Yucatec Maya: “U yáanal k’áat chi’ob tu ya’ab t’an u beelil k’áat chi’ob tu ts’íib: u páajtalil u puksi’ik’alil k’ajóoltik.” - The new requests in the words of the record: the acts that wound truth.
History is not only a record — it is a right.
When people or institutions falsify it for power, they commit acts that wound entire civilizations.
These are the terms that define those violations — crimes against truth, memory, and identity.
1. Historical Identity Fraud
The deliberate falsification or appropriation of another people’s ancestry, culture, or narrative for personal, political, or economic gain.
This is more than lying — it is the theft of collective identity.
Like financial fraud, it exploits trust and redistributes legitimacy to those who never earned it.
2. Temporal Colonization
The act of conquering time itself — rewriting the past to assert control over territory, identity, or belonging.
It is the same logic as colonialism, but waged against history rather than land.
Through propaganda, textbooks, and digital misinformation, entire timelines are captured and remade in the image of power.
3. Heritage Appropriation
The unethical or illegal claim of another group’s heritage — from lineage and sacred traditions to symbols and ancestral sites.
Heritage is not a costume or a credential; it is a living continuum of responsibility.
When outsiders claim it as their own, they break that continuum and corrupt cultural memory.
4. Epistemic Fraud
The systemic distortion of truth to gain authority or erase other knowledge systems.
Governments, corporations, and even academic institutions commit epistemic fraud when they silence Indigenous knowledge, deny oral histories, or elevate false evidence to maintain control.
It is the intellectual arm of colonization.
5. Historical Usurpation
The seizure and occupation of another people’s historical identity.
Through this act, impostors claim to be the “originals,” rewriting descent lines and ancestral rights.
It is the oldest deception of empire: taking not just the land, but the story of who belongs to it.
Conclusion
The future depends on protecting truth as fiercely as territory.
When history is rewritten, the present becomes a lie and the next generation inherits confusion instead of wisdom.
Naming these acts — Historical Identity Fraud, Temporal Colonization, Heritage Appropriation, Epistemic Fraud, and Historical Usurpation — is the first step toward global accountability.
Only by defining the crimes can we begin to defend against them.
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