i can't see something like this without the train of thought eventually leading to "wow...that fascinating culture might still be around if it weren't for religion"
this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2026
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The ancient Maya civilization collapsed, but Maya peoples and cultures still exist!
since we're using wikipedia, i'll counter with this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_conquest_of_the_Maya
keep in mind i'll say the same about any indigenous culture in the western hemisphere that was basically genocided or enslaved because of "ordained by god"
My point wasn’t at all that these cultures haven’t been victim to colonization and genocide, but that they are still around today and not vanished. A common refrain I hear from many indigenous people is that it’s important for people to know they still exist, and I always try to put that information out there.
i don't disagree, but how much of that culture was lost-- how many cities burned, writings, works of art, histories-- people could have moved to the new world without killing millions of the people who already lived here, and forcing their own culture on all the rest
Absolutely, it’s terrible and that loss is irreplaceable. I don’t want to diminish that truth at all, just to respect the indigenous people that want to emphasize their continued survivance.
Speaking of the Mayas, check out EZLN. I was at Zapatista's schools in the high mountains of Chiapas and it was amazing to me seeing how they live there and how they reference themselves, individually, as inheritors of Mayan culture...
Damn, I wish I’d known about that when I was writing a paper about Paulo Freire last semester! It sounds, if not identical to his problem-posing education, very much founded in the same spirit.
I always like to imagine if these guys were given another thousand years or so, what would their world have looked like. Would they develop a sustainable form of government that could manage millions of people? What would the Mayan space program look like? What kind of movies would they make? Stuff like that.
There's no linear path to progress, many of your questions perhaps would make no sense under that scenario. But I like your prompt.
I am thinking of a world where there was no centuries of slavery in the west. So no imperial power in Europe or North america. So, probably a ver bleak situation in Europe. Also, no chocolate, coffee, corn!!, or potatoes...
Meanwhile if the Americas and its people would continue on their own, probably the Incas would have expanded more or just live in constant war with Mesoamericans... Maybe the latter would have expanded north...
And their technology may have "advanced" toward an integral way of living conneted to nature instead of the highly optimized exploitation and demeaning that Illuminism wrote on our frontal lobes as the maximal case of success
I like these thoughts. Not a writer myself, but I can see some novel saga growing in this alternate timeline...
The Maya culture was a religious culture, and would not exist if not for religion. You mean "if it weren't for Christianity", or alternatively, "if it weren't for religions that enforce their idea of objective reality on others". You don't hate religion, you hate realism.
Now that goes to my list of lovely old toys with moving parts, along with this extremely cute hedgehog in a cart:
https://www.portraitofaplaything.com/work/8-hedgehog-on-wheels
Beautiful craftsmanship!
whenever I see this image, I think of Robo from Chrono Trigger
This is way cooler than my original vintage Luke Skywalker as a stormtrooper with removable helmet (and weirdly tiny head).
I love knowing this more than words can express
Aww he's doing the little pose like "Stop, in the name of love…"