Hey folks,
I’m currently reading The Crest of the Peacock: Non-European Roots of Mathematics by George Gheverghese Joseph, and in it he makes the claim that the Maya remained closer to their Asian roots than other groups which migrated to the Americas. For evidence, he cites sculptures of elephants, as well as a “clearer historical memory of their origins in folklore, arts, and myths.”
I’m having some issues stomaching this claim for a variety of reasons, including the apparent lack of these passed down memories in any other groups, and Joseph’s lack of historical training (to his credit, he seems to be a brilliant math professor and is asking some great questions with this work).
So did Mayans know about their pre-American roots (and elephants)?
Thanks!
No, they did not. My comment here on Jean-Frédéric Maximilien de Waldeck addresses one of the common pieces of "evidence" for this claim, and this comment addresses a less frequently used "artifact" that "proves" there were "elephants."
Joseph's claim here is a distressingly common one among Eurasian scholars, i.e. attributing the "advanced" elements of American societies to some form of contact with the opposite hemisphere. Could the Maya not have developed their own mathematics, without the need for this to represent a "clearer historical memory" of Asia? Apparently not, even though this would seem to be more in line with Joseph's more general goal of dismantling Eurocentrism.