The Mayan Culture

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.

​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

The Mayan culture can be traced back to 1500 BC, entering the Classic period about 300 AD and

A common element found within the cultures of Mesoamerica was the way they expressed themselves, "primarily in oral modes of expression… and mute texts” (Carrasco, 47). This was observed in the Olmec and Teotihuacan culture. Although, the Olmec culture was from formative Mesoamerica and the Teotihuacan culture was from contemporary Mesoamerica there were noticeable similarities and differences between the two cultures. Evidence of influence and continuity was found linking the Olmec and Teotihuacan culture.

The Mayan civilization in all stages has been based on agriculture. Indian corn or maize was domesticated from a wild grass in central Mexico about 7,000 years ago and sustained most sedentary Indian civilizations from that time. In the humid areas, a surplus of water and rapid growth of trees and vines encouraged the slash-and-burn farming method.

The Mayans were hardworking people who lived in Mesoamerica. A thousand years ago before the spanish arrived, the maya built a great civilization. What many seem to question is what was so remarkable about what this group did.The four criterias scale, genius, physical effort and significance will be examined to see which was actually remarkable. People today argue over which Mayan achievement was the greatest - the trade network, numbers, calendars, and city-buildings , however true to say is that the building cities was the achievement that set the group off to great contributions.

The mystery concerning the fundamental explanation for the collapse of the Mayan Civilization has been a major focus for researchers in the fields of anthropology and archeology for a considerable period of time. At the very core of this mystery of the Mayan collapse was the question of how could such a strong, stable civilization that had flourished for approximately twenty-seven hundred years disappear without a clear, rational explanation. As a result, researchers have put forth a large number of theories for the explanation of the collapse and subsequent decimation of the Mayan empire.

The early Mayan civilization had lowly beginnings. They rose to remarkable heights in a seemingly inhospitable land. As Maya scholar Arthur Demarest said “Such a civilization, had no business there.” The Mayans had to battle with torrential rain in the rainy season, and when the weather turned hot, it scorched the land and their water supplies would plummet. They were always faced with floods or drought. They were probably forced here due to overcrowding from other tribes. But nonetheless they began to conquer these threats as they learned advanced farming techniques to make the shallow earth fertile. They burned and cleared jungle to make room for their agriculture, particularly maize. They then began the process of crop rotation, long before anyone else. As the Mayan civilization began its steady uprising they began to redouble their efforts, they started composting, cultivating, they built irrigation systems and began to terrace the landscape to make farming more efficient and prevent erosion. They dammed rivers and flooded swamplands and marshes to create rich farmland. They instituted transport systems to move fertile silt and mud from lowlands to higher enclosed gardens and farms and created man made lakes and ponds that they used to fish and systems of corrals held wild game. They maximized their talents and squeezed out enough nourishment to support their population which had risen to several million people.

“For evidence that the notion of Europeans introducing ‘civilization’ to the Americas is a lie, one need only look at the Aztec and Mayan peoples.” The Mayan civilization began prospering at around 900 BC - AD 300. The Mayas were extremely inventive with a interesting and vivacious culture. They erected are religious enters and communities and created advanced watering systems for irrigation and water storage. By 300 AD the Mayan city of Tikal had at least 20,000 people, including farmers and laborers used to create large temples for religious devotion decorated by skilled artisans. The ruling class was an elite group who claimed to be descendants from gods, not to completely unlike the monarchy or bourgeoisie in Europe. One of the most well know inventions of the Mayans was the calendar which they used to record noteworthy accounts such as historical events and predictions of solar and lunar eclipses, done so with remarkable accuracy. The Mayans were so advanced that they developed their own form of written language called hieroglyphics allowed the further progression and movement of ideas, creating a complex society.

These migrating “First People” in the Maya region developed their tool and hunting technologies and went from being nomadic hunter-gatherers into forming more permanent settlements. These settled groups became more developed as they exploited the plentiful local resources.

The Mayan Civilization was a very involute Archaic Native American civilization that grew to be one of the most advanced civilizations in the Americas. The civilization development CA 1500 B.C -250 A.D. The people kenned as the Maya lived in the region that is now eastern and southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and western Honduras. Mayans built massive stone pyramids, temples, and sculptures and accomplished involute achievements in mathematics and astronomy, which were recorded in hieroglyphs. After researching the Mayan civilization, the paramount aspects of the Mayan worldview are: everything is sacred, corn is the substructure of life and the very religious group who were very devoted to their religion.

The Classical Maya was lost to the archaeological records until the last 200 years due to it’s abandonment. When the Mayans left there great cities, thick vines and jungles overtook the great monuments they once built. But in the last 200 years, in depth research has lead to breakthroughs into what the Classic Maya was like. The earliest Mayans were agriculturalist, growing crops such as corn (maize), beans, squash and cassava. The Mayans also invented a very accurate calendar, a math code using 0’s, constructed buildings still intact today, and a writing system that took decades to decode. The Mayans were situated in one geographical block covering all of the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico), modern-day Guatemala, Belize, parts of the Mexican states of Tabasco and Chiapas, and the western part of Honduras and El Salvador. Due to their location on the

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

The journal article by James Aimers and Jared Diamond’s TED presentation both acknowledge that multiple factors led to the decline of the Mayan empire such as climate change, wars, and socio-economic factors. Where Diamond and Aimers differ is their description of the rapidity of the collapse of the Maya. Jared Diamond uses the example of the Maya of the Yucatan whose society collapsed in the early 800’s quickly in the span of decades, directly after a period of great growth and prosperity. Diamond uses this single example of rapid decline for the Maya while the Aimers reading describes the gradual migration of some Maya people away from cities and established infrastructure. James Aimers also describes that the collapse of society may not necessarily be the destruction of tradition and the looting of valuables for the spoils of war but also the “gradual decline in complexity of constructions, writing and discontinuation of the Long Count for the Maya” (Aimers, 2007) which indicates a slower evolution of society rather than a sudden disruption.

Before certain archaeological findings revealed the role that warfare played on Maya civilization, many believed that the Maya were a more peaceful and compassionate civilization. We are now able to see that warfare played a part in the development of of the Maya civilization and we can see this through murals, hieroglyphics, and through epigraphic records of warfare events. One of the Bonampak murals that is located in Mexico, depicts the violence used by Mayans in battle and the capturing of the enemy. In addition, Another part of this mural, reveals how the Maya captured their enemy in order to sacrifice these individuals as part of ritual warfare. Four major hieroglyphics exist that were very common in the maya civilization and these reveal how Maya warfare changed over time in Caracol Belize. This paper is going to talk about Mayan warfare and how it changed over time. The most significant type of Maya warfare, is the type that deals with capturing the enemy because it not only dealt with territorial expansion, but it could also be related to ritual warfare.