Maya, Inca, And Aztec Societies

​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

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.

A very long time ago, there were many ancient civilizations, three of them were called the Olmecs, Aztecs and Mayans. These were ancient civilizations that, throughout history, had many accomplishments. Focusing in on some of these achievements, a lot of the advancements made by these civilizations were in religion, economy, and technology.

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.

The Mayan, Inca, and Aztec civilizations each originated from Latin America. The Mayans lived in southern and central Mexico, other Mayans lived in Central America in the present day countries of Belize, Guatemala, and ancient Honduras. The Incas lived along the long coastal strip, and in the high peaks and deep fertile valleys of the Andes Mountains, and along the edges of the tropical forest to the east; this would be the country of Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina in present days. The Aztecs were from Aztlan located in both north and northwest Mexico.

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.

Though the Inca and Mayan empires existed at different times in history, they have a few things in common. Like other societies throughout history though, they have many things that set them apart from each other. The biggest similarity they share is that they both had control of massive empires that eventually ceased to exist.

To begin with, women were considered equal but separate to men in the workforce, containing their own political meetings and having a large influence within the commerce of crops within each village. “Ibo women still wielded considerable influence both within their marriages and within the larger community. Women, for example, were a major force in the society's agrarian economy: they planted their own crops, sold their crop surplus (as well as that of their husbands), and exerted exclusive control over the operation and management

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.

Throughout my years as an explorer, I have been to many different countries. I have also come in contact with many people and learned about many different cultures. In most of the cities I have been to, although the type of government system may vary, the one thing that tends to stay the the same throughout these societies are the role of women and how they are treated in the everyday world. Like in my most recent trip to Mexico, I had the opportunity to observe that the role of women was extremely different from the role of men.

The economic systems of early American societies were very similar. One of these societies, the Mayans, lived in southern Mexico and northern Central America from the 3rd to the 10th century CE, and they relied on the trade of goods such as obsidian and crops such as cacao beans. Another American civilization was the Aztec civilization. They were located in the Valley of Mexico around the 13th to 16th century CE, and they used slash-and-burn farming to plant crops to trade. The Inca Empire existed from the 13th to the 16th century CE along the Pacific coast of South America near the Andes Mountains. The Inca used terrace farming and irrigation to grow crops such as corn. The economies of these early American civilizations were heavily

The situation of women in the pre-Columbian era was like any other culture because men had power. The woman lacked rights, equality and autonomy. Often, women were treated as an object. In the case of one of the most developed pre-Columbian civilizations, the Aztecs, a situation occurred with the rights of women with Dona Marina, also known as the Malinche. She was a girl of the Aztec culture, who after a clash between tribes was surrender as a slave, because that was the tradition of those times. “Later, Malinche was again ceded as a slave, but this time to Hernan Cortes by the cacique of Tabasco, along with 19 other women, some pieces of another and a set of blankets” (Castillo, 2014). Afterwards, Hernan Cortes learned that Malinche spoke several languages and did not hesitate to use her as an interpreter in order to unite alliances with the indigenous peoples conquered by the Aztecs, thus facilitating the conquest of the empire.

Women's lives, roles, and statuses changed over various early world history eras and culture areas in many ways. Ancient Persia, Paleolithic, Athens, Mesopotamian and Roman eras were all different in very unique ways. The Paleolithic era treated women fairly and were treated equally. During the Neolithic era women were not treated fairly. She was the daughter of her father or the wife of her husband. Women rarely acted as individuals outside the context of their families. Those who did so were usually royalty or the wives of men who had power and status.” (oi.uchicago.edu, 2010) Athenian women were not treated fairly

Pre-Columbian civilizations had developed excellently and prospered their nations with success. The primary three civilizations were the Maya, Inca, and the Aztecs. Each nation was very similar as a people, having like beliefs, social structures and origins. The way how these civilizations could maintain such vast territories and diverse people was due to the primary reason of religion. The fact they were agricultural nations and had strong political and social structures was also a factor in their success. Their religions was the legitimacy of their nations. From their religion derived political and social structures, rulings incumbent upon higher classes and lower classes, taxes and tributes to the high classes and gods. With their religions setting all of this in place, it helped keep order amongst people and maintain vast lands throughout the nations.

This “dehomogenization” of Maya archaeology is the aim for future work as to enhance the knowledge of the “everyday” Maya. The willingness to engage with subaltern segments of Maya society and the refusal to reify centuries of cultural practices is key to begin profound research in the diverse experiences of Maya peoples. Research undertaken by Morenhart and Helm that use archaeobotanical data which “can yield considerable social, economic, and ecological information” (Morenhart and Heml 2008:63). In addition, like Morenhart and Helm, more engagement with societal concepts such as gender, can give a better picture of Maya life. However, this research must be guided be an intersectional lens to see the cross-roads of identity that produce unique