The Ancient Mexico

Some may say that studying in Mexico is strange. Tradition holds that one should study in a country with a long and proud history of artistic and scientific accomplishments, such as Brittain, France, or Italy.

In actuality certain parts of Mexico were indeed centers of learning and power.



















Recently I visited the site of an ancient observatory, a city where Zapotec and Maya studied in ancient times. It included a cave with an ancient ¨telescope¨consisting of an opening to the sky, and (in ancient times) a bowl of water below to reflect. The opening was set up to coincide with the sun´s position at summer solstice.

Despite having no weapons beyond flint, they pulled off some great accomplishments including the invention of the number zero (long before it was though of in Europe) the notion that the Earth goes around the sun, and the ability to design a plaza where the echo of clapping sounds like a sacred cocateil (the last of these has yet to be accomplished by modern people, maybe for lack of trying). To me it seems racist to attribute these accomplishments to aliens, but many people do.

Of course these civilizations eventually ¨collapsed.¨ After the gradual collapse, here in Central Mexico,the Aztecs and later the Spanish conquered the remaining nations. Although many Indians thought the Spanish would be better masters than the Aztecs, they turned out to be just as demanding in some ways.

Mexico´s current rulers also rule from Mexico City. According to my teachers Mexico generally remains a hierarchical rather than equal society (it was hierarchical even in pre-Aztec times). I don´t know if I believe it, I haven´t been here long enough. The language brough by the Spanish doesn´t help much (givden that it distinguishes between tu and usted).