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Aspects of maya civilization
Aspects of maya civilization
Aspects of maya civilization
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Chichen Itza Introduction Chichen Itza is a large pre-columbian city that was built by the people of the Mayan Culture, located about 75 miles from Merida. The Mayan culture is known for its art, architecture, and astronomical systems. Their economy was based on agriculture, craft production, and trade. The Mayans had a ruling class and a complex political structure. The political system didn’t fully develop until the Classic Era. This system had a four-tiered political hierarchy, starting with the kings and his major cities. They worshiped all of the nature gods, the most important being the creator god, Itzamna. From 600 AD to 800 AD, the classic period flourished and great cities thrived before they fell. The populations grew rapidly and …show more content…
The stars, moons, sun, and planets were the “gods”. They believed the Earth was the center of everything, and they believed some Maya dynasties descended from the sun and the moon. Temples were often built with astronomy in mind, aligned with the movements of planets, the sun, or the moon. The Mayan Economy The Mayan economy was based on agriculture, craft production, and trade. Their food was provided through fields, terracing, forest gardens, managed fallows, and wild harvesting. “The Mayan farmers cultivated corn, beans, cacao, chili, maguey, bananas, and cotton, besides giving attention to bees, from which he obtained both honey and wax. Various fermented drinks were prepared from corn, maguey, and honey” (http://www.crystalinks.com/mayanagriculture.html). Crafts were made by individual families in addition to their chores. They mostly made pottery, utensils, and textiles for enjoyment as well as trade. The poorer families only made what was necessary for their family. Nobility and royalty had custom crafts specially made for them. Nobles and royals would sponsor artists to work in their own workshops and make luxury goods that were monuments for political leaders, and religious items for major …show more content…
Instead of unifying their empire, the Mayan civilization had “city-states”. “City-states only ruled the surrounding area, or nearby states if they were powerful enough” (http://latinamericanhistory.about.com). The idea of “kings” wasn’t apparent until the late preclassic periods. Mayan kings claim to have descended from the gods and planets. “The Kings and royal family had important roles at public ceremonies. They channeled their connection to the Gods through sacrifices, dance, spiritual trances and hallucinogenic enemas” (http://latinamericanhistory.about.com). The Mayans political system didn’t fully develop until the Classic Era. This system had a four-tiered political hierarchy, starting with the kings and his major cities. After the major cities came small groups of vassal city-states. The third tier in the hierarchy was the affiliated villages. Finally, the fourth tier, the hamlets, cities devoted to
During ancient times humans were thought to be under the ruling of the Gods who came from the heavens and religion governed life at all levels of society. The Gods whom had shared sacred information with humanity had colonized humans for they were made to bear the yoke of the Gods (Petraglia & Maurizio). Although today we clearly distinguish the fine line between mythology and religion, there is still much to discover and learn from our ancient ancestors crumbs they have left behind. While there were many names of the Gods worshiped by the ancient people, the Sumerians, Egyptians and the Inca all had a specific main God that they worshiped. Mesopotamia resided in Asia; Egypt in Africa and the Inca whom were in South America will be further addressed on behalf of their similarities on colonization, intelligence and their resembling Gods. Throughout studies of most ancient civilizations one will stumble upon great mystery embedded with advanced know
The Mayans did not grew up with technology, they grew by using their instincts. The way Mayan’s grew their crops were all done by their hands. The Mayan people did not use any wildlife such as an ox, bull, nor caribou. The work they have done was purely all muscles. Not only was the Mayan civilization was not polluted, but their population was not massive as well. They had a decent amount of people. They had to balance out their water and food consumption because the weather was bipolar. The weather would be hot for four months and it would rain for six to eight months. The people had to figure out how to save enough water during the hot season and how to preserve their crop during the rainy season. The Mayans somehow knew about the environment more than the people
The Yucatan food was developed or people who were involved in developing it, were Mayans. Maya culture was component of this self-determining evolutionary process. Located in eastern Meso-america, the Maya flourished in a varied homeland of Mexico. The Maya produced bountiful harvests of food from a diverse and productive agricultural structure that incorporated irrigation, & drained fields in shallow lakes. “Religious festivals are a part of life in Yucatan. Every city, and state have its own specific festivals throughout
The people of early Mesoamerica had an abundance of different foods. One main food they had though in the 3 main groups (Aztecs, Olmecs, and Mayans) was maize. Maize is a corn like plant derived from teosinte that was domesticated around seven thousand B.C. to five thousand B.C.. Maize was about seventy percent of the Mesoamerican diet and around twenty one percent was meat . The Olmec’s had corn, beans, squash, and chili peppers (194). Each of their food items went in to a balanced diet of carbs, minerals, and vitamins. According to Concise Thematic Analysis “The Olmec system produced a food surplus that freed members of the community to take on specialized roles” (194) which just goes to show how much was around for them. Mayans ate corn and beans as their most important part of their diets, but also had some small domestic meats such as dog, turkey, duck, and fish. The Mayans also had honey and alcoholic drinks made from a stingless bee. The Aztecs had a good variety of plant foods as well with maize topping the charts of their diet with having other stable foods such as sweet potatoes, tomatoes, beans chilies, squashes (also big in their diet), carrots, etc. They also, had a lot of animals to choose from but they did not
Forgotten and lost, this city laid wrapped in vegetation, covered with forest it once commanded. Its temples as side trees, webbed with vines, and walls of ferns. Tropical rain lashing at the crumbling surfaces of stone architecture built by armies of workers. The darkness of the night guided by owls and the day by parrot shrieks. Statues of gods lay along the remaining stone hedges. It was not till 1839 the American lawyer John Lloyd Stephens and English artist Fredrick Caterwood, rediscovered the magnificence of the Tikal Mayan civilization. Development in the Mayan society began with hunters and gatherers leading to sedentary life and agriculture. Then early Maya civic then the highest point of the Tikal at middle Maya civilization.
