How one priest destroyed the entire Mayan written language

[Christa]

The New York Times described the decipherment of the Maya hieroglyphs as "one of the great stories of twentieth century scientific discovery." Tragically, this decipherment was only necessary because of a one-man Spanish Inquisition, a deliberate, decades-long campaign by a single Catholic priest to destroy the Mayan language and culture. The priest, Diego de Landa, wiped out all knowledge of the written language, and nearly destroyed the spoken language too.

Diego de Landa's one-man inquisition perfectly illustrates the power of the Intolerance Meme, an idea that evolved in the Jewish religion a few centuries before the birth of Jesus, and was taken up with a vengeance by Christians in the third and fourth centuries AD. The Intolerance Meme declares that not only is Yahweh the only god, but in addition, anyone who worships other gods is committing a sin. The Intolerance Meme justifies all sorts of atrocities in Yahweh's name: Murder, slavery, forced conversion, suppression and destruction of other religions, racism, and many other immoral acts.

This was Diego de Landa's background when he discovered that many of his Mayan "converts" had actually incorporated the Catholic Yahweh/Jesus/Spirit, along with the various saints and angels, into their own traditional religion. When Landa discovered "idol worship" among some of his converts, he felt that his "children" had turned their backs on him, and his life's work was a failure.

Being a good Roman Catholic, and a carrier of the Intolerance Meme, Landa was furious – he saw this as a betrayal, and started an inquisition that resulted in torture and death across the Yucatan region. He was determined to wipe out all knowledge of the Mayan religion, and saw the Mayan language and hieroglyphs as a key. Fifty years later, in 1699, Spanish soldiers burned a town that had the last school of scribes who knew the Mayan hieroglyphs. By 1720, not a single person alive knew what the hieroglyphs meant.

The Roman Catholic church's response? They punished Landa. But not for murder, not for torture, and not for destroying an entire culture's history. No, none of these things were worthy of the Church's sanctions. Diego de Landa's crime was that he carried out an inquisition without authorization.


http://religionvirus.blogspot.com/2008/12/one-catholic-priest-destroyed-entire.html

http://www.nightfirefilms.org/breakingthemayacode/

[trotsky]

1. Countdown to a certain someone jumping in with about 12 spam posts...

to give "examples" of the oh-so-numerous times when a church person "saved" some element of an indigenous culture and this proves that the church is noble and pure and true.

[msongs]

2. billions raped tortured and murdered in 2000 years. nt

[Meshuga]

3. That's a damn shame

We all got robbed from knowing/witnessing different civilizations and cultures in the name of converting people by pesuasion. And converting by force adds even more to the tragedy.

[Myrina]

4. That is so sad ... think of all the knowledge that was LOST

... because one person had a complex. :(

[nykym]

5. And we are

expected to show outrage because they think they are being oppressed now! Karma Baby Karma!

[leveymg]

6. Inquisition Without Authorization! But, I doubt anyone in particular invented the Intolerance Meme

I wonder if religious hatred -- the Intolerance Meme -- isn't more universal, and may actually predate the 3rd Century BCE?

Found this on the subject, originally posted here: http://frumheretic.blogspot.com/2008/12/did-jews-invent-intolerance-meme.html

James' more extensive writings on the "Intolerance Meme" can be found in his book, The Religion Virus. If you are interested in reading his own novel take on early foundational Judaism, check out this excerpt. (Sample quote: " believed in, and sometimes worshipped, the gods Baal, Asherah, Anat, and many others.").

Now I (and countless other Jewish bloggers) have written on some of the disturbing aspects of Torah law, not to mention genocidal atrocities such as those committed by the Israelites against the Canaanites (although these may never have actually occurred.)

Nevertheless, let's be honest here: it isn't just the "intolerant" monotheistic religions of the West that are guilty of such behavior. There are long shopping lists of barbarism committed by Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, plus the unparalleled crimes against humanity carried out by atheist anti-religionists such as Stalin and Pol Pot. James naively suggests that the Jews invented intolerance, but this is not an issue of religion or secularism, it is an issue of power and control. Religion is just a very convenient means by which such control can be exerted on others.

