Many celebrate Mayan culture

Almost 500 experts, enthusiasts and amateurs celebrated the ancient Mayans at the University's 11th annual "Maya Weekend" on Saturday and Sunday. The weekend's activities included workshops on deciphering hieroglyphs, Mayan-style meals and lecturers on various aspects of Mayan culture. Topics included "ecology and the collapse of Mayan culture" and "women and ritual along the Usumacinta." John Carlson, director of the Center for Archaeoastronomy, delivered the final lecture. He focused on the coming of the last katun -- or 20-year period -- of the current 5200-year Mayan epoch. Carlson pointed out the ecological damage caused by every technological society, explaining that "success is our greatest danger." He went on to suggest that humans and the other species of the earth "get some of our genetic material off the planet" before the earth becomes incapable of supporting life. The weekend attracted enthusiastic participants from as far away as Canada and California. Jeff Splistoser, a University of Maryland graduate student, said this was the third Maya Weekend he attended. According to program coordinator Elin Danien, only 30 percent of the attendees were professional scholars. The rest were amateurs attracted by the program's strong reputation. Danien added that the Museum's permanent Mayan display is "one of the finest collections in the country." Anthropology graduate student Ellen Bell said that her experience at the Maya Weekend two years ago was "one of the things that made me decide to come to Penn." Bell realized, however, that her fellow University students were all but absent from the event. "They haven't been taking advantage of it," Bell said. However, there were still young scholars at the event, such as 12-year-old Matt Stokes and his father, who came from Warminster, Pa., to attend the program. Asked what he thought of the exhibits and lectures, the younger Stokes responded simply, "They were neat."