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Maya Revival

Today's Maya regaining their history and culture by learning the glyphs and calendars of their ancestors and spreading the knowledge in their own communities.

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Maya Revival

Maya Revival

Maya Revival

Maya Revival

Maya Revival

Today's Maya regaining their history and culture by learning the glyphs and calendars of their ancestors and spreading the knowledge in their own communities.

Today's Maya regaining their history and culture by learning the glyphs and calendars of their ancestors and spreading the knowledge in their own communities.

Today's Maya regaining their history and culture by learning the glyphs and calendars of their ancestors and spreading the knowledge in their own communities.

Today's Maya regaining their history and culture by learning the glyphs and calendars of their ancestors and spreading the knowledge in their own communities.

Bruce Love, Ph.D.
Bruce Love, Ph.D.
Bruce Love, Ph.D.
Bruce Love, Ph.D.
1 Campaign |
Juniper HIlls, United States
$18,925 USD 153 backers
63% of $29,590 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal
THE EVENT

    CONGRESS OF MAYA EPIGRAPHERS* In May, 2014, in the state of Chiapas, Mexico, our organization MAM is co-sponsoring a week-long all-Maya conference with workshops, classes, lectures, and site visits for 110 Maya participants, including two teams of Maya teachers. Mayas teaching Mayas, our goal. Mayas will come from three countries, Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, to participate and take what they learn home to their own indigenous communities to spread and instill that knowledge among the Maya-speaking population. Your contributions will make this congress possible, providing transportation and meals, charter buses, vans, teaching materials and workbooks.

* Epigraphy: The deciphering and interpretation of ancient inscriptions.

Crisanto Kumul, Maya epigrapher (second from right) and members of his team at the 2012 Congress that MAM co-sponsored in Valladolid, Yucatan.

MAM

  I am Bruce Love, President of MAM. I live in Juniper Hills, California, and spend three months a year working with our Maya colleagues in Southern Mexico and Central America. I have a Ph.D. in Anthropology from UCLA and have 40 years of field experience among the Maya of Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala. MAM is a tax-deductible charitable organization dedicated to bringing the glyphs and ancient calendar back to the Maya people. Our web site is http://discovermam.org/. Check us out!

   Working among the Maya for the last 40 years, I found they have a burning desire to learn the glyphs that record their own history, a history that has been hidden to them. As someone who can read the glyphs, I am now dedicating my life, working with MAM and our Maya colleagues, to bring that knowledge back to the Maya people, descendants of the Classic Maya civilization that built the pyramids and wrote in sacred hieroglyphic writing. 


          

Example of Maya hieroglyphs from Temple XIX, Palenque. Photograph by Jorge Pérez de Lara, used with permission by The Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute.

MAYA LAND

Ocosingo, Chiapas, site of the Congress of Maya Epigraphers.

GLYPH WORKSHOPS FOR MAYAS

Linda Schele pioneered efforts in the 1980s to bring knowledge of the glyphs to the Mayas, but with Linda's passing, those efforts lagged.



Linda Schele, Nikolai Grube and Federico Fahsen leading a glyph workshop for Maya students at the site of Iximche', Guatemala.

Today, our organization, MAM, working directly with indigenous groups and local institutions in Maya communities, is spearheading efforts to return knowledge of the glyphs to the Maya people. 

SUCCESS

In 2010, in Antigua, Guatemala, MAM co-sponsored a two-day workshop for Mayas that brought 70 participants from all across Guatemala.

PLFM workshop in Antigua, Guatemala, 2010.

In 2011 we gave cash grants and digital projectors to support local workshops. In 2012 we co-sponsored the Congress of Maya Epigraphers in Valladolid, Yucatan, Mexico, attended by 70 participants from three countries. In 2013 we gave 9 cash grants and 2 more digital projectors in support of local grass-roots efforts by the Mayas themselves. To see our 2013 efforts, click here.

This year we embark our our largest undertaking yet, the Second International Congress of Maya Epigraphers, co-sponored by MAM and three local institutions in the state of Chiapas.

WHAT WE NEED

We need to raise $29,590 for the Congress of Maya Epigraphers. That may seem like a lot for a week of classes and workshops, but with 110 participants, including students and teachers, it comes to only $269 per participant. That includes transportation and meals to and from the Congress, as well as all expenses while at the event.  This low price is only possible because the President of Ocosingo, Chiapas, is generously covering many of the local costs of meals and lodging, and local institutions are contributing transportation and facilities.

MAM's partners in Chiapas: The State Center for Indigenous Languages and the Arts, and the Office of the President of the Municipio of Ocosingo, as well as the Dictionaries and Languages Project of the Department of Indigenous Education.


WHAT YOU GET - PERKS

We don't expect you to donate because of the value of the perks. We hope you will donate because you "get it," just how deeply important this movement of Maya epigraphy really is for the Maya. The perks are just tokens of our gratitude and ways for you to remember this historic event.

$10 - Recognition on MAM web site and shout out on Facebook.

(above) MAM Facebook Page

$25 – The above perk plus pdfs of our blog that comes out every 20 days, sent to you personally before it becomes public on our web site.

(above) MAM blog page

$50 – The above perks plus MAM T-shirt (quality cotton) with exclusive Linda Schele drawing from Temple of the Cross, Palenque, with Linda Schele signature. Copyrighted design. At this time exclusive for donors only (remainders may go on sale to the public after the Congress). Has MAM logo on reverse side.

