Mayan eschatology

A little farther south in what is now Mexico, the deities of the Maya pantheon were having trouble deciding on the correct construction materials for their humans, and periodically destroyed their failed attempts, like shaking a universe-sized Etch-a-Sketch.  The third try produced the Maya people, who, according to one version of the myth, will eventually be wiped out by a flood (Hathaway 32-35).

The Maya have recently taken the main stage in modern popular apocalypticism, as their Long Count calendar ends on December 21, 2012.  For many enthusiasts, December 12 will be the End of Days, or at least an overthrow of the current world order.  Their enthusiasm is not at all dampened by the clearly-exasperated Maya scholars who have called the current fervor the result of a misinterpretation and a total fabrication (MacDonald 11D; Brouwer sect. 2).