When the Spanish began to arrive in Mexico and in Central America in the early 15th century, one of the many civilizations they found was the Maya. The Maya, building upon the Olmec culture, were located in present-day Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, southern Mexico, and the Yucatan Peninsula. Even though they had many similarities, the Maya were separated by language differences. Because of that they were organized into city-states. Since there wasn’t a single city-state powerful enough to impose a political structure, the period from 200 A.D. to the arrival of the Spanish was characterized by the struggle of rival kingdoms for dominance.
... into society also came with a new social responsibility to make sure that the crops would never fail. For once a society had made this unique and vital bond with the crop, with deep meaning. For a modern mind, the Mayan methodology of working with maize, and how it became to dominate life far beyond a means of food, becoming the backbone of their religion, it is truly amazing and great, the Mayans for one were not simple folk their attitude towards maize was clearly one of great spirituality. The Mayan mind believed or realized that not only had the gods given them maize, the gods would continually need to be thanked for giving them a great crop and they cultivated it and through it thanked and worshiped the gods for feeding them, and allowing them to grow and excel. In the end, the relationship between Man and maize was a contract between the gods and the earth.
Chichén Itzá was once one of the most powerful kingdoms of pre-Columbian America. In the time between the end of the Classic and beginning of Post-Classic period of Mayan history, around 800c.e. to 1100c.e, it was an important city for local politics, religion, and trade and was crucial to the Mesoamerican social structure. Since this city was so constantly populated, it had to be intricately designed. In order for this complex city to work, careful planning and organization had to go into the urban development in order to make this culturally diverse society.
Geographically, the Maya were formed individually as independent city-states. They used a government structure that allowed their individual rulers a great deal of individual governance within their own municipalities, instead of a strong centralized governing structure ruled by an emperor or
Chichen Itza. Chichen Itza is about 70 miles east of Merida. The architecture is non-Mayan. It is
Ancient Egyptians tried to understand their place in the universe. This is why their mythology is centered on nature such as the earth, sky, moon, sun, stars, and the Nile River. There are many Egyptian myths of creation, but the Heliopolitan Tradition, Hermopolitan Ogdoad, and the Memphite Theology are the most commonly used. They all have some common elements and gods. For example, many of t...
The major Mayan gods and goddesses all have common characteristics and, according to “features which they share in large part with the gods of neighboring people of Middle America” (Thompson, 198). One of these characteristics is that Mayan gods and goddesses have “features which they share in large part with the gods of neighboring people of Middle America” (Thompson, 198). The majority of the gods and goddesses take a form that combines animal and human features. For example, rain and earth deities often have characteristics derived from crocodiles and snakes (Thompson, 198). The Mayan deities also have a duality complex in which they could be both benevolent and malevolent, but this duality could also apply to age and sex such as a god or goddess being portrayed as youthful or aged or a masculine god sometimes being portrayed as feminine (Thompson, 199). Worship of animals, such as the Jaguar, was present (Thompson, 200) and numbers were seen as deities as well (Thompson, 239). Each deity corresponds to a number. For example, the sun god is the god of the number four as well and the moon goddess is the goddess of the number one. Inanimate objects had spirits, like animals and numbers, which had the ability to achieve the rank of de...
The first great cultivators of corn were the Mayans, initially centered in present-day northern Guatemala and the Mexican state of Tabasco. During the five-century apex of Mayan civilization, a combined priesthood and nobility governed. Although servile status was not hereditary, this was forced labor. Increasingly burdensome exploitation of labor and higher taxes and tribute produced dissension and uprisings, resulting in the collapse of the Mayan state, from which decentralized polities emerged. At its core was the cultivation of corn; religion was constructed around this vital food.
For reasons unexplained, around 900 A.D., the Mayans in Chichen Itza suddenly left and the area was invaded by the
Maya civilization was based mainly on agriculture and religion. Maya every day life revolved around an innumerable number of earth Gods. The most important God was chief, ruler of all Gods. The Mayans prayed to these God’s particularly about their crops. For example, they prayed to the Rain God to nourish their crops. They practiced their religion during ceremonies conducted by priests. They also practiced confession and even fasted before important ceremonies (Gann and Thompson 1931 118-138). The Mayans also b...