| John Hoopes |
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| John W. Hoopes |
John W. Hoopes is an anthropologist at Kansas University, and is one of the main authors behind the Wikipedia entry on "Mayanism" and has also contributed to the entry on the "2012 phenomenon."
His principal training is in archaeology and his interests include Pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica, the Isthmo-Colombian Area, the Pan-Caribbean Area, northern South America, and the Central Andes.
He has been focusing on native cultures of Costa Rica for most of his career. He is developing an archaeological field project at Nuevo Corinto, an ancient village in the Caribbean lowlands of Costa Rica, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Costa Rica.
His current research interests include interpretations of Pre-Columbian art and iconography, "shamanism," and popular perceptions of archaeology as manifest in pseudoarchaeology, pseudoscience, and mythology in contemporary culture.
On 2012
Hoopes has been very critical of people who misuse archaeological data to support the 2012 doomsday hoax. “Fear sells,” says Hoopes, “Unfortunately, a lot of gullible, uninformed people will be deluded by (these) misrepresentations.” Hoopes is very clear on the issue of the Maya: “Nowhere in the databases of science does it say that the 2012 date is the end of the Maya calendar,” he says1.
Promoters of the 2012 mythology tend to ignore current academic scholarship and the opinions of professional Mayanists (archaeologists, epigraphers, art historians, linguists, etc.) about what ancient Maya people actually believed. Their interpretations are based on outdated and antiquated ideas of the late 19th and early 20th century, ideas that are useful for the construction of mythology and ideology but do not reflect contemporary academic knowledge.2
Psychology Today
Hoopes has an article published on the Psychology Today blog titled What You Should Know About 2012: Answers to 13 Questions
A List of Articles quoting John Hoopes
- The Final Days, by Benjamin Anastas (New York Times Magazine, July 1, 2007)
- Five Years: 2012 and The End of the World As We Know It, by Tom King (Lawrence.com, December 10, 2007)
- Podcast #004: The 2012 Meme - An Interview with Prof. John W. Hoopes, with Jan Irvin (GnosticMedia, November 10, 2008)
- Mayan Calendar Spurs End-of-the-World Debate, with Barbara Bradley Hagerty (NPR, July 29, 2009)
- 2012 & McGonigle canyon, with Rick Roberts (760 KFMB Talk Radio, October 13, 2009)
- Is the end nigh? Maya prophecy gains a following, by Joanne Kimberlin (Virginian-Pilot, October 18, 2009)
- End Times Entrepreneurialism: Hollywood taps into the ‘2012’ prediction for big box-office profits, by Tom King (Lawrence Journal-World, November 17, 2009)
- My, Oh Mayan. 2012 May Indeed Be the End of the The World As We Know It, by Corey Pein (Santa Fe Reporter, November 18, 2009)
- Apocalypse 2012, by Banks Productions (first airs on December 2, 2010)
- The Annotated Apocalypse: Anthropologists Tackle 2012, by Maggie Koerth-Baker (Boing Boing, August 13, 2011)
- KU Maya scholar uses 11/11/11 predictions to teach critical thinking (KU News, Nov. 3, 2011)
- 11/11/11: Are you one with this week's fateful date?, by Michael Mathes (AFP, Nov. 6, 2011)
- 11/11/11: How Friday Is Tied to the Mayan Apocalypse, by Stephanie Pappas (LiveScience, Nov. 10, 2011)
- Today is 11-11-11, and the world did not end, by John Garfield (University Daily Kansan, Nov. 10, 2011)
- The world not likely to end this Friday, by Breanna McCarthy (University Daily Kansan, Nov. 10, 2011)
- 2012 doomsayers step into high gear, by Helen Gray (Kansas City Star, Dec. 9, 2011)
- This dear, dear apocalypse: How mythology appeared in 2012 and who won it, by Zornitsa Soilova (Capital, Dec. 23, 2011) (In Bulgarian)
- Looking ahead in 2012: The world ends - Mayan style, by Jason Nark (Philadelphia Daily News, Dec. 30, 2011)
- The last thing I will post about apocalypse in 2012, by Maggie Koerth-Baker (Boing Boing, Jan. 2, 2012)
- Will December 21, 2012 Really be the End of the World as We Know It?, by Bill Lucey (The Morning Delivery, Jan. 4, 2012)
- 2012: The Myth of the Mayan Calendar, with Sylvia María Gross (KCUR, January 7, 2012)
Audio interviews with John Hoopes
Lawrence.com Interview (2007)
"Let’s Talk about It" with the Rev. Dr. Thomas Shepherd, October 02, 2009
The World is Ending Again: This Time in 2012, with Thomas Shepherd (Unity FM, October 2, 2009)
Tribe.net
Hoopes is also a regular contributor to the Year 2012 discussion list on Tribe.net
- http://2012.tribe.net/
- http://people.tribe.net/hoopes
- http://people.tribe.net/hoopes/blog/1d95e99a-6805-45b2-b746-fca06c27d20e
