Until Saturday morning, we are going to hear more and more about the Mayan calendar, the end of the world and tips on how to survive an apocalypse. Chances are what we’ll hear will be a repetition of what we have been hearing since 2000, when it became clear that people we wrong about that apocalypse.

The theme of the apocalypse is not a new one, of course. People have been announcing the end of the world for centuries. When 1666 came around the corner, people in Europe panicked, thinking this would be the year of the devil, the end of the world. The same was announced about 2000, both by people quoting the Bible and others who thought computers would stop working entirely and chaos would follow. Now it’s the Mayans’ turn to provide inspiration for the apocalypse discourse.

I won’t spend time exploring the possibility of this apocalypse actually happening. Others have debunked this idea by putting the Mayan calendar into context. I would rather introduce you to some academic papers or books written by such people, many of which are anthropologists. I will do so on Wednesday. You can already have a look at NASA’s video about why the world didn’t end next Friday. It was released ahead of time, but the agency published various videos and articles on the topic in the past.

Other interesting aspects of this apocalypse frenzy interest me. These include the public discourse about the Mayans, the end of the world, survival and enlightenment for humanity. Secondly, various artistic creations explore the theme of the apocalypse. Photographers, for one, have documented the impacts of natural disasters, war, nuclear incidents and economic crisis on cities and industrial plants all over the world. Looking at these images, we are brought to consider what a post-apocalyptic world might look like.

Finally, it’s interesting to learn more about the type of apocalypse people think is upon us. Planet collision? Zombies? Massive natural disasters? Comet?

Stay tuned for posts about the apocalypse everyday this week! Feel free to share blog posts, articles, images, videos and other material on the topic that you find interesting.

Have a great week (according to some, it will be your last).

– The Geek Anthropologist