Science and Non-Western Cultures While Essay

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Due to religious prejudice, most of the non-stone Mayan materials were burned by the Spanish. The Mayan civilization did not leave a mathematical legacy to the West, it simply beat the process by hundreds of years. However, in the modern age, as scholars look more and more into the Mayan calculations, they are able to deduce astromical records prior to recorded Western observations, as well as some of the predictions for natural disasters, weather events, and even seasonal migrations. In a typical example of the misinterpretation of a non-Western culture's science, some have postulated that the Mayan caldendar actually predicts the end of the earth in 2012. Instead, what is more likely is that 2012 is the end of a 5,126-year cycle from the Mayan long-count calendar; there may well be atmospheric or celestial convergence, but for the Maya, it was equivalent to a spritual rebirth -- not literally the death of the earth, but the demise of the old and the birth of the new (MacDonald, 2007).

The modern Maya, though, while not a hegonomous country, are still a genetially separate ethnic group centered largely within the Yucutan penninsula in modern day Mesico, Beliez, Guatemala and a bit in Hondouras. They are a diverse people only marginally acculturated into the modern world, numbering about 7 million. They still identify themselves as Maya, speak a variation of ancient Maya, then Spanish, and hold to the traditions of the ancient culture as much as possible.

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Their world view is also centered around the ancient culture; with their paradigms of philosophy, medicine, and culture a conglomoration of the ancient and imposed Spanish influence. They cling, for instance, to much of the folk ways in medicine that are directly from Mayan culture. Scientifically, they tend to adopt what archaeologists know as Mayan science (astronomy, botany, enumeration, etc.) with more folk traditions kept alive orally from generation to generation as folk legend (using herbs, the meaning of the stars, etc.) (Grube, 2006).

The challenge for the Maya focuses on the juxtaposition of cultural relevancy -- how to incorporate the Ancient knowledge of herbalism and using the forest (which was the only source of product) with modern, Western techniques. Many Maya, for instance, are reluctant to participate in vaccination programs, seeing them as artificial infection with evil spirits. Too, modern gynocological care is often at odds with traditional, folk ways. Yet -- at times, the folk remedies seem to be more efficatious than the new medical techniques -- traditional herbal remedies are still quite effective in dealing with numerous tropical bacteria. Culturally, this puts the Maya at somewhat a disadvantage, though, since they are a culture, not a nation. They must try to integrate with Western science and technology, while remaining true to their own, passionate, traditions (Barclay, 2009).

Works Cited

Adler and Pouwels. (2007). World Civilizations: to 1700. New York: Cenage.

Barclay, E. (January 15, 2009). "Mexico's Unconquered Maya Hold.....

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