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7/24/2025, 2:26:14 PM
>>716296639
>>716295902
>>716295661
>>716295567
>>716294585
>>716294489
>>716291482
>>716291853
>>716296530
>>716292589
Okay I'm gonna half-ass this because I need to do other things... but by "half-ass" I mean do an unfiltered dump where I mention everything that comes to mind without either trying to trim it down/being concise, so this doesn't mean it'll be short (though neither w without trying to trim it down and trying to think of everything, not necessarily being short.
The Mesoamericans definitely and inarguably had intellectual achievements and works, though how "complex" these were is obviously gonna be subjective and is subject to both some debate, as is if it counts as "literature" or "philosophy" in a strict sense is also kinda debatable depending on how you define those terms.
They absolutely had books: They made both screenfold (a single long page folded over itself like an accordion) and lienzo (single big sheets) documents made from paper or deerskin, and Spanish sources clearly identify these as books or manuscripts in the same manner as their own. As far as their writing, I defer to https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/403pkw/why_did_mayan_writing_not_become_broadly_adopted/cys0f39/ but in short: The Maya script was unambiguously a true written language in the strictest sense of the term, but other Mesoamerican script like Epi-Olmec or Zapotec range from being arguably or nearly-but-not-quite so, and lack specific features, while on the other end of the spectrum, Aztec and Mixtec writing is mostly pictographic, though they, especially Aztec, still has a decent amount of phonetic puns and other elements, and in fact CAN be used to write out complete sentences as a true written language, in practice it was just never used to that extent.
19/?
>>716295902
>>716295661
>>716295567
>>716294585
>>716294489
>>716291482
>>716291853
>>716296530
>>716292589
Okay I'm gonna half-ass this because I need to do other things... but by "half-ass" I mean do an unfiltered dump where I mention everything that comes to mind without either trying to trim it down/being concise, so this doesn't mean it'll be short (though neither w without trying to trim it down and trying to think of everything, not necessarily being short.
The Mesoamericans definitely and inarguably had intellectual achievements and works, though how "complex" these were is obviously gonna be subjective and is subject to both some debate, as is if it counts as "literature" or "philosophy" in a strict sense is also kinda debatable depending on how you define those terms.
They absolutely had books: They made both screenfold (a single long page folded over itself like an accordion) and lienzo (single big sheets) documents made from paper or deerskin, and Spanish sources clearly identify these as books or manuscripts in the same manner as their own. As far as their writing, I defer to https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/403pkw/why_did_mayan_writing_not_become_broadly_adopted/cys0f39/ but in short: The Maya script was unambiguously a true written language in the strictest sense of the term, but other Mesoamerican script like Epi-Olmec or Zapotec range from being arguably or nearly-but-not-quite so, and lack specific features, while on the other end of the spectrum, Aztec and Mixtec writing is mostly pictographic, though they, especially Aztec, still has a decent amount of phonetic puns and other elements, and in fact CAN be used to write out complete sentences as a true written language, in practice it was just never used to that extent.
19/?
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