It is unfair and unrealistic for colonialists to deliberately belittle or cover up the level and value of Indian civilization for ruling purposes, narrow cultural concepts or racial prejudice, leaving people with a simple impression of "backwardness" and "barbarism" for a long time.
First of all, the study of Indian thought is quoted from the source.
Archaeological excavations and written materials prove that several major Indian civilizations in Latin America have reached a certain scale in social, political, religious and trade organizations, established primitive towns, possessed fairly accurate calendars, astronomy, mathematics and rich knowledge of agriculture and medicine, created a large number of oral literature and historical narratives, and left some written records, enabling them to make large-scale artistic creations in the fields of architecture, sculpture and painting. The ideas in Indian culture are based on these forms of civilization, showing rich and colorful levels, among which the main carriers are oral literature, images and characters before westerners arrived in America. It should be pointed out that because religious concepts dominate the whole spiritual world of Indians, their characters are in the primary stage, and dance, games, etiquette and other forms are also ideological carriers that should be paid attention to to to some extent.
After the Spanish arrived in America, many Catholic religious figures with high cultural accomplishment recorded or copied a large number of Indian oral literature, as well as ancient writing and painting records in Mexico, Guatemala, Bolivia and Peru, either for missionary purposes or for early humanitarian consciousness. Indians themselves also record history and some oral literature in the western letters of society, such as Chronicle of the Mexican Nation, which was described by an anonymous Mexican in Nahua on 1528 and recorded in Latin letters (Note: "UNOS Anales Historicals de la Nacion Mexico", see Miguel Leon-Portilla (introduction, Seleccion y Notas), Vision de los Vencidos: Relaciones Indigenas de la Conquista, UNAM, Mexico, 1989, version de Textos Nahuas)), now in the National Library of Paris. However, it was not until19th century that researchers discovered a large number of poems and legends circulating among Indians all over America that such materials really attracted the attention of researchers and the outside world.
Among the above transcribed texts, the most important ones are:
CODICE MATRITENSE Y FLORENTINO, belonging to the Chinese receiving system of Aztecs, is called HUEHUEHTLAHTOLLI's collection of ancient Chinese and Mexican songs (Note: refer to Trece poetas del Mundo Azteca, Introduction de Miguel Leon- Portilla, UNAM, Mexico, 1967. ). Belonging to the Mayan world are Popol Vuh, Rabin Achi, Chronicle of Solola (MEMORIAL DE SOLOLA), Anales de los Cakchiquilles, The Book of Cherun Barron (CHILAM BALAM) and Solola. The texts of the Andes are mainly myths, legends, religious ceremonies and folk stories, which are recorded at different times and told in Quechua, such as DIOSES Y HOMBRES DE HUAROCHIRI. (Note: See UNAM, No.77, UNAM, Mexico, p. 133. )
With the arrival of westerners, Indian civilization suffered a devastating blow, and westerners began to spread Catholic thoughts on a large scale; However, Indian texts written in the early colonial era are also an important source for studying Indian thoughts, because they are close to the previous era.
Second, India's three major civilizations in the ideological content of the example
Mayan civilization
The development of Mayan civilization can be divided into the old imperial period (4th to 9th century AD) and the new imperial period (9th to14th century AD). At the beginning of its history, the Mayans were combined with the Quiche people from the mountainous areas of Guatemala. The main centers of religious sites of Mayan culture are Chen Chi-Izza, Tikal, palenque and Copan N. According to the current understanding, the geographical scope of Mayan civilization includes the Mexican states today, such as Yucatan, Campeche, Quintana Roo and Tabasco, as well as parts of Chiapas, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras. There are still 26 Indian languages in this vast area. There are nearly 30 known manuscripts about Mayan civilization, including myths and prophecies, religious ceremonies, history and legends, as well as medicine, astrology and calendars. Among them, the famous Book of Karen Barron comes from Yucatan Peninsula, which is a set of documents containing religious texts, chronicles, astrological texts and historical texts. The name comes from Karen Barron, an Indian religious mage who is familiar with the art of prophecy. This man is famous for predicting the arrival of aliens and different religions shortly before the arrival of the Spanish. At present, Karen Barron's bestsellers are copies of18th century and19th century. Another famous writing, popol vuh, was written by Quiche tribe in Santa Cruz, Guatemala, from 1550 to 1555. It mainly tells the Maya world outlook and the history of the Chiche people.
Maya-Quiche people believe that the world is the product of the creator and the creator's will. They have four gods: the will to create, the act of creating, the embryo of sacred language, and the space where the creator creates everything.
The Maya world is the world of the gods. Maya tried to observe the stars and carefully calculate the time, not only to plan their life and agricultural production, but also to predict the future and prevent disasters. For example, Indian religious wizards believe that Venus comes from the underground dead world, which will bring disaster to people; They measured the period of Venus to be 584 days, and tried to predict when the next round would start, so as to protect the tribe from harm. Mayan myths and legends often contain more cosmological contents, such texts mainly include: the history of Kaczynski and Populwu related to the origin of fire; CHILAM BALAM DE CHMAYEL, a Chinese book related to the origin of time; The history of Kaczynski is related to the origin of darkness and night; And conceit.
A number of Indian texts appeared in the early days after the arrival of the Spanish, which continued this mode of thinking and had two new purposes: trying to defend and recover the land and property of the deprived ethnic group from the economic rights and interests, and defending and saving the destroyed culture of the ethnic group from the spirit. Among them, the representative texts mainly for the latter purpose are: Popper Wu, The History of Kaczynski and The Book of Cheron Barron.
What kind of book is popol vuh and how was it discovered?
/kloc-At the end of 0/7, Francisco Mennes, a priest from Domingo, Spain, came to Guatemala. /kloc-At the beginning of 0/8, when he was a priest in a small village in Chichicatenango today, he gained the trust of the local people. Shortly after the Spanish conquest, they produced a manuscript written in quiche with the help of Spanish letters. Francisco Mennes, who is proficient in quiche, immediately translated it into Spanish. For the sake of accuracy, he copied the book and wrote the translation in parallel. Later, he revised the blunt literal translation and included the second translation in his masterpiece "The History of San Vicente de Chipa and Guatemala", which was written in 1722. In order to understand the ancient Mayan characters, the diligent priest also wrote a grammar book and studied three Mayan languages in detail. People don't know the author of the manuscript popol vuh, only that it was passed down from generation to generation by the Quiche people. According to the manuscript, its name is popol vuh. The above-mentioned Spanish priests have also heard of it, and many versions have been circulated in the hands of the Quiche people. But this is the only version that has come out so far. This precious document has been kept in a monastery in Santo Domingo ever since, and no one cares about it. From 1830, it was kept in the library of Guatemala University until 1854 was discovered by Austrian traveler Dr. Carl Scherzer and 1857 was published in Vienna. Later, it was published in French, German and modern Spanish at the end of 19 and in the 20th century. Today, the precious grammar books written by popol vuh and Mennes are kept in newbury Library. 1947, a Guatemalan scholar Adrian Recinos, who was born in the motherland of the Quiché people, published a detailed annotated translation "popol vuh: Ancient History of the Quiché People" in Mexico. Quiche's anti-melon history? Mexico FCE, 1960. ), this version has been translated into many languages and published many times around the world. Popol vuh's preface reads:
"This is the beginning of the ancient history of a place called Keeche. We will write it down and begin to tell the ancient history here, and tell the beginning and origin of all the tribes in the quiche.