Re: Mayan numerals

--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, Marco Cimarosti <marco.cimarosti@...>
wrote:

> Etaonsh wrote:
> > An archaeologist can describe an attempt to revive Mayan numerals

as

> > tourism-inspired. However, he cannot prove it, [...]
>
> He was an anthropologist, and he didn't try to prove his (sad)

impression.

Well I don't rule it out. What's wrong with a bit of tourism, anyway?

> {{{<OT> BTW, you seem to have quite naive ideas about these part of

the

> academic world!

Not as naive as I may seem.

It is much more likely than modern anthropologists have

> quite radical opinions in exactly the opposite direction: they are

more

> often the kind of people who'd rather whole-heartedly encourage the

use of

> local languages and scripts. }}}

OK - just thought we should establish that.

> > There is even an argument
> > that it could be inspired by anti-tourism, a desire to use a

system

> > unintelligible and prior to the outside world. [...]
>
> I don't think so. First of all, because the dots-and-bar Maya

numbering

> system is far from unintelligible to tourists: the stalls around
> archaeological places sold tons of booklests or postcards

explaining the

> numeric systems;
>
> {{{<OT> secondly, because local people were very friendly to gringo
> tourists, especially since most of them showed some form of

political

> awareness and solidarity to thir cause (lot of Zapatista T-shirts,

etc.).

OK, unintelligible to the uninformed tourist, then. A dual enterprise
in education and tourism.

R