{"product_id":"2940016268576","title":"The American Egypt","description":"PREFACE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn publishing the present volume, it is our privilege to produce the\u003cbr\u003efirst book ever written by Englishmen on Yucatan--that Egypt of the New\u003cbr\u003eWorld, where, it is now generally admitted, Central American\u003cbr\u003eCivilization reached its apogee--and to be, for the present at least,\u003cbr\u003ethe only Englishmen who can claim to have explored the uncivilized\u003cbr\u003enorth-eastern portions of the Peninsula and the islands of her eastern\u003cbr\u003ecoast. Mr. A. P. Maudslay, who in 1889 made a lengthy stay at and a\u003cbr\u003edetailed survey of Chichen, has done yeoman service to Central American\u003cbr\u003earcheology by his years of patient work (alas! too little appreciated)\u003cbr\u003ein Guatemala, in the Usumacinta district and Southern Mexico.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWork, and wonderful work, has been done in civilized Yucatan by bands of\u003cbr\u003eearnest laborers from the States, from Germany, and from France. Among\u003cbr\u003ethese the most notable is the late J. L. Stephens, the American\u003cbr\u003etraveler, who visited Yucatan in 1842, and who is justly regarded as\u003cbr\u003ethe Father of Mayan archeology. In his footsteps has followed, during\u003cbr\u003erecent years, Mr. Edward H. Thompson, one of the most painstaking and\u003cbr\u003eaccomplished of American archæologists. France has been represented by\u003cbr\u003eM. Desiré Charnay, and latterly by Count Perigny. Of the German\u003cbr\u003efield-workers the most assiduous have been Professor Seler, T. Maler,\u003cbr\u003eand K. Sapper; while all who wish to see the Mayan problem solved must\u003cbr\u003epay a meed of thanks to the eminent Professor Forstemann for his\u003cbr\u003eattempts to decipher the inscriptions, even if they feel, as do we, that\u003cbr\u003ehe has allowed his enthusiasm to lead him too far astray on a\u003cbr\u003ewill-o'-the-wisp path of inquiry and theory.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe problem reviewed in this volume is a profoundly interesting one. The\u003cbr\u003eethnology of the Americas presents a problem as yet unsolved. The\u003cbr\u003eaverage ethnologist has been content to label the vast affiliated hordes\u003cbr\u003eand tribes of the two Americas \"Mongolian.\" But the American\u003cbr\u003eethnological puzzle is deepened by the existence of what is known as the\u003cbr\u003eMayan civilization and its many ramifications throughout Central\u003cbr\u003eAmerica. Whence came these building races? What cradle-land is one to\u003cbr\u003eassign to architects whose achievements often rival in grandeur the\u003cbr\u003emonuments of Egypt? How is one to believe that they were ordinary\u003cbr\u003emembers, or members at all, of that great affiliated race of American\u003cbr\u003eIndians whose ideas of building were represented in the north by the\u003cbr\u003esnow-house of the Eskimo and the wigwam of the Sioux, and in the south\u003cbr\u003eby the leaf-shelters of the cannibal inhabitants of the forests of\u003cbr\u003eBrazil?","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47066795409648,"sku":"2940016268576","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940016268576_p0.jpg?v=1763631668","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940016268576","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}