I watched "Apocalypto" the movie by Mel Gibson about the Mayans last night. I drew some interesting comparisons of the scenes of the Mayan city and the talk we had in class about the core and the periphery. You could almost see this visually in this movie, where on the outskirts of town there are the agriculture fields and the extraction of raw materials (limestone and trees) and the shanty-towns where the poor live, and as you get closer to the center, you see there are more tradespeople and craftsmen, and ultimately at the center of town there are the extremely wealthy people who are enjoying themselves, and the government. I just thought it was like a mini-model of the core and periphery - the poor, agricultural, raw materials are on the periphery (like the third world) and the wealthy merchants and probably capitalists essentially are in the center (like first world).
Also, a salient point being made in the movie was about environmental and social degradation which ultimately allowed for their downfall (with the help of Europeans of course). They overused their resources, and abused their people, and so the core collapsed along with the periphery. The beginning quote of the movie says something about how a civilization can only be destroyed from without if it is first destroyed from within.
So do aliens have to come to Earth to make us see that we are destroying ourselves from within? (teehee)
One other thing - most of the actors in the movie were not professionals, they were just normal people from Mexico - some who had never seen a movie or a camera in their life. I just wonder if the production company paid them US wages? Or did some of these village people just do it for free? Or was it conducted in an exploitative way, where none of the profits or even fair wages were paid to the actors and extras?
3 comments:
haha, what an interesting movie! I should watch it! Great example regarding the agarian society vs. capitalists. Kinda reminds me of the other class regarding culture of capitalism however.
I watched this about a month ago, after I had just finished reading the section of Collapse (by Jared Diamond) about the fall of the Maya.
The thing that has never made sense to me is the extended warfare such communities engaged in. It seems like human sacrifice is so obviously counterproductive that the only reason I have ever seen for it is to keep the possibility of overpopulation from becoming a reality, but even so it is hard to believe that cultures that could benefit from an expanded labor force wouldn't see the problems with this.
National Geographic did a great bit on the Mayan Culture. I enjoy just about any movie that takes a stab at visually portraying a historic culture. Its nice that they make an effort to create a visualization of it.... a window into the forgotten past. I appreciate the symbolism too, which is a testament to their research into it when creating the setting. But a Mel Gibson feature is certainly not strictly intended as a scientific documentary I imagine. As to human sacrifice, I doubt the leadership of the Mayan culture had any concept of overpopulation in their isolation, nor of labor force issues that are more capitalist and "educated" than they are mystical and instinctive. Their culture was not driven in the same manner as ours. I will definitely wanna see this movie, and take it as I find it.
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