                

                    



$125 – The above perks plus book by Anthropologist and MAM president Bruce Love, “Maya Shamanism Today: Connecting with the Cosmos in Yucatan.”  Book will be signed by the author with a personal dedication to the donor in the Maya language.

$250 – All the above perks plus the donor’s birthday (or any other date of your choosing) drawn in glyphs in the Maya calendar and signed by a Maya artist, printed in full color on quality paper, suitable for framing.


  

(above) Sample of contemporary Maya art and hieroglyphs by artist Walter Amilcar Paz Joj, Maya Tsutujiil. He or another Maya artist/scribe will create your name in glyphs and your birthday in the Maya calendar, suitable for framing.

$500 – All the above plus your name printed on the program, recognized as special donor, souvenir quality program unused, mailed to you for your keeping.

$1000 - All the above plus your name on the program, recognized as a "sponsor." Souvenir quality program, unused, mailed to you for your keeping.

WHAT IF . . .

What if we don’t make our goal? Every cent that we raise will go toward the Congress. The Congress is planned and set and the invitations have gone out. We WILL pay for it somehow!

What if we collect more than our goal? Any money collected beyond our goal (God willing) will go toward grants for Maya teachers and organizations giving their own workshops (like we did in 2013) and the purchase of more digital projectors to be used by local grass-roots organizations.

What if we go way beyond our goal? If by some miracle of the Maya gods we raise a lot more than our goal, the money will go toward our 2016 Congress, the Third International Congress of Maya Epigraphers, that will take place in Guatemala (site to be determined).

THE IMPACT

What does this Congress mean for the participants? Here is what a young Maya professor and researcher at University of Campeche wrote when she received her invitation to attend:

“Thank you for this opportunity. For me it is a dream I have pursued for years. I have always thought that we, as heirs of the Maya, ought to have access to the knowledge and wisdom or our ancestors. Sharing it with our own people will strengthen our culture from the inside.” Cessia Chuc Uc, University of Campeche.

One of the first Mayas to learn the glyphs, who began studying epigraphy in the 1980s, writes:

“ ‘A people without history is like a tree without roots,’ goes the famous saying. This is precisely what epigraphy signifies for the Maya people.” Antonio Cuxil, Maya Kaqchikel, Guatemala, MAM colleague.

Sebastián Si' Pop, Maya Q'eqchi', Guatemala, says "[Epigraphy] allows us to know our history, reconstruct our present, and see our future."


The next generation of Maya leaders. At the 2012 workshop in Valladolid, these two boys were absolutely enamored by a demonstration of Maya mathematics by Crisanto Kumul's team of Maya epigraphers.

_________________

Special note: The success of this campaign depends on you sharing it forward. Even if you do not donate, if you share this forward it will make a tremendous difference. Back at the top of this page, under the video screen there is a box called "Share this Campaign." It gives the link there. You can "like" it, "tweet" it, or if you're old fashioned like me, you can email it. If you click on the link, you can cut and paste it into your emails. I am making a personal request that you help us by sharing this campaign with others. Please be sure to include the link in your emails.

I thank you, but more importantly, our Maya colleagues thank you. It is their future you are helping to build.

Bruce Love, Ph.D.

President, MAM (Mayas for Ancient Mayan)








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Choose your Perk

Shout out on Facebook and Web

$10 USD
Our web site and blog, viewed internationally by Maya enthusiasts, will prominently post your name as a sign of our gratitude to you for your donation. This is a grass-roots campaign and small donations are the heart of it. You will also receive a shout out on Facebook.
Estimated Shipping
May 2014
13 out of 500 of claimed

pdf of MAM blog sent to you

$25 USD
Besides the shout outs described above, we will personally send you pdfs of our blog that comes out every 20 days, before it becomes public on our web site.
Estimated Shipping
June 2014
6 out of 100 of claimed

Linda Schele T-shirt

$50 USD
The above-mentioned perks plus MAM T-shirt (quality cotton) with exclusive Linda Schele drawing from Temple of the Cross, Palenque, with Linda Schele signature. Copyrighted design, now available exclusively to donors (remainders may go on sale after the Congress). MAM logo on reverse side.
Estimated Shipping
June 2014
39 out of 200 of claimed

Autographed Book

$125 USD
The above perks plus brand new book by Anthropologist and MAM president Bruce Love, “Maya Shamanism Today: Connecting with the Cosmos in Yucatan.” Book will be signed by the author with a personal dedication to the donor in Mayan.
Estimated Shipping
June 2014
24 out of 50 of claimed

Your birthday in glyphs

$250 USD
All the above perks, plus your name and birthday (or any other date of your choosing) drawn in the Maya calendar and signed by a Maya artist, printed in full color on quality paper, suitable for framing.
Estimated Shipping
June 2014
5 out of 10 of claimed

Special donor recognition

$500 USD
All the above plus your name printed on the Congress program, recognized as special donor, sourvenir quality program unused, mailed to you for your keeping.
Estimated Shipping
June 2014
4 out of 20 of claimed

Sponsor Recognition

$1,000 USD
All the above perks plus your name on the program, recognized as a "sponsor." Souvenir quality program, unused, mailed to you for your keeping.
Estimated Shipping
June 2014
2 out of 10 of claimed

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