#mesoamericans

[a-typical]

"Mesoamerica, long thought to be the precocious child of the Americas, was still confined to the Mesoamerican village during the time we are talking about, and monumental architecture in Peru was a thousand years old when the Olmecs began their enterprise. For the sake of world cultural context, this also means that Peruvian monumental architecture was in place by the time the Painted Pottery culture of neolithic northern China emerged, that it existed before England's Stonehenge was created, and that it was already about a thousand years old when Tutankhamen's body was being embalmed in Egypt." - American Holocaust 

[katiajewelbox]

Giving chocolates is a way to show your love on Valentines Day. Human beings have been in love with chocolate and the Cacao tree (Theobroma cacao) for thousands of years, and today we will learn about the romance of culture and chocolate.

Although Cacao is most famously associated with Mesoamerican cultures, genetic studies indicate that Cacao was domesticated by indigenous Americans around 5,300 years ago in the Upper Amazon region. From there, Cacao cultivation spread north to Mexico. The Cacao fruit pulp was more commonly consumed in South America in Pre Columbian times while the Mesoamericans invented the technique of fermentation and roasting to utilise the Cacao nibs.

Archaeological evidence, such as chemical residues on ancient pottery shards, pinpoints the first use of Cacao drinks in Mesoamerica around 1600 BCE. By the time of the Classical Mayan civilization (250-900 CE), ground cacao nibs were mixed with water and spices by careful pouring between vessels to make a nourishing and invigorating hot drink which was consumed by people of all social classes. In the later Mexica (Aztec) civilization, cold cacao drink or xocoatl (bitter water in Nahuatl) exquisitely flavoured with flowers, fruits, chillies, and spices was reserved for the elite and ceremonial occasions. Cacao seeds were used as a form of currency for trade and barter during the Mexica Empire.

After the conquest of the Mexica Empire by Spain in 1521, cacao was one of the many new plant-based foods brought to Europe. In Spain, the locals of Andalusia experimented with the spicy xocoatl by adding cane sugar and dairy ingredients. It is said that drinking chocolate was so universally popular from the 17th century to the late 19th century that it prevented coffee from becoming mainstream in Spanish culture. Drinking chocolate caught on in the rest of Europe in the 1600’s but it was not until the mid 19th century that innovation in processing and chemistry allowed the invention of solid chocolate candies. Cadbury chocolate company is credited with marketing chocolates as a token of love for Valentines Day in 1868.

Chocolate in the modern world is not always a sweet story. Today, approximately 70% of the world’s cacao is produced in West African countries like Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Sadly, exploitative practices like child labour and enslavement are still rife in these countries’ Cacao farms. Chocolate lovers can help by buying Fair Trade certified chocolate products and other responsibly grown cacao products. Fortunately, cacao can be grown in sustainable agroforestry alongside native rainforest trees especially in Latin America. Cacao’s sacred and medicinal properties are experiencing a renaissance among “chocolate shamans” around the world who drawn upon indigenous knowledge to make the ethical production and mindful consumption of cacao a healing spiritual experience.

Humanity and Cacao have a long-lasting love that continues to evolve over time, and has the potential to benefit plants, people, and the planet. Ponder the storied history of Cacao if you indulge in chocolate this Valentines Day.

Image credits to Mexicolore

[psyentifically-minded]

The Mayan creation myth is translated from their ancient writtings in a text called the “Popul Vuh” which describes their cosmology which can be sumerised as follows:

