G. G. Yershova Scientific Knowledge and Technology in Ancient Mesoamerica: The Problem of Study

Abstract: This article maintains that a model of presentation of rational knowledge from the moment of its appearance in man inevitably took on a religious character. However, this mere fact attests to active scientific search for resolving this fundamentally important (perhaps most important) intellectual problem. How does scientific knowledge that permits transformation of surrounding reality emerge? At present only the search directions for this over-complicated structure are identified. On the whole the brain perceives itself for the purpose of awareness and transformation through technologies of surrounding reality. And as a result it undergoes changes, perfecting itself in a certain way. This most complex enclosed intellectual and social process, whose disclosure is repelled from psycho-physiological factors, since ancient times has been reflected in the construction of a model of the world. The elements of the model of the ancient Mayan world differ by significant elaboration of scientific knowledge (especially mathematics and astronomy, which belongs to constant, general cosmic, influence on the anthroposystem). Therefore they coincide with similar knowledge of the Old World. This knowledge has both an applied, a necessary for survival, character (cyclical reproduction, social organization, agricultural and hunting calendar), and an abstract character, pointing to the current state of developing society. Complex structures of social construction and abstract knowledge are superimposed on a complex of perceptive-empirical ideas reflecting the development of man’s thinking and his intellectual abilities (though externally this statement also looks like a set of “myths,” “mythological images,” and illogicality of the space-time continuum).

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