Maya Stela 5: Mormon Myths, Misconceptions, and Methodology

Izapa Stela 5

Today my post is a response to a presentation by Dr. Mark Wright that I attended yesterday at the Religion Symposium regarding Izapa Stela 5 (pictured to the right). As I reflected on his presentation, what I learned helped tie together written knowledge and the misconceptions that can occur when one misinterprets the written word of another culture or worse, takes it out of its cultural context. If these misinterpretations are then spread through both modern oral folklore and written knowledge, it becomes especially difficult to learn the truth as one's judgement's becomes trained to see what they want to believe.  
Dr. Wright is an expert in the Maya Hieroglyphs and has spent many field studies studying the Maya. He is particularly interested in correlations between the ancient Maya people and the Book of Mormon. 


Many experts have their theory about Stela 5. Some LDS scholars think that it depicts Lehi's Vision of the Tree of Life as found in the Book of Mormon in 1 Nephi Ch 8.  I have heard this Mormon myth before and was excited to learn if it had any validity.


Wright's objective was to demonstrate the importance of having good data and good methodology in order to have the most accurate conclusions that are not biased by one's assumptions regarding the interpretation of Maya hieroglyphs. 
Wright began by discussing the Mormon folklore and how it came to exist. In the 1980s, Dr. Jakeman at BYU discovered correlations between Izapa Stela 5 and Lehi's vision of the Tree of Life. He noted figures that looked like Lehi and Sariah (pictured below).  Note: If you are curious of other correlations Jakeman noted, see "Jakeman" link below. Remember to remain skeptical as you read, because his theory is known to be inaccurate today. 

"Sariah"

"Lehi"

Wright went on to say how 
Jakeman's Interpretation of Stela 5 is now known to be incorrect today. He used an inaccurate depiction of Stela 5 that was missing finite details, such as the bloodletter in what was thought to be "Sariah's" hand or the incense below her feet. The bloodletter and incense were used by the Gods to demonstrate to man the proper way to worship: through blood sacrifice and burning incense. This is learned in the Popol Vuh. (Unfortunately I couldn't find a depiction of Stela 5 with these finite details easily visible.) Would Sariah hold a bloodletter in the Tree of Life to sacrifice blood and burn incense to the Gods? NO. Wright says that the Tree depicted in the picture has NEVER been referred to has the "Tree of Life" by the Maya people. Instead, it is an "alligator tree"and is referred to as the "World tree," which represents the  first living things that emerges from the waters of the primordial sea in Maya theology.


Wright demonstrated how can find whatever you want to find in a glyph by showing how he found the 8 Buddism  symbols (pictured below) in Izapa Stela 5. Thus, there must be a connections between the Mayas and Buddism!  See if you can find them in Stela 5 above. 

Could you find them? He pointed all of them out in his presentation. It interests me how different cultures used similar symbols with vastly different meanings. Yet if you try to connect them, you can easily lead yourself to believe misinterpretations, as demonstrated in the correlations 
This is why it is important to study the context of symbols and hieroglyphs within a culture and at as many sites as possible within the civilization.


In the Q&A, Wright discussed another misinterpretation of Maya glyphs: "The end of the world" prophecy. Wright says that in fact, when originally interpreted it was thought to have said "December 23, 2012 He will descend." Sounds ominous, right? However, after taking the damaged glyphs into account and including those it then read "On December 23, 2012, it will commemorate this date." This essentially means, in so many years, it will be the anniversary of whatever happened today.  Yes, the calendar ends after the year 2012, but we do not know why and do not have accurate data to support the assumed conclusion that 2012 will be the "End of the world."

He said that the modern Maya people laugh whenever they hear about the "end of the world" hype, because they know it is not a part of their theology. (See funny comics I found online illustrating this point.) Yet think of the millions of people– some scientists included– who believe in the Maya prophecy. . . 


This reminds me of a conversation I had with a native Maya in Mexico. He wanted to inform me of the need to be skeptical regarding excavations due to the many misinterpretations that happen when another culture thinks they have the right knowledge to interpret the meaning of an ancient culture's text. This man wanted more natives helping with the process. However, (in his opinion) due to the ethnocentrism of the whites, this wasn't reality.


In order to reach accurate conclusions, it is essential to have the most accurate tools,  background, data, and methodology when analyzing something of such historical significance to another culture. 


Wright says that the Maya have NEVER made a prophecy of any kind regarding the "End of the world" and that it all resulted from a misinterpretation using bad (incomplete) data and bad methodology. 


This brings up an important point. When studying ancient culture, we must remember to keep the cultural piece–in this case, hieroglyphs–within the context of the original culture. We can't just thrust our assumptions upon a piece and assume we are qualified experts to know the significance. 

During the presentation Q&A, I also learned that according National Geographic’s Maya expert “George Stewart” there are still 6,000 Maya sites to be excavated… This means that only less than 1% have been excavated. Think of everything there is still to learn about this ancient culture. . . Who knows, perhaps there is an end of the world prophesy within one of these ruins, but I highly doubt it. 

Also, for those who want to learn more about correlations between the Book of Mormon and the Maya/Ancient America Civilizations, Dr. Wright recommended the book An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon by John L. Sorenson. This book uses accurate data and methodology that is accepted by scholars both in and outside of the LDS faith.