The-Mayan-Calendar.com is an attempt to add legitimacy to the Maya Calendar and the upcoming date in 2012 that marks the end of one 5,000 year period (5,124 years actually) and the beginning of another.
A small suggestion is to straighten your back, it is doing wonders for me.
It is unimportant to me whether you call it Mayan Calendar, Maya Calendar, Aztec Calendar, Dreamspell, or [insert what you call it] Calendar.
You see, English is not the native language of the Maya so debating about the correct term in what is essentially a foriegn language
does little but detract from the point at hand, which I believe to be the calendar and the concepts put forth within.
Lipe
Lipe is a nickname given to me four years ago by an old Guatemalan man. It is a derivative of the Spanish version of my name, Felipe.
I am a Texan currently traveling in the western highlands of Guatemala and parts of Central America to learn about the Maya and the Mayan Calendar.
I hold college degrees in computers and business but I have no formal training in archaeology or history. I hope to relay my findings, pictures, and what-not else through this website and my blog.
This is how I hope it works: I tell you what I see and we all argue about it, in a fun way.
Edited: 04.24.2008 This is not going to work, not yet anyway. This is why.
Edited: 05.06.2008 Things are looking better - give me a little time and we'll have lots to discuss.
Edited: 06.18.2008 I have learned much and hope to get some new material up soon.
Let's learn together kind of deal.
I am a co-founder of MLS Earthview (though I have since sold my interest in the company) and MyFeedSpace. I am also a PADI certified scuba divemaster, a massage therapist, and a former parachutist. I have traveled in Central America, South America, and Europe.
I encourage everyone to keep an open mind. We cannot judge the Maya and their beliefs based on our own lack of knowledge and understanding. Let me give you an example why I believe this to be true.
Four years ago I was in a small village on the shores of Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, watching one of the few televisions in the area with a local family who run a hotel / restaurant. We were watching a National Geographic presentation on creatures of the ocean. An octopus floated across the screen. I asked one of the family members, a female, how to pronounce 'octopus' in her native Mayan Katchiquel language.
She replied, "We don't have a word [...for octopus]. No tenemos una palabra."
This struck me as odd. Having never been exposed to an octopus these people had no prior concept of an 'octopus', hence no word. This in no way removed from the reality of an octopus, we had just watched one float across the tv screen.
I noticed this exposes how a person or a culture, any person and any culture, can be lacking in knowledge due to societal influences, geography, and just not being exposed to a concept.
It bothered me I must have some form of the same limitations. It still bothers me.
That moment in Guatemala has become etched in my memory. I think of it as a reminder.
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More coming soon Lipe