Fast Class: The Mayan Calendar

From Santa Rosa Tows Press Democrat:  Fast Class: The Mayan Calendar

That date is the end of the Mayan calendar and Judith Dides can tell you all about it. Dides, who holds degrees in anthropology and linguistics, also pursued a doctorate in Mayan studies at Tulane University in New Orleans.
Dides will teach a class entitled “Maya 2012: End or Beginning?” at Santa Rosa Junior College starting this month. This is the sixth and last time she’ll teach the class, which she has offered through both SRJC and Stockton’s San Joaquin Delta College since 2009.
“The academics were not addressing the ‘issue’ at all,” said Dides, who felt her background in multiple disciplines gave her a unique perspective on the subject. “I have my own personal ideas about what is happening, but I don’t push my agenda on the students.”
Dides gave us a preview of some of the topics she’ll be addressing in her class:
1. I’ll explain the Mayan calendar and how it correlates with our calendar. Starting in 2008, I started reading all the sensational books coming out about 2012 and saw that none of the authors except one, knew anything at all about the ancient Mayan culture or the Mayan calendar.
2. I present the few texts that we have related to the end of a Great Cycle of 13 baktuns, including what the Maya said and didn’t say about this upcoming end date.
3. I teach strategies for deciphering texts, so that students can learn to read Maya hieroglyphs. I studied the material in my doctoral program, working on the decipherment of hieroglyphs and illustrating a text on hieroglyphs.
4. I present the data indicating that the Maya had a great deal of knowledge about astronomy and our place in the cosmos.
5. Last, but not least, I show that despite the level of sophistication and complexity of ancient Maya culture, their society collapsed probably due to environmental issues – over exploitation of the resources. No matter who we are, we still depend on Nature for our survival.
“I hope to inspire people to continue their own research on the Maya and not just take what others say as ‘the truth,’” said Dides. “I want people to be able to evaluate the information about 2012 for themselves.”