“Ignore the movie: 2012 will not be the end of world, say Mayans”, according to the Telegraph.
"The famous Mayan prophecy inspired an excellent story," [director Roland Emmerich] said in a recent interview about what he calls the "mother of all disaster films".
But such a "prophecy" is news to the modern Maya in Guatemala and Mexico. Instead, they view the burgeoning end-of-the-world 2012 industry with a mixture of confusion, exasperation and anger at what is perceived as a Western distortion of their traditions and beliefs.
"There is no concept of apocalypse in the Mayan culture," Jesus Gomez, head of the Guatemalan confederation of Mayan priests and spiritual guides, told The Sunday Telegraph.
So the modern-day Mayans in effect don't know their own history.
I could draw some parallels with modern-day Christians in the U.S. — or even a few COG ministers.
@Richard: I didn't read it that way. Rather, I read it more along the lines of Western ideas have twisted the entire ancient Mayan viewpoint.
Having said that, they might not know their history. After all, part of the problem with the Mayan calendar is that there is very little context. The Spanish destroyed much of their writings, the calendar being (from what I understand) the only one that wasn't burnt up.