When I was a kid attending elementary, middle, and part of high school, I was taught that Christopher Columbus was the founder of America; it is even a Federal Holiday in the United States. But how could he be the founder of America if there were people already on the land? There were Native Americans all throughout the Americas. Since that was so, I wanted to know the Americas’ first civilization and their beliefs about their gods and goddesses.
Starting here
Many controversies surround the history of the people of ancient Mesoamerica, from the art that’s presented, to the recorded mythology. There is so much mystery when it comes to discussing who could’ve been the first civilized people of Mesoamerica, the first civilization of the Americas.
One of the well-known mythologies of ancient Mesoamerica is what’s recorded in the Popul Vuh (Bible version). It describes the mythology and history of the Quiche people, who once inhabited Guatemala, Mexican Chiapas, Campeche Yucatan, and Quintana Roo states, areas of Belize, and Honduras. The meaning of the word Popul Vuh translates to “Book of the Community,” “Book of Counsel,” or the “Book of the People.”
The Quiche/K’iche people were a group of indigenous people of the Americas and the Maya peoples.
There were many civilizations throughout ancient Mesoamerica, societies like the Maya civilization, Zapotecs civilization, Toltec civilization, the Olmecs civilization, and the Aztec civilization.
The Journey
Depending on what scholar you follow or the education you have received, you could have learned that the Maya people were the founders of the first civilization of ancient Mesoamerica, or it could have been the Olmecs. This has been an ongoing debate since discovering each of their archeological sites. Still, one thing for sure is that there are many similarities between the Maya people and the Olmecs, and one of those similarities is that they came from somewhere else, but where is that somewhere?
Unfortunately, and this is from what I understand is that there are no written records from the Olmecs about their beliefs and where they came from. Therefore, to determine what “could be” the mythology of the Olmecs, their art was used to compare the views of the Olmecs to other Mesoamerican civilizations, including the Toltec and even the Aztec people.
And that alone makes me wonder, what is the history behind the first civilization and where did they come from. From my knowledge, everything I have read says that the Mesoamericans came from across the waters. But, until I am informed otherwise, this is only what I can go off of.
Using Science
I’ve learned a lot about haplogroups. A haplogroup is where a group of people shares a common ancestor. Therefore, it can be used to determine where a group of people may have originated from.
Using science can help determine how myths were shared and spread from one location to another.
There are many haplogroups of the Native Americans; from just googling what the haplogroups of the Native Americans are, I learned that Native American mitochondrial DNA consists of five bases of haplogroups, A, B, C, D, and X.
I challenge each reader to research the Haplogroups that I have mentioned so far. If you are a person who believes in finding the truth about the history of the ancients, then exploring the haplogroups will be precisely what you should be looking into.
What I learned about the Maya people and their haplogroup is that there is evidence that shows that it is a mixture of haplogroups from the Africans and Europeans. Just take a look at how close Africa is to Europe; a boat ride from Africa to Europe could be easily accomplished.
Researching all the haplogroups mentioned earlier, including R1a, R1b, Q, and P, gave me a better idea of where these people may have originated from. And trust me, tracing these haplogroups can get very confusing and cause many headaches. Still, with the help of the myths and their art and depictions of their lifestyle, it becomes apparent that the Mesoamericans shared a common history with the Africans and Europeans that are from the other side of the world—including the Olmec people.
The Melanin People
How does this correlate with what was previously stated in this article?
The art depictions that the ancient people of Mesoamerica created, gave me an idea of what they looked like. No matter who came first, the Maya people or the Olmecs, the melanin that showed through their skin, which can be seen through their art, made me wonder where these people came from. And within their own records indicating that they came from across the water, then where was their place of origin before settling in ancient Mesoamerica?
Why did I say “melanin” instead of “black?” Well, because, for one, there are many shades of the color “black” when it comes to humans. Not all “black people” are African. There’s a lot of prejudice in this world, and for some reason, the word “black” is looked down upon. However, I would like to challenge each reader to look at all the Indigenous people from around the world and see for yourself why I chose “melanin” over “black.” After you do that, research their haplogroups along with the period of their migration.
Let me see if this will help with the challenge; if you are from Canada, you’re Canadian; if you’re from Germany, you are German; if you are from Russia, you’re Russian. If you’re from any of these places but travel to another location, guess what? You are still either Canadian, German, or Russian. But where is ‘black’ from? I mean, Africa is the most genetically diverse continent. Am I wrong?
But what seems to be the deciding factor of who these people were, goes back to the amount of melanin that is shown through the skin, being “black” people.
Because there were civilizations developed by people who had much more melanin in their skin that can be easily seen with one’s eyes, where are on Earth did they come from, and who were their gods and goddesses?
A perfect example of this is with the Sumerians; I’ve read on many different occasions that the Sumerians were identified as either the black-headed people or the black-headed ones. Yet, no matter how one looks at this, these people are very well known for their writing system and the founders of the first civilization on Earth. And because it is also known that the Sumerians traveled from somewhere else, these oral traditions were shared worldwide, until someone decided to keep records of it all.
Learning the haplogroup of the Sumerians helped me also understand what is meant by the usage of the meaning of the black-headed people, and or, the black-headed ones.
Serpent god
Researching the many different cultures of the people of Mesoamerica, I learned that the Aztec people included many other ethnic groups. And one of their gods that stood out to me was the god Quetzalcóatl.
What I have learned about Quetzalcóatl is that he was one of the major deities of ancient Mesoamerica, including the Toltecs. But what is very interesting to learn about Quetzalcóatl is that he is also known as Kukulcán, a god worshipped by the Maya people, also known as a Feathered Serpent.
