by Hispanically Speaking News
A new Mayan exhibit at the Mexican capital’s National Museum of Anthropology shows the influence of time on the rituals and daily life of that pre-Columbian civilization.
“We’re used to seeing time from our own perspective, in a linear way, with a beginning and an end, but for Mesoamerican cultures, on the contrary, time is a cyclic reality,” Alfonso de Maria y Campos, director of the National Anthropology and History Institute, or INAH, told Efe during Friday’s inauguration.
Nearly 100 objects of ceramic, metal, shell and stone on loan from the Yucutan Regional Museum, or “Canton Palace,” illustrate the advanced understanding of astronomy, mathematics and writing achieved by that civilization, at its height between the years 300 A.D. and 1,000 A.D.
The exhibit, organized by INAH, explains some of the calendar systems they used, including the Tzolk’in of 260 days, the Haab’o civil calendar of 365 days, and the so-called “long-count” (Tziikhaab) that covers a span of 5,125 years.
The latter system, whose current stage began on Aug. 11 of the year 3114 B.C. and will end on Dec. 21, 2012 with the beginning of a new era, gave rise to the idea that the Mayas prophesied the end of the world, a notion repeatedly denied by indigenous and scientific authorities.
“This is an academic exhibition that shows that the end of the world will not be on Dec. 21, but that it is a very important date on the Mayas’ long-count calendar,” the academic said.
LatAm Artists Anguiano, Siqueiros, Tamayo Sell Paintings at Mexican Auction
Paintings by Raul Anguiano, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Rufino Tamayo sold here for a combined $1.2 million in scoring the three top bids at Casa Morton’s auction of Latin American art.
Anguiano’s “Allegory of Mexico: the natural products” was knocked down for the highest price of 5 million pesos ($416,000) at the Thursday night auction in the Mexican capital.
The painting shows the tree of life and some indigenous figures – a Maya weaver, potters and miners – with the god Quetzalcoatl emerging among them to symbolize the coming Spanish conquest of America and the economic and cultural exchanges between the two worlds.
Second place went to an untitled piece by Siqueiros for 4.8 million pesos ($400,000), in which the artist displays the strength of his perspective with industrial painting techniques and his characteristically colorful palette.
Antonio Banderas To Kick Off Acapulco Film Festival
Spanish actor Antonio Banderas will have the honor of inaugurating on Nov. 24 the 8th Acapulco International Film Festival, where he will travel with his wife, actress Melanie Griffith, organization officials said.
“Banderas has been involved in films and dubbings that have been very successful in Mexico,” the awards festival director Victor Sotomayor told Efe, adding that last year they wanted to invite him for the computer-animation film “Puss in Boots,” for which the actor dubbed the voice of the leading character, but he was too busy at the time to attend.
Though nothing is certain as yet, Sotomayor said they are “very near confirmation” that the Mexican Salma Hayek, who coincidentally worked in the same animated movie with Banderas, will ring down the festival curtain on Nov. 30.
