XPost: alt.mexico, alt.movies   
   From: pub?@?li.us   
      
   On Thu, 21 Dec 2006 17:46:48 GMT, Al Smith  wrote:   
      
   >>>>The references may be convincing to you, but that doesn't make them   
   >>>>>> legitimate.  He's full of shit, trying to deny reality.  The Mayans   
   >>>>>> practiced brutal human sacrifice.  Deal with it.   
   >>>   
   >>>>   
   >>>> The issues have been discussed at great length on the FAMSI (Foundation   
   >>>> for the Advancement of MesoAmerican Studies) by some of the world's   
   >>>> leading experts in Mayan history, language and culture. The general   
   >>>> agreement was that the movie was a crude misrepresentation of the role   
   >>>> human sacrifice among the Maya, although the costumes and settings were   
   >>>> accurate. The Maya did occasionally practice human sacrifice, but the   
   >>>> actual physical evidence consists of a few hundred -- if that many --   
   >>>> victims over period of at least a thousand years.   
   >>>>   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> It's true that the Maya weren't as bloodthirsty as the Aztec, but they   
   >> practiced human sacrifice.  The numbers are debatable, but it happened.   
   >   
   >   
   >The practices of pretty much all of the Indians of the Americas   
   >have been grossly sanitized in modern history. They were not a   
   >nice bunch of people. There was nothing noble about these savages,   
   >who were savage to the extreme. Some tribes were worse than others   
   >-- that's about the best you can say. Christians coming from the   
   >new world naturally abhorred human sacrifice and cannibalism. Why   
   >wouldn't they? They found the natives to be treacherous, vicious   
   >bastards. There are exceptions here and there, when natives did   
   >something nice for Europeans. Mostly, though, they just tortured   
   >and murdered them.   
      
   "According to a decree by Queen Isabella of Castile and also later under   
   British colonial   
   rule, slavery was considered to be illegal unless the people involved were so   
   depraved   
   that their conditions as slaves would be better than as free men.   
   Demonstrations of   
   cannibalistic tendencies were considered evidence of such depravity, and hence   
   REPORTS of   
   cannibalism became widespread.[3] This legal requirement might have led to   
   conquerors   
   exaggerating the extent of cannibalistic practices, or inventing them   
   altogether."   
      
   repeat...   
      
   "exaggerating the extent of cannibalistic practices, or inventing them   
   altogether" to   
   justify dispossession, slavery and genocide.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)