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Essay on mayan religion
Essay on mayan religion
Essay on mayan religion
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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. Each of the Mayan calendars work together. In in the Mayan calendars time is cyclical, a set number of days has to occur before beginning a new cycle. A true Mayan calendar date includes all three calendars. The Long Count is the first part of the date. The Tzolk’n is next, followed by the Haab. The Haab calendar being the one that is linked to the actual length of a year. The Long Count calendar, also known as the astronomical calendar, (the one that caused all the doomsday panic and prophecies) was used to cover longer periods of time. The Mayans called these long periods of time the “Universal Cycle”. The Mayans believed the universe gets destroyed and is then recreated with the beginning of each universal cycle. This belief is what fuels end of the world prophecies, especially those stemming from the Mayan calendar. In a Long Count calendar date there are five numbers which are separated by four periods (for example, 13.0.0.0.0). 13.0.0.0.0 is thought to have been the Mayan’s theory as to the world’s creation date. The Mayans used hieroglyphs, such as those in the image, (Retrieved from mayacalendar.com/components.html) This... ... middle of paper ... ...xico History. N.p., 01 Jan. 2006. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. Gleghorn, Hannah. Mayan Long Count Calendar. N.d. Http://www.livescience.com/25662-how-mayan-calendar-works.html. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. Mayan Calendar Components. N.d. Http://www.mayacalendar.com/components.html. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. Mayan Calendar. N.d. Http://cdn.zmescience.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/mayan-calendar.gif. Web. 14 Mar. 2014. Pappas, Stephanie. "The Real Deal: How the Mayan Calendar Works." LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 19 Dec. 2012. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. Seler, Eduard, Ernst Wilhelm Förstemann, Paul Schellhas, Karl Sapper, E. P. Dieseldorff, and Charles P. Bowditch. Mexican and Central American Antiquities, Calendar Systems, and History: Twenty-four Papers. Washington: G.P.O., 1904. Print. "The Mayan Calendar - Predicting the End of the World?" The Mayan Calendar. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.
It is very likely that most people have heard about the Mayan Civilization in one way or another. Whether fictitious or factual, this ancient culture iw idelt recognized. The Mayan people lived from about 250 to 900 CE in Mesoamerica. Which includes modern day Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, and parts of southern Mexico.These people had many remarkable achievements, all of which can fit under the categories of scale, genius effort, and significance. These achievements include an advanced trade system, an amazing understanding of numbers, and the ability to design and build cities that are still mostly standing today. However, their most impressive achievement is their complex calendars.
There has been many predictions about when the world will end or how it would end but no one believes it and no one knew whether they true or not. This time is true and you have to believe it. Now there are more and more information to support Mayans' prediction. According to the Mayan's calculation the longest calender only goes up to December 21,2009. It takes a long time in order for a calendar to go through one cycle. The longest cycle takes 26,000 years and the shortest cycle takes 5,000 years. Now our cycle is about to end, and once this cycle is complete everything will start over again.
The Maya elite developed a complicated calendar system. There are two main cycles in their calendar; one was made up of 260 days and the other 365. Each day is named from both the 260 and 365-day calendars. Because of this each full day name could only repeat every 18,980 days or once every 52 years.
Planning for Armageddon. (2009, September 26). New Scientist, 5. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database
In the early centuries A.D., the Mayan peoples began building their civilization in the center of Mesoamerica. This location allowed the Maya to conduct trade and exchange their local products. They also participated in the slash and burn method, however, evidence shows that they may have developed other methods such as planting on raised beds above swamps and on hillside terraces. Not only did location have an influence on agricultural life, it also had an influence on all other aspects of life. The Maya drew influence from a neighboring society, the Olmec. The Maya blended their customs with the Olmec to create a culturally diverse society. These Olmec customs had quite an influence on other aspects of the Maya society. The Maya had a polytheistic religion with gods of corn, death, rain, and war. These religious beliefs led to the development of calendars, astronomy, and mathematics. The Maya developed two types of calendars: religious and solar. The religious calendar was based on the belief that “time was a burden carried on the back of a God.” The solar calendar was based on the observations of the sun, planets, and moon. Unlike our calendar today, it was consisted of twenty-five da...
