Mayans Stuck on Stupid

Here’s a brilliant example of people being stupid just for the sake of being stupid. People who like to refer themselves as ‘indigenous activists’ in Guatemala have labeled Mel Gibson’s latest historical drama, Apocalypto, set against the backdrop of the declining years of the Mayan empire before the arrival of Spanish conquerors, as racist. Apocalypto has yet to be released in Guatemalan theatres (their judging the film based on the trailers which reveal nothing in particular about the specific plot of the movie) but leaders in the country say that images in the trailer of what appears to be “scary-looking Mayans with bone piercings and scarred faces hurling spears and sacrificing humans promote stereotypes about their culture”.

Here’s the thing though: that is what archeologists believe took place near the end of the Mayan civilization, albeit far from being as blood-thirsty as the Aztecs were.