Why is there a fish in my cocoa?
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| 5 € / reduced 2,50 € |
| Please book your ticket in advance online or at the box office in the foyer. |
| Duration: 90 min |
| 16 years and older |
| German |
| Ground Floor, Hall 3 |
| Part of: WeSearch |
The Maya are known as a lost civilization. Their abandoned cities in the rainforest of Central America with their overgrown temple architecture bear witness to a bygone civilization. But the Mayan culture lives on! 30 Mayan languages are still spoken today by around 7 million people in Central America (Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador).
On the Mexican peninsula of Yucatán, around 800,000 speakers speak Yucatecan Maya. Today, this language is written using Latin letters. What is the significance of the pre-colonial Mayan hieroglyphic script and how is it being used again today? What is the situation of today’s Maya speakers and what does archaeology have to do with language? These questions and questions from the audience will be discussed by the ancient Americanist Ute Schüren and the ethnologist Harry Thomaß.
contributors
Sabrina N’Diaye (Host) studied ethnology and political science. She learnt the craft of journalism at ZDF, after which she worked for SWR and ARTE. She has been with RBB since 2016, where she presents the rbb24 Spätnachrichten and realizes longer documentaries as an author.
Harry Thomaß is an ethnologist and lecturer in Mesoamerican languages, including Yucatecan Maya, at the Free University of Berlin.
Ute Schüren is a scholar of Altamerikanistik (Anthropology of the Americas) and an ethnologist. As a curator, she is in charge of the Mesoamerican collection at the Ethnological Museum. Her research focuses on Mayan culture, but also on the history of Indigenous societies in rural Central America from the colonial era to the present day.