Archaeology and Mayan People Essay Example for Free

Archaeology and Mayan People Essay 1. According to Principle 3 of the American Archaeology Statement on Ethics, an archaeologist should drop and avoid any activities or words that would enhance the buying and selling of archaeological Mayan objects. This is demonstrated in the Apocalypto movie, especially those Mayan objects that have not been introduced to the public view, or available for scientific study and display. For example, if the black knife of one of the main warriors in the Apocalypto film was valuable to Mayan people, then the archaeologist who reviews the movie should not mention nor speak about the knife’s value or its estimated price to the public world. If he failed to do so, the object might be sold. Therefore, that action will destroy the important information that is needed to understand the archaeological record of the Mayan people and their cultures. 2. The village life is peaceful, joyful, and they dressed in small pieces of rags. The houses are made of dry leaves and trees. Their source of light is bon fires, and they usually gather around at night to tell stories. The city life is quite harsh. The place is dried up with limited, dirty water. Slaves are the only one working; they’re covered in white pounder. City people have colorful body paint, dresses, and hats. Their ritual is the sacrificing people from the villages. Andrea Stone stated that Mayan rituals always structured in precise time and positioning under the ranked and hierarchy people in specific order, along with beautiful dance prior to them. But the movie portrayed that time as chaos and mad cheering. Also, massive slavery labors is an unfamiliar in that period of time. Stone implied that Mayan villagers don’t lie around in dirt near the fire like hunter-gatherers. Moreover, Mayan woman put their hair up in neat bun and they don’t wear beads unlike Jaguar’s wife. Additionally, Mayan warriors wield clubs, spear, and shield not smashing heavy-metal savage showed in the film. And Mayan territory has scarlet macaw, not blue and gold macaw and howler monkey. Andrea also said that some of the costumes in the movie came after the Classic period such as turquoise jewelry and gold bead, and hair inaccurately putted in corn row. The movie made an assumption that Mayan has stick through the nose. This is a stereotype and inaccurate, Stone wrote.