Scholarly Paper Review Ring of Fire

1. Scholarly Paper ReviewRing of Fire By: The Mitch’s and Firk

2. Mayan magic • Philip Coppens

3. Summary • Magic was a large part of Mayan culture • It was used within a religious context • It is said that they practiced magic more than any other ancient culture, but this might now be accurate considering that we have looked much deeper into Mayan civilization than others. • Trickery was considered divine • It opens the mind literally, making it realize that there could be far more to earth than meets the eyes.

4. Summary • Talking head myth • Mayan priest often told stories of a decapitated head that could talk away from it’s body • This head could make prophecies • The trick popped back up in the 19th century on the stages of Europe and America • Tearing out of hearts • High priests would rip out a live human’s heart and throw them down the steps of the temple while they were still “moving”. • Although this was a common sacrifice, many of the people saw it as magic.

5. Summary • Dwarves were considered to be part of the supernatural • There is a story about a dwarf boy in the Mayan culture that goes somewhat like this: “One day, a dwarf boy sounded the gong and struck fear into the ruler, who ordered him to be executed. The ruler promised that the boy’s life would be saved if he could perform three impossible tasks, one of which was to build a giant pyramid in a single night. The boy achieved all the tasks, and became the new ruler.” (Coppens) • Because of this the dwarves were treated as gods and were almost always associated with magic.

6. What we can learn from this • Magic has been around forever and there is much more to it than meets the eye.

7. Strengths • This is a very captivating article with interesting facts. • The stories in the article are very fun to read although they can get gruesome. • Phil Coppens does a good job at comparing and contrasting modern magic and magicians to ancient trickery and priests.

8. Weaknesses • There are not a lot of cold hard facts. • On the page there are no works cited. • Phil sometimes strays from the main topic being addressed.

9. Student evaluation • I liked this article a lot because it provided an insight further into Mayan life. Although it did return back to some of the blood and gore we enjoyed looking at the life of some normal, middle class people in the Mayan Culture.

10. Works Cited • http://www.philipcoppens.com/mayan_magic.html