korrents

What Ed Barnhart thinks about America

@ed-barnhart · 25 positions · 0 changes of mind

Archaeologist and director of the Maya Exploration Center, specialising in the ancient civilizations of Mesoamerica, South America and North America.

Ed Barnhart did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

7 dated positions, 2024, in their own words. Our reading of what Ed Barnhart has said — not written or endorsed by them.

  1. Our readingThe first people reached the Americas at least 30,000 years ago, not 12,500.

    Their wordsWe see the traditional 12,500 years ago that there was a migration, but now we’re seeing one that’s almost certainly happening closer to 30,000 years ago.

    ↗Ed Barnhart: Maya, Aztec, Inca, and Lost Civilizations of South America | Lex Fridman Podcast #446youtube.com 3rd of 25 in this recording

    Interesting

  3. Our readingThe oldest people in the Americas are in South America, because the first wave went furthest and got isolated there.

    Their wordsOne of the fascinating things that DNA is showing us, which actually blood types were showing us way before that, is that the oldest people in the Americas are in South America, the ones that got separated early and didn’t mix their DNA, like the people in the Amazon.

    ↗Ed Barnhart: Maya, Aztec, Inca, and Lost Civilizations of South America | Lex Fridman Podcast #446youtube.com 4th of 25 in this recording

    Interesting

  5. Our readingReligion in South America began in the Amazon, not on the coast.

    Their wordsI think religion in South America began in the Amazon. I think there were people there, very old. Actually, the earliest pottery in all of the Americas, all these places that we have civilizations that grew up, you know where the oldest pottery is? The middle of the Amazon.

    ↗Ed Barnhart: Maya, Aztec, Inca, and Lost Civilizations of South America | Lex Fridman Podcast #446youtube.com 7th of 25 in this recording

    religion

    Interesting

  7. Our readingHallucinogens shaped religion in the Americas in a way they could not elsewhere, because almost every psychotropic plant is American.

    Their wordsIn fact, strangely, the majority of plants that are actually psychotropic, not just mood altering, are from here in the Americas. There are very few drugs that will make you hallucinate outside of the Americas.

    ↗Ed Barnhart: Maya, Aztec, Inca, and Lost Civilizations of South America | Lex Fridman Podcast #446youtube.com 9th of 25 in this recording

    religion

    Interesting

  9. Our readingThe Maya built their sacred calendar out of the human gestation period: they looked into their bodies rather than up at the sky.

    Their wordsI mean, if that’s right, that means the Maya and the people of Mesoamerica will all share it together, when they thought about, “We need a count of time for us,” they didn’t look up into the heavens, they looked into their bodies. “What’s the first cycle that we actually go through as humans?” and they picked this nine-month thing. It really is our cycle, and no other culture on the planet looked inside themselves to create their calendar like that.

    ↗Ed Barnhart: Maya, Aztec, Inca, and Lost Civilizations of South America | Lex Fridman Podcast #446youtube.com 16th of 25 in this recording

    Interesting

  11. Our readingCalling North America's earthworks mounds is a western bias; what those people built were pyramids.

    Their wordsbut what they built were pyramids. They look like mounds now, and they didn’t build them out of stone. That’s kind of our just inherent western bias. Something that’s built out of stone is sophisticated, and something that’s built out of dirt is rudimentary.

    ↗Ed Barnhart: Maya, Aztec, Inca, and Lost Civilizations of South America | Lex Fridman Podcast #446youtube.com 23rd of 25 in this recording

    Interesting

  13. Our readingSpain and Portugal are unfairly maligned by the Black Legend: it was the diseases that killed the Americas.

    Their wordsI think that the Spanish and the Portuguese get unfairly maligned in what’s been called the Black Legend, that they just marched into America and murdered everyone. That’s not the fact. It was the diseases that murdered everyone.

    ↗Ed Barnhart: Maya, Aztec, Inca, and Lost Civilizations of South America | Lex Fridman Podcast #446youtube.com 24th of 25 in this recording

    Interesting