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Mark Wright Fireside


David Bokovoy

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Just had the opportunity to attend a fireside given by Mesoamerican scholar Mark Wright on the BofM. The man is a genius and I love his approach. He didn't set out to prove the BofM true, but simply illustrated point after point regarding how the BofM comes alive in exciting ways when read through the lens of Mesoamerican culture.

I would strongly recommend taking the chance to hear Mark present if you ever have the opportunity. It was fantastic!

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Just had the opportunity to attend a fireside given by Mesoamerican scholar Mark Wright on the BofM. The man is a genius and I love his approach. He didn't set out to prove the BofM true, but simply illustrated point after point regarding how the BofM comes alive in exciting ways when read through the lens of Mesoamerican culture.

I would strongly recommend taking the chance to hear Mark present if you ever have the opportunity. It was fantastic!

I have. He's good and very fun to listen to.

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Afterwards, Mark even taught me how to cast arrows at BYU students using a Mayan atlatl. Those things can do some serious damage!

Awesome! Mesoamerican weapons may look primitive but they really were very effective implements of death. A good introduction for laymen is the Osprey books on the topic.

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Whoa! I didn't know anything about this, I would have loved to have seen it. What did he go over?

Casting arrows via the atlatl was the highlight! But he talked about batun as a counting system for 400 via cycles of 20. He showed Mayan representations of sacrifices and linked them with Alma 34:10. He talked about writing systems and the production of codices in connection with Helaman 3:15. Omini 1:20 in the context of Mayan stelae; putting on the image of the gods, and divine kingship (his dissertation topic); raised roads, and then a whole bunch of boring war issues that would probably only interest a guy like Bill Hamblin.

It was awesome.

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Awesome! Mesoamerican weapons may look primitive but they really were very effective implements of death. A good introduction for laymen is the Osprey books on the topic.

They can do a lot more damage than a rifle at short ranges. I have done some flint-knapping- it's fun, a good survival skill, and very instructive.

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Awesome! Mesoamerican weapons may look primitive but they really were very effective implements of death. A good introduction for laymen is the Osprey books on the topic.

Funny thing was that no one seemed too perturbed that we were casting Mayan arrows at BYU students passing by as much as they were visibly bugged that we were doing it on a Sunday.

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Funny thing was that no one seemed too perturbed that we were casting Mayan arrows at BYU students passing by as much as they were visibly bugged that we were doing it on a Sunday.

The paradox of Mormon culture =)

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You were shooting arrows at people? That makes me nervous, man.

For the record, no arrows were shot, cast, thrown, hurled, etc. at or near any human person. Mark demonstrated the technique on the grass. His wife then gave it a shot, and I tried rather unsuccessfully to cast the arrow into the lawn.

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Afterwards, Mark even taught me how to cast arrows at BYU students using a Mayan atlatl. Those things can do some serious damage!

IIRC, the atlatl was homemade. My husband attended the presentation I went to as well and he was thinking about getting the directions to make his own, but promptly forgot about it. I will have to remind him.
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IIRC, the atlatl was homemade. My husband attended the presentation I went to as well and he was thinking about getting the directions to make his own, but promptly forgot about it. I will have to remind him.

All you have to do is google it.

There are a lot of survival types into this sort of thing now- this one picked at random: http://www.atlatl.com/

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Casting arrows via the atlatl was the highlight! But he talked about batun as a counting system for 400 via cycles of 20. He showed Mayan representations of sacrifices and linked them with Alma 34:10. He talked about writing systems and the production of codices in connection with Helaman 3:15. Omini 1:20 in the context of Mayan stelae; putting on the image of the gods, and divine kingship (his dissertation topic); raised roads, and then a whole bunch of boring war issues that would probably only interest a guy like Bill Hamblin.

It was awesome.

Or me lol. Feel free to check out my blog "Warfare in the Book of Mormon" sometime. :)

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He didn't set out to prove the BofM true, but simply illustrated point after point regarding how the BofM comes alive in exciting ways when read through the lens of Mesoamerican culture.

I find this sort of approach more deeply satisfying than apologetics, honestly.

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Casting arrows via the atlatl was the highlight! But he talked about batun as a counting system for 400 via cycles of 20. He showed Mayan representations of sacrifices and linked them with Alma 34:10. He talked about writing systems and the production of codices in connection with Helaman 3:15. Omini 1:20 in the context of Mayan stelae; putting on the image of the gods, and divine kingship (his dissertation topic); raised roads, and then a whole bunch of boring war issues that would probably only interest a guy like Bill Hamblin.

It was awesome.

I have cast many a dart from the obsidian atlatl of Huitzilopoctli piercing the dark hearts of the foe, sacrificing their lifeblood to the Fifth Sun! :vader:

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