The world was without life only the sky and sea existed but both were empty. The text goes on to say there were “makers in the sea, together called the plumed serpent” (“plumed/feathered serpent” refers to the God Quetzalcoatl) and that there were “makers in the sky, together called the “Heart of Sky” and that these forces, Quetzalcoatl and Heart of Sky planned to create life, between them they raised the land up from below the oceans creating mountains to separate the land, sea and sky, The Heart of Sky made animals; mammals and reptiles and then birds, the heart of sky asked the animals to pray to them but the animals could not talk and so were designated as food to eat. Attempting to make more intelligent life the makers then made a body of mud which talked but looked grotesque and crumbled away in the rain. Because they could not create the beings they desired the Heart of Sky called on the wise ones or diviners the grandfather God Xpiyacoc and grandmother Goddess Xmucane who suggest making and animating wooden carvings instead. These wooden people could talk and multiply but their minds and hearts were empty and they do not revere/serve the Heart of Sky and thus the Heart of Sky devised a flood and killed them all in rain that lasted many days and nights, the animals came into the wooden peoples homes and ate them and the text goes on to state that the wooden peoples resembled monkeys suggesting that they were primitive men. Following this the Heart of Sky and Quetzalcoatl make eight human beings (four male and four female) out of yellow and white corn or maize which formed the modern humans who could talk, multiply and worshiped the Gods thus the Maize plant became sacred to the Mayans as a sign of the ancestor and united them in their new agricultural society focused around growing maize instead of being just a tribal hunter gatherer structure. The Heart of Sky and Quetzalcoatl are pleased with their creation however they are disturbed by mankinds spiritual spark or “perfect sight” and they choose to then cloud the vision of man to keep mankind subservient.

While it is known that the Mesoamerican cultures may have had contact with the Egyptians in later history (evidenced by mummies burried with cocaine) it is rather disturbing to draw the parallels between the Mayan cosmology and those from other cultures who supposedly had no contact with one another. For instance just as the Sumerian myths state that the Earth and sky were formed by the Gods out of the great sea of Tiamat and seperated by the mountains so too do the Mesoamerican, Egyptian and Semitic myths concour with their own version and just like the Anunnaki had filled a barren world with crops and animals so too did the Heart of Sky and Quetzalcoatl. The creation of mankind out of clay or mud parallels the Semitic golems and stories of Adam and Eve, the Egyptian clay forms of Khnum and also the Sumerian myth of the Anunnaki making beings from clay wombs as well as their first failed creation - the Igigi. Once again there is a great flood myth sent by the Gods to destroy the failed creation with exact parallels to the Sumerian and Semitic flood myths and also the failed and rebellious creation of wooden people could represent the blackheads/dark race or the igigi. Finally like the myths of God in the Hebrew Bible who confounds mans language and prevents man from achieving immortality and like the sumerian anunnaki who seek to make human slaves, the Mesoamerican Gods are disturbed by the “perfect sight” of their creation - their own divine essence, and so seek to “put fog into the eyes of man” clouding their vision and keeping them enslaved.

[holy-ghost-fire]

It bothers me that we still don’t recognize the greatness of Mesoamerican civilizations before first contact with Europeans. Not only were they able to create massive cities like Tenochtitlan or Machu Picchu, they were able to do it without the beasts of burden that helped create so many cities in the Old World. Mesoamericans were not conquered because they were intrinsically inferior to Europeans, they were conquered in large part to diseases that devastated the entire New World. Had that not occurred, its likely they would have staved off colonization longer than they did and maybe even completely. Hopefully new scholarship will continue to rediscover the past and give them the respect they deserve. 

[historic-mysteries]

The Hidden River of Mercury at Teotihuacan: Path to the Royal Tombs? - Historic Mysteries

Hidden under the Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent at Teotihuacan lies a secret tunnel containing a mercury river. Why is it there, deep unde

Hidden under the great Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent at Teotihuacan lies a secret tunnel containing a river of mercury. What was its purpose, hidden deep under this ancient city?

[psyentifically-minded]

Around the same time as the early Canaanite and other Semitic cultures developed in the middle East in and around 2000 BC the early Mesoamerican Mayan civilisation was also developing in South America.

[chapin68]

#blackwitchmoth #mariposamaldita #ascalaphaodorata #nocturnal #mesoamericans cultures #centralamericans #mexicans associate this #moth with #death and #badluck In #hawaii represent the #deads coming back to say goodbye In #bahamas they associate them with money #moneymoth Las culturas precolombinas y nuestra gente hispana, asocia este #papalote con la muerte y el mal #aguero #augurio En Hawai, representa a los muertos regresando a despedirse. En Bahamas representan suerte y dinero (at Entre Ríos, Izabal, Guatemala)

[powerofthestruggle]

Artificial Rainfall #rainfall #raindrop #anthropology #museoanthropologia #museonacionaldeantropologia #mexico🇲🇽 #mexicolors #mexico #méxico #iphone4s #instagood #iphone4 #iphonephotography #photography #museum #museumday #history #mesoamericans #azteca #mexica (at Museo Nacional de Antropología)