Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Breaking the Maya Code by Michael D. Coe ISBN: 0-500-28133-5 Publisher: Thames & Hudson Pub. Date: 01 October, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.14 (21 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Literature or Research?
Comment: If you are new on the Maya path, you will find this book very interesting, easy to read and capturing. But, if you are a mayanist aficionado, better try another book, like Montgomery's, about Mayan writing, of David Drew's account of it. Coe, even when he made important apportations to mayan studies, is one of that scholars (like Thompson, his nemesis) that put the personal view on his research. So, this account is full of biased information and emotional catarsis. However, it is very readable, keeping you reading until the end, like a good mistery or detective story. Enjoy the reading, but if you want something serious, he is not the guy.
Rating: 4
Summary: A model of its genre
Comment: A well-illustrated history of the decipherment of Maya script by a noted Mayan scholar. Coe provides a fine introduction to the decoding of ancient languages and to what is known of Mayan history, but he focuses on the strange and fascinating story of how Mayan characters came to be understood. Ironically, that decipherment transformed the Maya, once thought to be unusually peace-loving, into one the most vicious and violent of all ancient cultures, one delighting in torture and human sacrifice. Echoing this transformation of the Maya, Coe does not romanticize the scholars who worked at the decipherment. He notes their genius and stupidity, generosity and arrogance, and he bestows praise and settles scores in the process. As a historian who is sometimes questioned by undergraduates about the study of anthropology and archaeology, I now have a book to recommend. "Ask yourself," I will say, "whether you're ready to commit your life to this sort of intellectual environment, with all the intellectual excitement and pettiness displayed here." After reading this book, those students who are willing will know.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Great Read on a Controversial Subject
Comment: There have been a number of "Gods, Graves and Scholars"-type popularizations of the story of how various ancient scripts and languages have been decoded over the years, whether we're talking about Ancient Egyptian, Cuneiform, Tocharian or Linear B. And with good reason - after all, everybody enjoys an occasional spot of armchair detective work. The story of the decipherment of Mayan hieroglyphs is especially interesting since there are a couple of unexpected turns. Now that the decipherment is a reality, if not yet a completed task, the whole slightly sordid story can be told.
"Slightly sordid" because the decipherment was the subject of an academic battle that raged for some thirty years in the middle of the twentieth century. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the Mayan hieroglyphs were the subject of some highly imaginative interpretations, rather like the Egyptian hieroglyphs before Champollion. The first fruits came with the decipherment of Mayan numbers at the end of the nineteenth century.
However, the real breakthrough was the work separately done by Knorosov and Proskouriakoff in the 1950's. The serendipitous origin of Knorosov's interest in the matter is one of the most interesting stories in the history of epigraphy, regardless of what language you're talking about. The problem was that by that point, the controlling interests in the Mayanist community, led by Eric Thompson, had given up on the idea of decipherment and to some extent apparently even doubted that there was anything decipherable. The very idea that some Stalinist academic like Knorozov could actually contribute something of value to the matter was unthinkable, and in his position as doyen of the field Thompson managed to stonewall research in the matter for some time. After Thompson's death in the 1970's the decipherment project moved more apace, but there came to be a rift between the anthropologists and epigraphers as to what provided more important clues to Mayan history, a situation which apparently still exists today.
The atmosphere of polemic still hangs over this book. At present, it appears that Thompson is a difficult figure for Mayanists to come to terms with, and we may have to wait another generation before a sanguine approach to his legacy will be possible. As for the ditch diggers vs. the puzzle fans, I think everybody realizes that the field has need for both. Allow me to give my personal opinion as a frustrated linguist and say that my interest lies with the epigraphers, which is one reason why I liked the book so much. It is more than a history of decipherment, it is a history of the Mayanist field, and as such it is for the most part a thrilling story.
 |
Title: Reading the Maya Glyphs by Michael D. Coe, Mark Van Stone ISBN: 0500051100 Publisher: Thames & Hudson Pub. Date: November, 2001 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
 |
Title: The Maya (Ancient Peoples and Places) by Michael D. Coe ISBN: 0500280665 Publisher: Thames & Hudson Pub. Date: February, 1999 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
 |
Title: A Forest of Kings : The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya by David Freidel, Linda Schele ISBN: 0688112048 Publisher: Quill Pub. Date: 24 January, 1992 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
 |
Title: Popol Vuh : The Definitive Edition Of The Mayan Book Of The Dawn Of Life And The Glories Of by Dennis Tedlock ISBN: 0684818450 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 31 January, 1996 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
 |
Title: An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya by Mary Miller, Karl Taube ISBN: 0500279284 Publisher: Thames & Hudson Pub. Date: April, 1997 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
