Cacao Influence On Mayan Culture

The ancient Maya world is a world of magnificent architecture, art, pottery and illustrated books. The Maya culture has a very distinctive style of artistic expression, even more complex than any other in the Americas. Much of the Maya art represents the elite classes of the society and their everyday life. The elite classes were built up of mostly of the higher power officials and kings and queens. In the Maya elite world there is a lot of war related ceremonies and warfare that is a common theme in court art. As stated in the text, “These Maya wars were depicted as chaotic affairs aimed at the capture of individual prisoners, who were destined for sacrifice or slavery” (pg.74). The elite classes used these wars to capture the slaves and utilize

Sometime around the sixth century was when the Mayan Empire became most powerful and influential. “The Maya excelled at agriculture, pottery, hieroglyph writing, calendar making and mathematics (source). The Maya was not considered as one of the largest, quite frankly their population was very small and seemed somewhat extinct to others. Later on it vanished and no one knows why or how. The Mayan Empire is divided amongst three periods (source). The preclassic, classic and post classic period. The preclassic period includes the origins and apogee of the first Maya kingdoms from about 1000 BCE to 250 CE (source). The Classic period according to Penn Museum, defines the highest point of Maya civilization in architecture, art, writing, and population

The Mayan civilization existed in central america from to 250-900 CE. The Mayans were located in Mesoamerica which is mondern day Central America which includes southern Mexico , Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras. In the western hemisphere, no early culture was more remarkable than the Maya. The Mayans were extremetly a pre industrial society that had many achievements. Those achievements include a developed calendar, a unique number system, and most importantly their trade networks.

A few things you might have to know: The Mayan were natives who lived in Mexico and central Asia. The rise of the Mayan empire was from around 1800 B.C. to 250 A.D.. “first major complex civilization to develop in the America’s” (study.com). “They had a complex understanding of astronomy” (history.com). They thrived due to their intelligences.

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.

Although Maya civilization shared many characteristic “with other Mesoamerican civilizations due to the high degree of interaction and cultural diffusion” (Maya civilization, n.d.), it cannot be denied that Maya was the most successful and advanced civilization with various accomplishments in art, astronomy, architecture and writing system.

The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization that settled what we now know as South America. The Maya had no central ruler to run their huge empire. They set up what they called city-state and it consisted of separate areas each had its own ruler and class system. The Mayans were also known for building pyramids and temples and they built them all without metal tools. The Mayan also developed a written language and created a calendar. The Mayans were a very religious people they had many different gods and rituals. One of these rituals was human sacrifice. The Mayan people believed that human sacrifices pleased the gods and was needed to keep the world in balance. It is still a mystery as to the why the Mayans civilization declined some believe it was

The Maya are probably the best known of the classical civilizations of Mesoamerica originating in the Yucatan around 2600 B.C.., they rose to prominence around A.D. 250 in present day southern mexico, Guatemala ,western ,Honduras El salvador and Northern Belize.

The Mayan civilizations was one of the Mesoamerican civilizations. It existed around c1800BCE through 1700CE. The Mayan society was very sophisticated for its time and was one of the most populated and culturally diverse societies in the world, with its people having amazing skill in areas such as architecture, agriculture, and writing. The Mayan civilization was located in Central America, through present day parts of Guatemala, Belize, Salvador, Honduras, Tabasco, Campeche, and Yucatan. This civilization also shared many similarities with the Egyptians.

The Mayan Indians were the indigenous tribe of the Yucatan Peninsula (parts of modern Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala).The Mayan empire was at its peak from 300 A.D.-900 A.D. They planted corn, beans, squash, avocados, chili peppers, and cacao beans that they used to make a chocolate drink. The Mayans were strong because they had huge harvests and extra food. Mayan culture was destroyed in the 1500s when Spain conquered Mexico. The Mayans are important because of their discoveries. They created a calendar that is almost exactly what we use today, invented the idea of zero and a symbol for it, and figured out how long it takes for Venus to orbit the sun.

A lot of today’s favorite foods were developed in the ancient Maya world. Guacamole, corn tortillas, micheladas, and tamales are some of the most popular. Their discovery of chocolate is the most familiar around the world. Maya chocolate was very different than the chocolate we know today. Cacao beans “were among the most valued of pre-Columbian products; they were used to make chocolate beverages for the elite class, and they also functioned as currency” (Foster, 2002, p. 310). The Maya consumed chocolate by first harvesting the seeds, or beans, from cacao trees and an “average cacao tree yielded 1,000 to 2,500 beans annually” (Foster, 2002, p. 325). They were fermented, dried, and roasted. Then, the beans were removed from their shells and ground into a paste, a process that remains

Have you you ever heard of the Mayans? The Mayans were really remarkable people. The Mayans lived in Mesoamerica is that modern day Central America that includes southern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras. That had been the Mayan home for over 3,000 years. Until 900 years A.D. ago, the Maya started the slash-and-burn agriculture and raising crops such as corn beans, and squash. The Maya also hunted in their surrounding rain forests. As their culture grew , the Maya built magnificent cities with stone plazas, royal palaces, ball courts, and temple- topped pyramids.

Farming was a large role for the Mayas. There way of life still impacts us today. In fact, the Mayans grew many crops mostly for food but some could be grown to make due for clothing. Today there are millions of antibiotics, the “Maya people used plants to make medicine,” (Life Among the Maya). This means they advanced early giving many influences. The Mayans also formed modern sports.

The Mayan culture, political, and economic had contributions to the Mesoamerican. The cultural of the Mayans was pyramid builders like Egyptians, chichen Itza similar to the Egyptian pyramids/ziggurat for sports they had several ball courts a ritual sport and they wrote using hieroglyphics. Their Religion was divided their cosmos into three parts, humans middle level between the heavens and the underworld the gods created humans out of maize (corn) and the gods maintained agricultural cycle for honors, sacrifices, bloodletting ritual. Warfare has religious significance they had days of ritual to precede battle the King and nobility actively participate in battle as they used slaves as manpower no large animals. The Golden age from 500 to 850

That is an interesting perspective on how you related Christianity with the Mayan creation myth. When Talking about the wooden people I drew a similarity to there demise. Both the wooden people and and humans in the bible faced a great flood that would wipe out the entire species(excluding Noah for christanity). I agree with the importance of Maize in Mayan culture. The best way to build strong humans is by using