Mayan Maize God Essay

​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

“In the Western Hemisphere, no early culture was more remarkable than the Mayans” (Background Essay). The Mayans were an adept civilization and accomplished many exceptional things during their time. Their deeds include things such as a number system, immense cities, and a vast trade network but there is no Mayan achievement more remarkable than their calendars. The Mayans created three calendars: a sacred calendar called tzolkin, a solar calendar called haab, and a long cycle calendar.

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 Aztec and Maya were both American Indian people. The Aztec were ruled by a mighty empire in Mexico during the 1400's and early 1500's. The Maya however, developed a magnificent civilization in Central America and Southern Mexico. Both civilizations contributed a great deal to the modern world and invented items that are still used today.

The ancient Maya believed in recurring cycles of creation and destruction because, The largest cycles were thought to be recurrent cycle of creation and destruction, and the Maya believed that each of the named says within their cycles contained a destiny which was relieved in each of the many eras of a cyclic universe. The Maya believed in many gods. They believed their gods could help or hurt them. They worshiped their gods every day. Religion was at the heart of everything they did. Human sacrifice was performed on prisoners, slaves, and particularly children, with orphans. Before the Toltec era, however, animal sacrifice may have been far more common than human - turkeys, dogs, and squirrels being among the species considered suitable offerings to Mayan gods.

The differences of the Mayan religious and the American religious is that for the only way for the sun to rise they have to sacrifice blood.The Mayans believe in more than one god so they are called polytheism.They also built huge monument to honor their kings and their gods.The physical labor was a honor to their gods.The most important god they have to honor is the sun god by farming corn because if they did not the sun would not rise and plants would die,the fruits would not be non nutritional,and animals would die.

The Mayan way of life revolved their religion. They had a polytheistic religion praising many gods. Each god had a certain thing that they would rule over or take care of. Chac was the god of rain, Kinich Ahau was the sun god, and Yum Cimil was the god of the underworld. There were many gods and goddess for almost every reason one could think of, there is even a goddess of suicide. They would perform human sacrifices, bleeding rituals, and dances to praise and to

Agriculture was the basis of the economy of the Mayan and corn was the principal food.(Voorhies 324) Other crops included avocados, tomatoes, and chili peppers. They cultivated an enormous variety of plants.(Foley 20)

The most remarkable achievement of the Maya is their number system. However from all of their achievements I feel the less but still important ones was the cities and buildings they built, their trade network, and their calendar.

Maya culture is one of the oldest and most intelligent tribal races. The flourishing period of Maya was between 300 and 900. The principal food in Maya was maize, which was also called “the maize culture”. They had no livestock such as sheep and horses. Also, they made the calendar and divided a year to 18 months. In addition, they built huge stone temples and held bloodletting ceremonies in order to sacrifice

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.

When most people think of the Mayans, they think end of the world prediction in 2012. Everyone knows the movie 2012 which portrayed the end of the world predicted by the Mayan calendar. What many do not know is that the Mayans developed three separate calendars; the Long Count, the Tzolk’in, and the Haab, which were represented by glyphs or pictures that were used in their daily lives in many different ways. The Mayans kept time in a very different way than we do today. The Mayans may not have invented the calendar, but they certainly developed it further, and still use their version today.

     The ancient Mayans were a very well developed society with a very accurate calendar, skilled architects, artisans, extensive traders and hunters. They are known to have developed medicine and astronomy as well. All of this was developed while the Europeans were still in the Dark Ages.

Throughout the three civilizations, various methods of dealing with crops were introduced in attempts of increasing yield and production. The Olmecs developed irrigation, which made agriculture an important element of Mesoamerican life as it brought surpluses that led to population growth and civilization expansion. Alongside irrigation is the extensive planting and harvesting of crops like beans, squash, and especially maize that became the basis and stable crops of the community. The Mayans continued the agricultural success of the preceding people by draining swamps and erecting platforms for farming. These two practices greatly expanded the amount of land agriculture could take place in a geography without vast fertile lands, further leading to population boost and empire building in addition to the long-lasting practice of irrigation. With with the aid of innovations made into reality by the two previous groups of people, the Aztecs kept the tradition of constant improvement to current conditions. Building up on the Mayan efforts of draining swamps, the Aztecs developed Chinampas. These aquatic water beds that acted as floating islands extended the existing use of irrigation on the rich aquatic environment of the capital, Tenochtitlan. With these multiple examples and instances of agricultural advancements that continued and improved on the products and practices of previous civilizations, changes still coexist in the middle as the use of calendar differed from one civilization to the next despite sharing a root of calendar

Some of the most distinct features of Classic Mayan culture were the pyramids. The pyramids were either temples or