The Mayan Incident

​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 video did a very good job at picturizing what our readings taught us. The video, Dawn of The Maya, shows how the people in the Yucatan put fire to their rainforests for more land for building and farming. This correlates with what Jared Diamond and Gugliotta stated. Both of these authors made claims that go further than the documentary how the environment affected the Maya. They talked about how long droughts affected those in the lower part of the Yucatan. All of the readings agree with the video when it comes to how advanced the Maya were. There has yet be one author that I have read that has stated otherwise. The video does make a point to say that the Maya fought bloody wars of conquest across Mexico and Central America. Many of the authors we read would refute that claim. Many believe that the wars the Maya fought were specifically for sacrifices. Sheets put is as a power struggle where there was no winner or loser because it was never ending. The Maya were not a peaceful civilization. They believed, like the Aztecs, that they needed human sacrifice for the sun to move. Unlike the readings, the documentary goes into detail on how excavation works. The video uses a ground penetrating system to see if there are tombs in the ground. The documentary goes into a lot of detail prior to the collapse of the Maya. Most of our readings start at the end while this documentary starts at the height of the Maya civilization. Which is really

“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 ancient Maya world is a world of magnificent architecture, art, pottery and illustrated books. The Maya culture has a very distinctive style of artistic expression, even more complex than any other in the Americas. Much of the Maya art represents the elite classes of the society and their everyday life. The elite classes were built up of mostly of the higher power officials and kings and queens. In the Maya elite world there is a lot of war related ceremonies and warfare that is a common theme in court art. As stated in the text, “These Maya wars were depicted as chaotic affairs aimed at the capture of individual prisoners, who were destined for sacrifice or slavery” (pg.74). The elite classes used these wars to capture the slaves and utilize

The collapse of the Mayan Empire is one of history’s greatest mysteries. It was one of the most advanced and developed civilizations of its time period, reining during the Pre-Classic period and into the Classic and Post-Classic Periods (2000 B.C. – 900 A.D.). The territory stretched from the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, down to modern day El Salvador in Central America. Its achievements were monumental for the era, being the first empire communicating with the use of a written language having over 800 symbols and producing the first 365 day calendar. They maintained an in-depth understanding of astrological cycles that would assist in planning harvesting cycles and predicting solar eclipses. The Mayan’s

The Maya of Mesoamerica, along with the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru, made up the high civilizations of the American Indians at the time of the Spanish conquest. Both the Aztecs and the Incas were late civilizations, between 1300-1533 AD, but the Maya of the Yucatan and Guatemala exhibited a cultural continuity spanning more than 2,000 years, 1000 BC-AD 1542. Many aspects of this culture continue yet today. The Ancient Maya in their time had actually refined writing.

In some ways the Mayan people were very advanced. In other ways they seemed to be very primitive. What was their most remarkable achievement? In my point of view there remarkable achievement was the Mayan calendar because of my 3 reasons and I would also include ethos, pathos, and logos and an counter argue. First, there was two main calendars which had an impact in the Mayans world. There was a ritual calendar and a solar calendar which the solar calendar we use today and in fact we still use those guidelines. Second , they were advanced when the Maya priests-astronomers took the time to put in predictions and to develop their systems. Saying, “ So great was their knowledge that they could predict eclipses of the moon. ” This was a

I believe the most remarkable achievement was how the Mayan were able to create and build their cities.The Maya lived in mesoamerica, part of Central America including central Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras. The Mayan had over 2,500 Maya locations according to Document B in the packet The Maya: What Was Their Most Remarkable Achievement. How is it possible that the Mayan were able to make over 2,500 cities? They had populations in tens of thousands also according to Document B in the packet The Maya: What Was Their Most Remarkable Achievement. One of the largest Mayan cities had a population of 70,000.

The ancient Mayan civilization settled in the Yucatan Peninsula in around 900 AD. This civilizations was one of the most advanced of its times. They created their own religion, language, mathematical structure, a very precise calendar, and many other things.

Editors note: Daniel Gonzalez is a journalist Miami, Florida. He has always been interested with the Mayans. Daniel Gonzalez traveled back in time with the time machine that he made in his high school wood shop and was able to go back to the 13th century to write about the fall of the Mayans.

The Maya refers to a group of ancient Mesoamerican people famous for the development of the Western Hemisphere’s sophisticated culture prior to the Spanish arrival (Cook & Offit 32). One of the primary factors of their culture was their religion which was characteristic of nature gods’ worship, a priestly class, astrology’s and astronomy’s importance, human sacrifice rituals, and pyramidical temples’ construction (Cook & Offit 32). In addition to the religion, the Maya people are also special because of elaborate systems of art, architecture, mathematics, and astronomy. The Maya’s written language, available in the form of several codices and inscriptions, reveals principal aspects of rainforest civilization and mysteries. Just like several modern Mesoamerican religions, the Maya religion is a consequence of hundreds of years’ symbiosis with Roman Catholicism (Cook & Offit 32). Considering the pre-Spanish antecedents of the Maya religion, it emerges that the traditional religion was already there for over 2000 years in the form of a distinct phenomenon. Currently, the religion exhibits interaction and coexistence with syncretism of pan-Maya which is a tradition’s re-invention by Christianity and the movement of Pan-Maya (Cook & Offit 32). Indeed, several Mayan religion’s aspects survive among the current Mexican Mayan Indians alongside Central American Mayan Indians, with their practices being an integration of Roman Catholicism and the old religion. This has the implication

The Mayans were located all over the world they would move places when they needed to. The Maya Civilization had fair laws back then if you committed a crime you would be punished. In the Maya civilization they would be a king to control the empire. So the mayans would have a only king or a priest. If the king or the priest aren’t there anymore the following child would be

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.

For my final Project I will be using the case study of 15 year old Diane. A freshman in high school who is starting out at a new school. Currently, Diane appears to exhibit symptoms of possible depression. Her teachers have reported she is having difficulty adjusting to school. Her teachers report she sits at her desk with her head down and is very quiet. In addition, to adjusting to a new school and the reports from her teachers Diane is homeless and living in a crowded shelter with her mother, she has witnessed her mom being abused, and she does not have any friends. With all these concerns Diane may suffer from depression. Of course with the limited information from the vignette this cannot be concrete. However, she does exhibit some

     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.