The Maya Essay

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.

The Ancient Mayan Civilization was built upon a rigid social structure based on their religious beliefs. They used a caste social structure in which divisions were based on wealth, inherited rank, privilege, profession, or occupation. Their beliefs were based on the fact that nature elements had the power to either help or harm. The Ancient Mayans used their social structure and beliefs to shape their daily lives. The Mayans were a very religious. They believed in many gods and all events centered around their religious beliefs. In their belief system, the gods would bring the rain, heal the sick, bring plentiful harvests and make sure the health and safety of the people if they were honored. If the gods were angry, they believed that the gods would send disasters to their people like droughts throughout their region. In order to keep the gods happy, they believed that a daily sacrifice of blood was necessary. They would open a wound on their body and let the blood drip on paper. Kings would also offer their blood to please the gods. The paper would be burned in an offering to the gods. The Mayans worshipped their ancestors as if they were gods. It was believed that the priests could see the spirits in the smoke. When a king or nobleman died, the Mayan people believed that he became one with the gods and would go to live in the sky with them. The dead were buried with food, tools, clothing, and whatever would be needed for their journey. Tombs were built to bury their

The Maya were believed to existence in 1800 BC and gone by 1500 AD. They had a lot of big cities but no capital. Many of the people lived in hay huts, some in limestone buildings built on tall pyramids which could actually be used as landmarks. They have a constant reminder the gods are present with the pyramids and first one was built right before Christ birth. Their agriculture was based on the economy, there main crop was corn but also grew cotton, beans, squash and cocao. They hunted deer, duck, turkey, monkeys, iguana, and other things with bow and arrows, blowguns, darts to eat, they did a little fishing. The Mayan art was about politics, the

Throughout time, there are many instances of early civilizations accomplishing breathtaking feats that we find awe worthy even today. These cultures helped shape humanity as a whole, and paved the way for people everywhere. Of these early cultures, one of the most remarkable was undoubtedly the Mayans. The Mayans lived in Mesoamerica, around Southern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Belize. They were an isolated group of people that thrived on farming and raised crops such as Maize, Beans, and Chili Peppers. They also Fished often and hunted Deer and other woodland creatures.

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.

Architecture, the basis of life for the Mayans. Architecture, specifically regarding pyramids. Now, when we think of the word “pyramid” most people will automatically think of the Great Pyramids of Egypt (we’ll get to those). But the Mayans had just as pyramids just as great. See, the technical building of the Maya pyramid was the same as the Egyptians. Both civilizations had pyramids of their own architectural design; Egypt with the well-known triangle and the Mayans with staircases. The use of slaves would help rise the pyramids from the ground, stacking, piling, pulling, and layering stone and clay. The main difference

For over 2,000 years, the Mayan civilization was a very developed and complex culture with many major advancements that caused its nation to thrive in then Mesoamerica. The Mayan society had an extremely sophisticated method of constructing massive buildings without the use of beasts of burden. They also invented their own Number system, basing it off of the number twenty, unlike our own number system. Another one of their achievements was their calendars, which predicted religious events and even the beginning of a rainy season. The Mayan society built their powerful civilization using these three major accomplishments. In these next few paragraphs, I will provide more detailed explanations to why I believe these three Mayan standards

The ancient Maya were a group of American Indian peoples who lived in Southern Mexico. Their descendants, the modern Maya,live in the same regions today.

The Maya are known for many amazing achievements. The Maya have lived in Southern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras for about 3,000 years. They are known for living off the land. Up until Approximately 500 years ago, the Maya has lived in isolation from the rest of the world. The Maya flourished from 250 CE to 900 CE.

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

Good morning. Today I will be telling you about the Mayan concepts of beauty, and how it affected their daily life. The Mayan people valued beauty very much, and every social class tried to meet the preconceived ideas of beauty in Mayan times. Many concepts that seem strange to us now in modern times, were considered beautiful in Mayan times. Many of the beauty concepts came from the Maize God. The Maize God was a very important god to the Mayan people, as he represented a very crucial crop to their survival – maize (British Museum, n.d.). The ideal look included an extended forehead, slight crossed-eyes, teeth filed to points, with inlays of jewels and stones, ears, nose and lips pierced and bodies tattooed and painted (Donn, L. n.d.).

     The Maya civilization can be divided into three main periods: Pre-Classic, Classic, and Post-Classic. Their greatest accomplishments most likely took place in the Classic period. This period occurred between 250 and 910AD. An extensive trade network was in place during this period that allowed the civilization to grow as large as sixty separate kingdoms. Other technological advances also took place during this time.

When the northern Maya were finally integrated into the Toltec society by A.D. 1200, the Maya dynasty finally came to a close, although some smaller cities continued to thrive until the Spanish Conquest in the early sixteenth century (Ruddell).