• irmoz@reddthat.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    arrow-down
    14
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Let me spell it out for you:

    The Mayans are fucking dead

    Straight from the first sentence of Wikipedia:

    The Maya civilization (/ˈmaɪə/) was a Mesoamerican civilization that existed from antiquity to the early modern period.

    Was

    Absolutely zero people are alive today with 100% Mayan ancestry.

    • Pipoca@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      1 year ago

      Civilization is not the same thing as a people.

      To also quote Wikipedia,

      A civilization (British English: civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of the state, social stratification, urbanization, a currency, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system).

      To quote a different Wikipedia article

      The Maya (/ˈmaɪə/) are an ethnolinguistic group of indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. The ancient Maya civilization was formed by members of this group, and today’s Maya are generally descended from people who lived within that historical region. Today they inhabit southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras. “Maya” is a modern collective term for the peoples of the region; however, the term was not historically used by the indigenous populations themselves.

      In short, that sentence doesn’t say what you think it says.

    • TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Gengis Khan is dead too. The Mongol Empire is long gone. He’s known for being ancestor to millions today. Do you understand that part?