They had important inventions and made many advances, such as in higher mathematics. The ancient Maya were a great civilization. Native Americans - like African-Americans, gays and lesbians - are at constant risk of hate crimes. These “entertaining” images affect ordinary people too. Some 200,000 Maya were killed in Guatemala's 36-year civil war, which ended only a decade ago. But the genocide of Maya peoples is not merely a thing of the past. Stereotypes of bloodthirsty savagery and moral degeneracy have been used to vilify indigenous peoples for 500 years - by every government that has sought to justify the denial of civil rights to native peoples.ĭuring the first 200 years after the Spanish conquest of the New World - beginning in the 1500s - an estimated 75 million indigenous people were killed. Consider all the violence in the movie though the Maya practiced warfare and treated their prisoners harshly, the depiction of wall paintings of blue-painted and decapitated prisoners is just wrong.

But the distorted story of the Maya is likely the only exposure a generation of moviegoers will get to the ancient civilization, and the film does the Maya a disservice.Īs researchers who have spent our lives studying and teaching about the Maya, we cannot help but be disappointed, and even outraged, by the movie.

True, a movie is a fictional account that, in most cases, places the drama ahead of the historical verisimilitude. The inaccuracies have sparked protests by Native Americans - in the United States, Mexico and Guatemala - as well as by researchers who study the ancient Maya, all outraged by the film's portrayal of the Maya as violent and depraved. Movie reviewers, however, have noted the film's inaccuracies, though at the same time they have granted the director considerable latitude with a common plea from the movie world: It's just entertainment. The promotion for Mel Gibson's new film, “Apocalypto,” points out all of its realistic touches: It was shot on location in Mexico, it stars Native American actors and its dialogue is not in English but Yucatec Maya. The following editorial was written by Mary Weismantel, professor of anthropology, and Cynthia Robin, associate professor of anthropology. Although the film has been nominated for three Academy Awards - in makeup, sound editing and sound mixing - it has received mixed reviews from critics and scholars. Among the villagers is Jaguar Paw, who has hidden his wife and child from the attackers with a promise that he will return for them. Villagers who survived a savage attack are taken by their captors through the jungle to the central Mayan city. Mel Gibson's latest film, Apocalypto, tells a story set in pre-Columbian Central America, with the Mayan Empire in decline. Commentary by Mary Weismantel and Cynthia Robin

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