2012 phenomenon galaxy, or Earth's collision with a mythical planet called Nibiru. Scholars from various disciplines quickly dismissed predictions of concomitant cataclysmic events as they arose. Professional Mayanist scholars stated that no extant classic Maya accounts forecast impending doom, and that the idea that the Long Count calendar ends in 2012 misrepresented Maya history and culture, while astronomers rejected the various proposed doomsday scenarios as pseudoscience, easily refuted by elementary astronomical observations. December 2012 marked the conclusion of a "b'ak'tun"—a time period in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used in Central America prior to the arrival of Europeans. Although the Long Count
Mesoamerican cosmovision and adherence to calendar systems. Mesoamericans did not understand human sacrifice as a malicious act, but rather sacrifices were carried out in an effort to renew and center their world, as well as pay debts to the gods. Mesoamericans carried out ritual sacrifice in order to balance, center, and renew their cosmo-magical world, which hinged upon ever-present duality: the human and the divine (the earth and the cosmos). Cosmovision is understood as one of the structures that is found throughout Mesoamerican history. It is evident that the concept was one adopted in varying forms by all Mesoamerican cultures, and aided