[w4rma]

7. I wonder if that's why the neo-cons allowed the museums and libraries in Iraq to be ransacked. (nt)

[Christa]

9. Great observation! nt

edited for speeling :P

[midnight]

8. The Catholic church depicts the Mayans as brutal people, I wonder why?

[Christa]

10. Liars and the lies they tell

= Roman Catholic Church.

[NOLALady]

19. Maybe

they had the audacity to fight back.

[Jim__]

11. You're sure it was one priest that did it?

He must have lived to a ripe old age. According to the source that you cite, it was 50 years after his inquisition began that the last school the contained scribes who knew the Mayan hieroglyphs was burned:

Being a good Roman Catholic, and a carrier of the Intolerance Meme, Landa was furious – he saw this as a betrayal, and started an inquisition that resulted in torture and death across the Yucatan region. He was determined to wipe out all knowledge of the Mayan religion, and saw the Mayan language and hieroglyphs as a key. Fifty years later, in 1699, Spanish soldiers burned a town that had the last school of scribes who knew the Mayan hieroglyphs. By 1720, not a single person alive knew what the hieroglyphs meant.

The destruction of the American civilizations is a historic tragedy. It would be convenient if we could blame it all on religion and then feel sanctimonious by calling for the end of religion. But, it was European nations and European cultures that wiped out the American cultures. What is the solution to that problem?

BTW, Mayan civilization was very widespread and not fully contained within the Yucatan peninsula. But, we managed to wipe out knowledge of their writing where ever it existed.

[trotsky]

13. Naw, it wasn't the sole work of just one priest.

The philosophy and leaders of the Church helped finish what he started.

[struggle4progress]

12. de Landa died in 1579, so it is difficult to see his hand in any event in 1699, more than

a century after his death (and thus, despite the article, unlikely to be "fifty years later" than anything de Landa actually did)

He arrived in the Yucatan in 1561. The acts, which resulted in Bishop Toral's demand that de Landa be recalled and investigated (1566-1569?) were associated with de Landa's belief that the Maya were still practicing human sacrifice, which he was determined to extirpate. His Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan (1566?) is perhaps the best anthropological record we have of the Maya. After returning to the Yucatan, he became bishop around 1572.

[The Backlash Cometh]

14. This may not have been as difficult to do.

The educated and wealthy people in the culture would live in the inner part of the city, while the unschooled populaced leaved around this center. All they had to do was destroy everyone and everything who lived in the educated central area.

[darkstar3]

15. Scorched Earth

Invented by the Romans, melded onto the Christians during the Holy Roman Empire, and perfected by the Catholics during the Dark Ages.

[Silent3]

16. Do you realize how much paperwork it takes to authorize an Inquisition?

Then there are the monthly status reports, the budget meetings, individual permission forms to fill out for each torture technique that you want to apply to each prisoner, book and manuscript burning permits, yearly progress reviews... it's a nightmare!

You can hardly blame a guy for bending the rules a bit and taking an unofficial approach.

[Meshuga]

17. And he was bending the rules for the sake of the Mayans

You know, their heritage is nothing when you compare it to the rewards from accepting the God of the church.

[DeSwiss]

18. The destruction of knowledge.....

...of antiquities, of the written texts of other religious beliefs, particularly that which contradicts Jewish, Christian and Muslim BULLSHIT has always been viewed as a threat. Particularly AFTER they had already STOLEN ideas and verbiage from these religious belief systems so as to cover their crimes of theft and to amalgamate and incorporate their "new converts" into their new faith and make their transition and forced conversions so much easier and less stressful.

From the very beginning of these disastrous and hateful religions, it is the only thing in which they are consistent and for which they can be counted upon supporting: "Destruction and Ignorance."



- K&R

[Mrburra]

20. God

God the word it self could be interpreted a million ways. When you get down to the core it means destruction. Religion has destroyed mans ability to think for themselves. Like all religion they are afraid of the steps man takes to bring themselves out of mental slavery.

[Odin2005]

21. The loss of knowledge caused by that intolerant BS is incalculable.

Imagine all the epic poetry, the philosophical and theological writings, and historical records now lost forever. :(