This is where it gets a little more interesting, at least to me. Many scholars have been able to identify and share the similarities between Quetzalcóatl and Thoth, an Egyptian god. And on the other hand, other scholars will deny their similarities. I’ve also learned that there is evidence that one of the Sumerian gods, an Anunnaki god Ningishzidda, shared a lot of similarities with both Thoth, Quetzalcóatl, and Kukulcán.
From what I have learned is that there is a “possibility” that Ningishzidda, Thoth, Quetzalcóatl, and Kukulcán could all be the same, but going back to the Sumerians and their god Ningishzidda, the Sumerians were the first to have a writing system that shared great details about their gods and goddesses. And because of that, if they are the same god, where did the Sumerians get their traditional stories from? The Sumerians also say that they came from another location. Their traditional stories were once only shared verbally, meaning it wasn’t until the Sumerians decided to keep records using the cuneiform tablets.
Who are these people, and who are their gods and goddesses? Am I on the right path?
My search for the puzzle piece continues until next time. Knowledge is Power
I think your instincts are good, and I’m just as curious about ancient spirituality as you are. I suspect there is a great reservoir in our shared heritage.
However, I’m not sure about the afro-european origin of Meso-American culture or genetics. I’ve been lead to belive that theblinguistic and genetic evidence points to a crossing of the bering-alaskan ice bridge appx 14k BCE.
To me, it meets with common sense that the straight black hair and tan skin of, say, the Japanese, is the same as that of Amerindians. However, I’ve not looked into this in detail and iI’ve learned to treat my ‘common sense’ a with caution.
Curious to hear your thoughts.
I disagree with your statement “all black people are not African.” Humanity began in Africa.
Is it also possible that those of the maya, and other amerindians first came here, when there was one huge continent, and when said continent broke apart they were stranded on the americas? I learned a lot of my ancient history in school. I learned about pyramids all over this world. Strange how so many civilizations have them.
A great deal of the Articles frame was All left to imagination.. a really good book and resource.. is ” Quest for the Gold Plates”. by Stan Larson Ph. D Salt Lake City… Well Researched and presented…
You seem to have a good understanding about the origins of some people and some ancient mythology/ religions, but, as I commented before. You also seem to purposely throw in some wrong information to shift the focus to some of your own conclusions, departing from what science has found out and shared through the many books written on the subject matter. For instance, here you are setting the mesoamericans back to Africa and Europe, based on their gods possible similarities. But DNA and physical appearance and a timeline of inhabiting this continent tells us a different story.
We came from Mongolia, cross the bering straight some 20,000 years ago during the last ice age.
And I have some co-workers from south eastern Mexico and some from Mongolia, they could be brothers, they almost look like twins. I took my 23 and me. And though im am only partial Native American, my Native American DNA puts me back to Mongolia. KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
It is very important to understand that mesoamerica civilization was one civilization, Mayas Teotihuacans, toltecs aztecs etc. all this cultures absorve from the olmecs, religion, math, science and the calendar. Lets call this civilization bird- jaguar- serpent cultures. There is very few investigation between the connection of ancient South America and mesoamerica, overthere you find the oldest civilizations of bird-jaguar -serpent-cultures, both cultures share many aspects. The site in Caral Peru is 5000 years old, it is contemporary to Sumeria. It is not about halogropus, people in the continent have been for 30,000 years old, it is about when did the bird-jaguar-serpent culture began, they where the builders of pyramids, the begginers of the cult of quetzalcoatl, Maya calendar starts on the 13.0.0.0.0 which is 3,000 BC.
Great thanks
You’re welcome
What’s this …..about Annunali and whatever? What about Ancient Greeks? They gave everything to humanity and nobody talks about them. Why?
The spoken language now of the world is based to Ancient Greek, come on.
Civilization emerged from Noah’s three sons after the flood. The table of nations spread out after the tower of Babel around 2100 B.C. The first civilizations, Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, India, developed way before Greek civilization which started in 800 B.C.
The Greek and Roman admitted in writing that they were taught by the so-called African. Bring facts and not emotional tirades if you can help knowledge to spread with tangible proof. If you are able to grasp reality from your reach.
I am interested in your information and I believe that the whole of the Earth was populated with Melanin people, especially since the Caucasian have said they don’t know their origin either and have said that they can only count back 5-6 thousand years of their existence.
On the study that was done approximately ten years ago, all nationalities derived from Melanin people.
Please keep up the good works, we need the information and knowledge.
I’ve always thot from Jim Morrison the west is best, west is best, and I like the idea of Japanese or really anywhere up or down the asia coast, Phillipines samoa Tonga Tahiti Fiji Guam New Zealand Hawaii the Olmec head staues have always looked like south pacific warriors like Guam-anese. to me just a gut instinct but my gut has always been pretty accurate and my most successful efforts. The Mexicans have always reminded me of Hawaiians, BC they have big brown families, they like to party with fiestas and luaus and carnitas and Kalua pig and the Hawaiians had the hokuleia which they sailed around the world BC they ate poi packed protein that looked a lot like refried beans aka frijoles, big difference was the poi was protein packed fermented nutritious food that never went bad, sustenance that enabled them to sail to Central America in their sleep BC it’s with the wind no problem piece of cake.
I enjoyed the article and all the input in the comments.
As a “native American” whose family lost most of its cultural identity, I have looked into this very question. I always heard mention of the grandmother spider who lead people to the continent through tunnels in the ground. A sentiment that could be related to the ancient spider god in ancient South American culture.