2012: Decoding the Countercultural Apocalypse

2012
Decoding the Countercultural Apocalypse
Edited by: Joseph Gelfer

Description
December 21 2012 is believed to mark the end of the thirteenth B'ak'tun cycle in the Long Count of the Mayan calendar. A growing number of people believe this date to mark the end of the world or, at the very least, the end of the world as we know it: a shift to a new form of global consciousness. 2012: Decoding the Countercultural Apocalypse brings together for the first time a range of scholarly analyses on the 2012 phenomena grounded in various disciplines including religious studies, anthropology, Mayan studies, cultural studies and the social sciences.

2012: Decoding the Countercultural Apocalypse will show readers how much of the 2012 phenomenon is based on the historical record, and how much is contemporary fiction. It will reveal to readers the landscape of the modern apocalyptic imagination, the economics of the spiritual marketplace, the commodification of countercultural values, and the cult of celebrity. This collection brings much-needed academic rigour and documentation to a subject of rapidly increasing interest to diverse religious and other communities in these crucial closing years before we experience what will be either a profound leap in the human story or, less dramatically, just another mark in time.


Contents
Preface
Michael D. Coe, Yale University
1. Introduction
Joseph Gelfer
2. The 2012 Phenomenon: New Uses for an Ancient Mayan Calendar
Robert K. Sitler, Stetson University
3. Maya Prophesies, 2012 and the Problematic Nature of Truth
Mark Van Stone, Southwestern College
4. Mayanism Comes of (New) Age
John W. Hoopes, Kansas University
5. The 2012 Milieu: Hybridity, Diversity and Stigmatised Knowledge
Peter Lentini, Monash University
6. Chichén Itzá and Chicken Little: How Pseudosciences Embraced 2012
Kristine Larsen, Central Connecticut State University
7. Roland Emmerich’s 2012: A Simple Truth
Andrea Austin, Wilfrid Laurier University
8. The 2012 Movement, Visionary Arts and Psytrance Culture
Graham St John, University of Regina
9. In a Prophetic Voice: Australasia 2012
Joseph Gelfer
10. Approaching 2012: Modern Misconceptions vs. Reconstructing Ancient Maya Perspectives
John Major Jenkins, independent scholar