Maya Wisdom Should Guide Humanity's Future - Book Review

In her book, anthropology professor Lisa Lucero’s book explores how the Maya survived for thousands of years by building their societies on a foundation of respect for, and integration into, the natural world. CREDIT: Photo by Fred Zwicky

January 22, 2025
By Eurasia Review

A new book takes readers on a guided tour of Maya history as narrated by an anthropologist who has spent more than 35 years salvaging and exploring the remains of ancient Maya cities, farms and sacred spaces. “Maya Wisdom and the Survival of Our Planet,” by Lisa J. Lucero, is also a call for a radical transformation of contemporary society from its careless and wasteful ways to a more sustainable social order modeled on the Maya’s worldview.

Lucero, a professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, explains that the term “Maya” describes the people, their settlements and archaeology, while “Mayan” is a term reserved for the languages they spoke. She also is quick to note that the Maya are not a bygone culture but a people who — thanks to their adaptability and knowledge — have persevered for millennia in parts of southern Mexico and Central America.

“Over 7 million Maya live today in Central America and beyond,” Lucero writes.

Her argument that the Maya lived sustainably is supported by compelling data arduously collected by anthropologists, archaeologists and social and environmental scientists.

“The ancestral Maya did not cause the extinction of any flora or fauna before the arrival of the Spanish,” she writes. The Maya farmed for more than 4,000 years without overtaxing the landscape. They built cities that supported tens of thousands of people while also providing self-cleaning reservoirs, public parks and diverse urban farms and gardens that sustained them.

She describes how the provision of potable water in the monthslong dry season gave the kings at the top of the urban hierarchy their influence and power. The kings led ceremonies to appease the rain god, Chakh, and, as long as Chakh came through with rain, the kings enjoyed uncontested power. Those kingships ended when an extended period of frequent droughts dried up the water supply and made the cities unlivable. The Maya dispersed, leaving their cities, their kings and all that urban infrastructure behind by 900 A.D.

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https://www.eurasiareview.com/22012025-maya-wisdom-should-guide-humanitys-future-book-review/