Maya Apocalypse and Its Western Roots

Matthew Restall and Amara Solari are specialists in Maya culture and in colonial Mexican history and art history. Both teach at the Pennsylvania State University, where Restall is a Sparks Professor in history and anthropology, and Solari is professor of art history and anthropology. His books include Maya Conquistador, Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest, and When Montezuma Met Cortés. Her books include Maya Ideologies of the Sacred and Idolizing Mary. They recently coauthored The Maya:AVery Short Introduction.

Just as each generation believes it has discovered the truth about the past, each generation rewrites prophecy. Having exposed the colonial origins of the 2012 Maya Apocalypse at its vespers, Restall and Solari return to the scene of the crime with a decade of perspective to show how millenarianism or the belief in calculable cosmic destruction and renewal has been both a perennial Western project and a frequent Western projection onto other civilizations. The Maya, thanks to key factors described with clarity and humor by Restall and Solari, are simply among the most recent victims of such backward projection. And yet apocalyptic thinking has also escaped the grasp of Western culture, as any student of cargo cults knows. This is a penetrating and playful examination of an alarming phenomenon that ends with a hard look in the mirror. You may not like what you see, but you’ll love what you read.

• List of Figures Introduction: You Really Can Survive 1 The History of the End of the World: The Maya Prediction 2 They Deserve Better: The Maya Evidence 3 God Is Angry: The Millenarian Mother Lode 4 The Moctezuma Factor: The End of the World Comes to Mexico 5 Apocalypto: The Millennium Comes to the Maya 6 We Are Always Almost There: Why People Believe Sources and Suggestions for Further Reading Index About the Authors