Ancient And Culture : Guatemala, Mayan Time Period

Throughout the humanities course, I have been intrigued by a vast amount of information on different cultures. However, there was a particular section that truly caught my attention, and has piqued an interest in me that has caused me to do my own research aside from this paper. The culture of the Mayas, and the Aztecs has been extremely fundamental in understanding my ancestry, being that I am Mexican American. I took an interest in their beautiful architecture, their ritualistic and sacrificial religious practices, as well as their history and how they began. Throughout this paper I will outline the similarities and differences of these two cultures, as well as articulate an understanding of the humanity disciplines outlined above.

​Many of the cultures that we have today have evolved from past events. Such as language it was something that became known throughout the years. Some of the languages that came from that were English, Spanish, German, and Latin to name a few. These languages were derived more past civilizations. One important civilization that is known for having great success is the Mayan civilization. The Mayan civilization is known for many things like they fully developed written language, art, architecture, math and some other factors. Historians have said that they don’t know an exact date of when this civilization rose up but they do mention that it flourished for about 2000 years. Although staring in 250 AD it is said that it was the start of their high point and it continued until the arrival of the Spanish in 1524. The Maya area covers southern Mexico and northwestern Central America. According to Sharer the area is divided into three regions: the Pacific coastal plain to the south, the highlands in the center, and the lowlands to the north. Even though these three regions were under the same civilization they all practiced different religious rituals. Religion plays a big role in every civilization. Some civilizations tend to praise more than one god and they always mention that what they have is thanks to their god. When they see things going wrong they often say that their god is punishing them because they did something that the god/s did not like. This tends to be the same

Now you may have heard myths or stories about Tikal. Tikal was one of the greatest ancient maya city which was located in the northern Guatemala. With about 60,000 people living their. Tikal controlled smaller cities but then got fought by Calakmul.

The Maya were a people from Middle America, which includes modern Guatemala, Southern Mexico, and Northern Belize (Editors). The Maya civilization was considered to be “one of the most dominant indigenous societies of Mesoamerica,” (Maya). “The Maya excelled at agriculture, pottery, hieroglyph writing, calendar-making, and mathematics, and left behind an astonishing amount of impressive architecture and symbolic artwork,” (Maya). They also gave mankind the modern calendar (Jarus, Maya). The Mayans were a very advanced people, but one of the most important things in the Mayan culture was their religion/god worshipping rituals.

The ancient Maya once occupied a vast geographic area in Central America. Their civilization inhabited an area that encompasses Mexico's Yucatan peninsula and parts of the states of Chiapas and Tabasco, as well as Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador. "From the third to the ninth century, Maya civilization produced awe-inspiring temples and pyramids, highly accurate calendars, mathematics and hieroglyphics, and a complex social and political order" ("Collapse..." 1). Urban centers were important to the Maya during the Classic period; they offered the Mayans a central place to practice religion.

The Maya of Mesoamerica, along with the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru, made up the high civilizations of the American Indians at the time of the Spanish conquest. Both the Aztecs and the Incas were late civilizations, between 1300-1533 AD, but the Maya of the Yucatan and Guatemala exhibited a cultural continuity spanning more than 2,000 years, 1000 BC-AD 1542. Many aspects of this culture continue yet today. The Ancient Maya in their time had actually refined writing.

Guatemala has more people than any other Central American country, with an estimated population of 11,980,000 it is home to many different cultures. The population can be divided into two groups; Indians and people of mixed Spanish and Indian ancestry. But in Guatemala, being called an Indian or a non-Indian does not depend entirely on a person 's ancestry. It is basically a matter of how people live and of how they categorize themselves. For example, a Guatemalan is considered an Indian if he or she speaks an Indian language, wears Indian clothing, and lives in a community where the people follow the Indian ways of life. The Indians think of themselves more as part of their community than of their country. They pay little attention to

The Guatemalan Culture (also known as Chapines) has many improvements to be made, but they are still more stable than other cultures. There are many cultural aspects to the Guatemalan way of life. The culture comes from Mayan and Spanish influences. Guatemala is a beautiful city that borders mexico to the south in Central America. Almost half of their population lives in Urban areas and they speak two different languages. People first started living in this area around nine hundred A.D. The average american would not understand the way of life in Guatemala.

The Mayan civilization existed in what today is Central America, between 250 AD and 900 AD. They grew to have more than 40 cities with populations ranging from 5,000 to 50,000 people per city. These facts make their demise a complete mystery to the rest of us who have live after this period and know of their great innovations in subjects including Astrology, Architecture, Religion and Agriculture.

Tikal was an ancient city located in the Petén region of Guatemala. It was settled around 300 BC and abandoned around 900 AD. At its peak, Tikal was an influential city-state that controlled other smaller city-states and territories. Its wealth came from harvesting its surrounding natural resources and exploiting the advantages of its geographical location. Around 300 AD, Tikal was influenced by Teotihuacan. It is unclear if it was influenced by an invasion or by simply trade, which lead to changes in the cultural practices in Tikal, which did not affect its further rise to dominance in the region. At its peak, the population of the city and surrounding urban areas was estimated to be over 50,000. In the 6th century BC, Tikal

Guatemala is a multiethnic and multilingual country in Central America. The main population groups separate “Ladinos”, mixed Native American-African-Spanish individuals, from Native indigenous people of Mayan descent. Although she faced mistreatment and severe oppression by the Ladinos she encountered, Rigoberta realized that unification was the only way to end repression. She firmly believed that the barrier that divided the Indians and Ladinos was the sole causative factor that kept the both factions oppressed by the wealthy government elite.

The Classical Maya was lost to the archaeological records until the last 200 years due to it’s abandonment. When the Mayans left there great cities, thick vines and jungles overtook the great monuments they once built. But in the last 200 years, in depth research has lead to breakthroughs into what the Classic Maya was like. The earliest Mayans were agriculturalist, growing crops such as corn (maize), beans, squash and cassava. The Mayans also invented a very accurate calendar, a math code using 0’s, constructed buildings still intact today, and a writing system that took decades to decode. The Mayans were situated in one geographical block covering all of the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico), modern-day Guatemala, Belize, parts of the Mexican states of Tabasco and Chiapas, and the western part of Honduras and El Salvador. Due to their location on the

Achievement Masters The Classic Mayan Civilization dominated lower Mexico and upper Central America to create a vast amount of achievements. The Mayans developed and mastered the practices of architecture and astronomy. These practices of Mayan architecture and astronomy can relate to today's advanced practices of theses subjects and to Mexican history. The Classic Mayan Civilization lasted from 250 CE to 900 CE which was the height of its civilization.

Almost every aspect of Maya life was centered on religion. These ancient Mesoamerican peoples worshipped many gods and goddesses; this was part of their daily lives, despite class differences in their sophisticated society. Religion served as a basis for the government and social life. Priests and shamans played an important role in their government, conducted religious ceremonies, and made sacrifices to the gods. The Maya believed in the supernatural, and used this belief to explain life and their universe. Every object, whether it is part of nature or man made, was considered sacred and worshipped.

Many decades ago, northern Central America and southern Mexico cultures developed complex political and social ranks. Researchers today know this region as Mesoamerica, known for its rich soil, abundant amount of rainfall, and agriculture. (Judge & Langdon, 2012) The Mesoamericans, Aztec and Mayan tribes, developed into complex civilizations for multiple reasons. These societies were advanced and complex for their time in areas, such as architecture, agriculture, militarism, and education. Each had unique religion and political systems as well. The rise and fall of both were due to several factors.