Essay On Mayans And Aztecs

“This is our Sun, the one in which we now live. And here is its sign, how the Sun fell into the fire, into the divine hearth…And as the elders continue to say, under the Sun there will be earthquakes and hunger, and then our end shall come.”- quoted in Seeds of Change (Viola). Mayans and Aztecs are different in farming and religion, but similar in the calendar.

Mayans had really different methods of farming than Aztecs. The first Mayan farming started around 11000 B.C. The first Aztecs farming started around 5000 B.C. Mayans used the method of slash but the Aztecs used chinampas. Mayans had different farming technique like slash, burn, terracing and composting. The methods used by the farmers dependent on the land. Also they had animal husbandry, they made their own fertilizer, fished, had household gardens, and finally practiced swidden agriculture. Mayans are known for the controversial farming methods known as “slash and burn”. First in slash-and-burn is to cut down the trees and shrubs in heavily wooded areas. Then is to burn the area to create fields for crops. They used axes to fell large trees. The Mayans used the wooden digging sticks. For many years, the Mayans have been under scrutiny for their slash-and-burn farming methods. Modern Mayan descendants still employ the methods. Meanwhile the Aztecs used channel in their farming just provide the water to dry areas. They didn't use any animals in Aztec farming. Instead, people used pointed sticks to make their holes for seeds. Late on Aztecs became more popular because of the chinampas system that farmers used. Small areas of rectangle shaped fertile arable lands were used to grow crops. These chinampas were artificial islands or floating gardens that ...

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...was used to define the best ways to plant, harvest, build or go to war. The other calendar which called “Counting of years” was sacred. The Mayans had three calendars: the Tun-Uc, the Haab and the Tzolk’in. The first “Tun-Uc” followed the cycle of the moon. Another was Haab who used for planting, harvesting and other events. And finally the last calendar called “Tzolk’in”, it was a sacred calendar. Each calendar had something different and something similar to each other.

Aztecs and Mayans have a lot of different methods in farming, they have different religion but they have the similar calendars. Even if their gods are slightly different, but they made their own ritual calendars which made them believe in different events. Anything that Aztecs and Mayans did was kind of religious in some ways. They borned and believed, and they died also with beliefs.