilization seen as a bloodthirsty and extremely violent.I will be describing the reactions of the movie to latin americans community and the reation and critics in the United States about the movie Apocalypto.

II. What were the inaccurate historial facts about the Mayans in Apocalytpo.

A.inaccurate in understanting the vIolence in the mayan culture

B. Mass sacrifices of the mayan cilivization

1. The depiction in the maya sacrifices had various forms of sactifices were practiced ans they were violent but many archeologists have been unable to find any mass numbers of sactifices.

C. The Mayan Art of Warfare were inaccutate about the Mayans.

1. Scholars who study the art of warfare that  mesoamerican societies like the Mayas followed a strict set of rules of war.Thier warrior soicieties did set out to find captives,yet the honor of the warrior was experience in confronting another warrior on an individual basis and having him submit to his strength and valor not as Gison potrays in raiding villages or burning houses ,killing. rapping women etc.

         III.Reactions of the movie negative or possitve

                 A. Critics in the United States about the movie Apocalypto.

                B. Critics in latin America about apocalypto

                            1. Spanish news papers and journals wiritten about the movie Apocalypto

               C. Cristcs Historians,archareologist

                            1. How accurate was the movie protraying the mayan culture.

                            2. Was their exageration according to historians and archareologist

         IIII. Conclusion

            

               

Post # 5 Bibliography

                                     BIBLIOGRAPHY

News Scientist Environment.(2001,December 05).Ancient Mayan

Retrieved March 02,2008,from http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn1650

La Opinion Apocalypto (2005, April 12). Apocalypto Criticado por Racista

Retrieved March 03,2008,from http://www.laopinion.com

National Geographic News. (2006, December 06).Apocalypto Tortures the facts.

Retrieved February 12,2008 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news

Archaeology(2006,November 27). Betraying the Maya

Retrieved March 03,2008,from http://wwww.archaeology.org

Beyond Chron News(2007,February 23).Mel Gibsons Apocalypto

Retrieved March 05,2008,from http://quartz.he.net

Post #4 Topic Statement

Topic Statement

The Mayans created one of the most successful civilizations in history it was a civilization that lasted over two thousand years. The Mayas were on of the greatest civilization in the Americas . They were highly advanced in astronomy, architecture, the arts and mathematics.They had the most advanced writing system in the western hemisphere at that time. In addition they designed a calender out of these aspects the Mayans society was so sophisticated instead Mel Gibson chose to display or to demonstrate and to highlight mass human sacrifice to portray the Mayans as violent Indians and uncivilized. 

Apocalypto is a tale based on a fictional narrative from the Mayans land that demonstrates a negative view of the Mayans. Everything the the movie gives action ans excitement to the audience but Gibson manages to dehumanize the Mayans.Violence and human sacrifices head sliced from captives heads bouncing down the pyramid steps. This is what Mel Gibson was portraying about the Mayans.

In my research paper I will demonstrating how the movie apocalypto was in accurate in demonstrating the collapse of the Mayan civilization. In addition how was the reaction in Latin America and how the historians reaction towards the movie Apocalyto.

Post #3 My Primary Sources

Primary Sources & Soundary Sources

My research topic is on the collapse of the Mayan empire during the classic era. And I will be discussing the

reaction about Mel Gibson movie Apocalypto. I will focus for reasearch topic  how did people and

historians reaction to Apocaltypo movie and how accurate was the movie towards the Mayans. How was the

reaction in latin america and how did they feel about it. My primary sources for my research will be the

movie Apocalytpo and my secondary sources will be articles and journals about the mayans and articles

about the movie Apocaytpo.I'm excited to do this research about the mayans and I hope to get more

articles and materials in the Library of Congress.

Post # 2 Mining Frontiers/Power of the Road

In chapter 8 Mining Frontiers Almost from Its descovery of the mines the image of america as a land of golden wealth has presented a powerful image to the world. The fact that America's extensive economic resources and this chapter demonstrates the key roles of mineral wealth in the american experience. The discovery of precious metals hurried the westward movement of the nation. The discovery of gold in california the Gold Rush and many states llke Nevada, Colorado,Idaho,Arisona and Montana are all linkes to the growth the development of the United States.In additon the transportation railroads made a huge impact and growth to the US. The Mining frontiers had a great inpact in Amerian History. The discovery of gold and silver,and also coal,oil,copper,gas and other extractive minerals made a huge impact in the American West. Inthe Book The American West robert the author describes california Gold had a impact in the Ameican West. "California gold rush marked the passage to a new economic rea....California Gold created the first of the great extractive industries that dominated the economiic history of the Ameican West for a fill century"Page 240. Also he concludes saying that "by 1959 there were seeral thousand immigrants in america working in the Gold mines several hundred chinese and Chilian and Peruvians ....were woking the California diggings..."Page 245 In chapter 9 Power of the Roads This Innovation of the railroads created an industry growth.The establishment of America's railroads the transcontinental rail lines contributed to the state's social,political and economic develpment. The railroads brought the expansion of agriculture ,tourism and several things. The construction of the railroads were of thousands of Chinease laborers were employed in the construction for the transcontinental railroad. This railroad was so important in the amerian west becuase it brought economic growth. Some questions I made to myself 1. Why was a transcontinental railroad important to the development of the United Stated? 2. What role did the goverment play in its development? 3. What difficulties did workers face building the railroad? 4. How the rail road impacted the American West?