Compare And Contrast The Aztecs And Mayans

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.

Imagine that you are living in a jungle in the middle of central day Mexico. You are part of an indigenous group that call themselves the Mexica. Nowadays they go by the name Aztec and live in modern day Mexico. Although the Spanish lived across the ocean from the Aztec, they had many similarities and differences in their warfare. Weaponry, tactics, and worldview are all important elements of the Aztec and Spanish.

The Maya, Inca, and Aztec are very similar, but they are also very different. The Mayan is located in Mesoamerica, Mexico, and Central America. The civilization lasted from 1000 BC to 1542 and the capital is Tikal. The Aztec Civilization is located in Central America and Mexico. The civilization only lasted in the 6th century and the capital is Tenochtitlan. The Inca civilization is located in Andes Mountains, South America, chile through Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Southern Columbia.The Mayan civilization lasted from 1438 AD to 1532 and the capital was Cuzco. The Maya, Aztec, and Inca are similar and different with their’ religion, government, and technology.

The Mongols and Aztecs lived on completely different sides of the world. Although they had extreme differentials on Longitude and Latitude, the similarities between the two societies are compelling. The Mongols and the Aztecs were similar politically and socially. Politically, their Militaries were large and powerful; socially, women also had more rights and power. However, they were not the same in every category. Religiously, they were very different. Along with that, the foundation of their societies are very different as well, one being nomadic and one being agricultural based society.

In history we the people have found to realize that the Maya, Aztec, and Inca culture was one of the most incredible findings of their accomplishments. The Maya, Aztec, and Inca civilizations were really smart in topics of engineering, writing, agriculture and astronomy. Also all three had their beliefs, and good with agriculture. All three cultures used great technologies in their agriculture like slash and burn, terrace farming. They all hunted for religion, they had a huge belief with the people spread throughout each region. They all had a lot of interest in the use of chocolate in the region, and cultivation. They all were pretty much the same just different beliefs.

Looking around too all the different ethnicities that can be found in this world, two of those most interesting cultures would have to be the Greeks and the Maya. The ancient Greek and Mayan civilizations have many similar characteristics but they also have many differences. The Mayan’s are an indigenous Mesoamerican culture found in present day South America. As where the Greeks are an ethnicity group native to Greece.

groups and political leaders and allowed variation from one group to another. As long as Inca or

So, as stated before in this essay, the Incas and Mayans had quite a few things in common but they were much more different than similar. Although both civilizations failed, at one point they flourished greatly. They were intelligent and paved the way for things liken mathematics, architecture,

     The culture of these two civilizations are also similar and different in many ways. Religion was very important in the lives of the Aztec as well as the Maya. Both civilizations worshiped many gods. The Aztec and Maya worshiped gods such as the “corn god.”They believed in this god, because the economy of both civilizations was based on farming. The Family life was also similar. The typical Aztec and Maya households consisted of both families, and all members of the extended family, such as the husband’s relatives. Each member of the family helped with most of the work. The husband’s responsibilities were to support the family usually by doing craft work. The wife’s duties included weaving the families clothing, and cooking their food. However, the Maya had no schools. The children learned various skills by observing adults and helping them. On the other hand, the Aztec’s did things differently. Boys were educated by their father until about the age of 10. Then they attended school fun

The Maya and Aztec civilizations are two vastly different civilizations, as is to expected, however, despite these differences, they do share a number of similarities.

Egyptian and Mesoamerican societies have many similarities to begin, both societies were complex civilizations. Both Egyptian societies and Mesoamerican societies developed their own cultures and religious beliefs. The Mesoamericans and as well as the Egyptians both believed in a god. Both societies also believed that this god needed to be praised and worshipped in order to have good harvests and enough of a food supply for their people to survive. Both Egyptians and Mesoamericans built structures for their religions, the Egyptians built pyramids while Mesoamericans built temples. The Egyptians believed their pharaoh’s were the sons of their gods and used the pyramids to bury the pharaoh’s after they died(TeenInk). The Maya and Olmec of the Mesoamerican societies built temples for the use of a ritual site. The Mesoamerican ritual sites were also used to sacrifice humans that they believed god wanted blood in return for things they did for the Mesoamerican people. The Meso Americans would play a ball game and whoever the winner was would be sacrificed to the gods, this was considered as a respect to the gods(Bentley, 2011).

The Aztec and Incan empire in Mesoamerica and the Andean Regions differed in their religious, cultural, and political traditions. Although both empires were located in the area of Mesoamerica, they were only similar in few ways. These two cultures were very influential to the nurturing of Mesoamerica and the Andean Regions.

The Aztecs were warrior people who lived in the Valley of Mexico, with the capital at Tenochtitlan, during the 1400s. Under their authoritarian state, the Aztecs worshipped their patron god, Huitzilopochtli, among other deities. Despite their warrior tactics and developed belief system, the Spaniards conquered them in 1519. The Incas (or Inkas) were the people who lived throughout the Andes Mountains from southern Peru to central Chile. With a society based on agriculture, the Incas farmed the terrain of the Andes Mountains west of their capital at Cuzco. The Incas suffered a fall to the Spaniards in 1532. The Aztecs from the Valley of Mexico in the 1400s and the Incas from throughout the Andes Mountains during the 1400s are similar and different because of their ideological and intellectual values, their rise and fall by conquest of their empires, and the way they applied the characteristics of their economies to their lifestyles.

The Aztecs civilization and the Mayan civilization where the most important civilizations from the new world that amazed many of the Europeans that came to conquer this wonderful rich land. The Europeans where amazed with the Aztec and Mayan culture, their ways of life, their geographical surroundings and their technology. The Europeans and historians today find that the Aztecs and the Mayans where similar in some ways of life like their culture, their technology, their religious events and at the same time they had their differences in their cultures.

The Mayan was a culture located in the area of Mexico. Think you know Mayan? Well in this essay, I will state the differences and similarities for Tikal and Chichen Itza.