As long as the human race has wondered this Earth they have debated whether it is nature or nurture that drives us towards the inevitable outcome of our fate. Whether our behaviors are hardwired into us, or whether certain aspects of our humanity take root through the nurturing our surroundings suggest.
In his book, 13 B’aktun: Mayan Visions of 2012 and Beyond, author Gaspar Pedro Gonzalez reveals a true Mayan perspective of the future and present state of humanity on Earth and what part nature and nurture play in the grand scheme. The excerpt below shows how Gonzalez makes readers consider whether the Mayans were right about the true reason for our existence, forcing us all to explore our own thoughts of nature and nurture and what part it plays in the human destiny.
“Perhaps due to principles of fairness, no one comes endowed with superiority of knowledge. They bring the same biologically necessary qualities so they can nourish their capabilities. In this way these qualities give the same opportunity to all, so that no one can pride themselves in saying they are better or feel discriminated against on this human plane. From the vantage point of Mayan civilization, the explanation is that the Makers and Creators invested great interest in the human being’s creation and in each one being unique and original, so then what is there to fear?
To the disappointment of the current generation, people of our time are substantially the same as those of the Pleistocene era.
But one finds a great difference between human and animal civilizations. Ants, isolated in their group, suddenly begin to make anthills without having learned such a skill, while human children isolated from their group will not be capable of accomplishing much of anything that those in the larger cultural group know how to do. This is proof that knowledge and abilities are not inherited. They are the harvest of each individual.”
