Alexus McLeod, “Philosophy of the Ancient Maya: Lords of Time” (Lexington Books, 2018)
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What is the book “Philosophy of the Ancient Maya: Lords of Time” about?
Hi everyone, this is Marshall Poe. I'm the founder of the New Books Network, and I'm also a historian. I used to be a history professor, and I love maps. So I'm especially happy to tell you that this episode is sponsored by What's Your Map, which was the winner of the best education podcast at the 2025 British Podcast Awards. What's Your Map is hosted by historian and prize-winning author, Professor Jerry Broughton. In each episode, he invites a guest to share. A map close to their heart and unfurl the ideas, inspirations, and stories behind it. I can tell you I've listened and it's fascinating. The podcast is in its sixth series and is enjoyed by audiences around the globe. You can explore all the maps in the podcast at occulehyphenmundi.com while you listen.
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Hello and welcome to New Books and Philosophy, a podcast channel with the New Books Network. I'm Carrie Fagdore, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Iowa. I'm co-host of the channel along with Robert Talise, Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University. Together, we bring you conversations with philosophers about their new books in a wide range of areas of contemporary philosophical research. Today's interview is with Alexis McLeod, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Asian Studies at the University of Connecticut. His new book, philosophy of the ancient Maya, Lords of Time, is just out from Lexington books. The ancient Maya are popularly known for their calendar, but their concept of time and the metaphysics surrounding that conception are not.
In his new book, MacLeod reconstructs an ancient Mayan metaphysical system based on key texts and other artifacts, plus using analogies with ancient Chinese philosophical thought. On his view, the Maya held that we can understand everything in temporal terms, but that everything does not reduce to time, and that humans have a role in constructing manifest time and organizing the manifest world. McLeod also considers Mayan views of essences, truth, personal identity, and meaning. Let's turn to the interview. Hello, Alexis McLeod. Hi. Welcome to New Books in Philosophy. Hi,
thank you for having me.
Um it's uh it's a pleasure to um have you here to talk about your new book, Philosophy of the Ancient Maya, which is um I mean it's f for me at least, uh it's it's kind of a whole new uh area of philosophy that, you know, I really don't know a whole lot about and I don't think a lot of people do, because as one colleague of mine said, Did the Maya have a philosophy? Um so uh you know what you do here is kind of put something on the table, do what I think of as a reconstruction, because the stores the sources aren't, you know, as you know, they're not abundant and it's all you know fairly um you know ancient um you know writings and uh you know stone tablets and things like that. Um Before we get into, you know, how you reconstruct the philosophy or the possible m philosophy of the of the Maya, um, could you say a bit about yourself?
Um, you know, how did you get to philosophy, um, to the, you know, to being a historian basically of philosophy, and then to writing this particular book?
So um I can came to philosophy in a s in a somewhat strange way. I actually came through uh Chinese. Um so I studied uh Chinese language um when I was an undergraduate. Um and I was taking I took a medieval philosophy course and was kind of interested in in philosophy as well, but discovered uh Chinese philosophy um in Confucianism and Taoism and the early Chinese texts through uh some classes that were that were connected to my uh uh study in Chinese.
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