...ortant calendar of the Mayas. El Castillo has four sides, each side has 91 steps, this is equal to the 365 days of the solar year. It has nine terraces which are divined in two, which makes 18, this symbolizes the number of months in the Maya Calendar.
In the Central America, most notably the Yucatan Peninsula, are the Maya, a group of people whose polytheistic religion and advanced civilization once flourished (Houston, 43). The Maya reached their peak during the Classic Period from around CE 250 to the ninth century CE when the civilization fell and dispersed (Sharer, 1). Although much has been lost, the gods and goddesses and the religious practices of the Classic Maya give insight into their lives and reveal what was important to this society.
One disease, called smallpox, spread across the empire quickly. The citizens died from smallpox and hunger wiping out the population. The civilization was in the midst of a downwards spiral. The Mayan Empire may have been ahead of its time but they did not have the medicine to treat the foreign diseases that these people were suffering from. Almost half of the people died within a year after the new diseases was brought to their lands. The people went into panic because now it was evident that their civilization was declining. As clear as it was that the civilization was falling, they still blamed these disasters on their leaders and their
Siegel explains the usage of it and how different cultures have adapted it for their uses. The Chinese based their version of the year of people’s birth while Europeans based it on locations of the Sun, Moon and planets connected to different Zodiac signs (Siegel 2014). Nowadays, people turn to the Zodiac Table in finding some guidance into how to live their lives. Since the Zodiac table has been an idea accepted for a long time and is ingrained in many various cultures in the world, some people do not question its validity. As explained earlier just because Zodiac signs seem reasonable, it does not make Astrology a science to
In Maya dating, the date reads from left to right with the 'Long Count' date coming first, then the 'Tzolkin date' and lastly, the 'Haab date'. For example, using the Maya calender numbering system, a typical date would read as:
Blackburn, Bonnie, and Leofranc Holford-Strevens. The Oxford Companion to the Year: An Exploration of Calendar Customs and Time-Reckoning. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1999.
The European and Mayan civilizations had inverse experiences during the Classical era, but they were similar in some aspects. While the Mayans were basking in their glorious success as a civilization, the Europeans stood in their shadow. However, after the Renaissance Era, it was as if the Mayans stood in the shadow of the European revival. These two societies have a definite inverse relationship, in that while one was succeeding, the other was squandering. For example, the forward thinking of the Mayans and their knowledge of arithmetic and science was overshadowed by the revolutionary ideas created by European scientists, the fact that the Mayans had created a complex, and accurate calendar wasn’t nearly as celebrated as a European man who got hit by an apple.
And finally, my answer to all this bullshit. Nostradamus is a crock, Niburu is a crock, and as for the Mayan calendar ending on 2012 Dec. 25th, that would be correct. Their calendar does end every 25800 years. For your information, we are currently in the age of Pisces (hence the Jesus fish on the back of everyone’s cars, Pisces was the fisherman). The calendar is based on the constellations. On Dec. 25th we enter the new age of Aquarius. So yes, the calendar does end on this date, but ours ends every year as well, Dec. 31st, and we’re drink to celebrate a new day and new year, January 1st. So kick back, relax, and bring in the new age with a glass of champagne, and watch the crazies sew their eyes shut.
The Maya culture has a long history that started in about 1000 BC. The history of the Maya is divided up into four different time periods: The Middle Preclassic Period, Late Preclassic Period, Classic Period, and Postclassic Period. The Middle Preclassic Period was when the small areas started to become city-like in the way that they started to build larger temples. The Late Preclassic Period was when the cities began to expand with paved roads and massive pyramids. The Classic Period was the time the Maya civilization hit it’s peak. Populations were growing rapidly and the structure of politics was formed. The Postclassic Period was when warfare was on the rise and cities were being abandoned(Coe 2005). This paper will focus on the Classic Period due to the fact that that is the greatest time period in Maya history.
"Mayan Theory." The 2012 Theories: All the 2012 Theories in one Place. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2012.