THE MAYANS AND THEIR

IMPACT ON OUR SOCIETY

Who were the Mayans? 1

ABSTRACT

MAYA 3 The Maya was one of the most important tribes in North America. Their everyday lives were very different from most of our everyday lives. They had a very hard and large landscape to live in at that time. They had many different rituals that had sacrifices and believed in a different religion than most people today. Instead of being one big tribe, the Maya was made up of several different tribes that had a common cultural background. As a nation the Maya were artistic and religion but the states were politically sovereign. The most important of the cultural native people of North America were the Maya. The Mayan language which is spoken by three thousand people is taking the place of the Spanish language. Their verbal stock involves about twenty different tribes, which have very similar dialect. They had to have scribes, artistic, and architects, between the ruling class and the lower class, because there are remains of their work. Most likely the priestly duties were fulfilled by the ruler because there is no evidence of priesthood. Mayan government was a monarchy. Nobles from the four royal families governed the provinces. A lower class of nobility ruled the towns and villages, not of the royal blood. They received mo money, and each one was held accounted for conservation of the poor and helpless of his district. The highest priest designated the lower priest. Farmers, artisans, and merchants paid for taxes and military services. Their slaves mostly included prisoners of war and their children. After the death of a property owner, the land was evenly divided between his nears heirs. Crimes were punished by death, usually by being throw off a cliff, enslaved, fined, or rarely, by imprisonment. The children of the common people were trained only in the occupation of their parents, but those of the nobility were highly educated under the care of the priest, in writing, music, history, war, and religion. The Maya used to live about five hundred and fifty miles from north to South and three hundred and fifty miles from east to west ate widest section. It included almost all of Guatemala, El Salvador, and the western fingers of Honduras, Belize and in Mexico, all of Yucatan. They divided it into 3 mayor regions. The south part is the mountainous part of Guatemala. The western part is a land of volcanoes, deep canyons, lakes, and temperate climate. North of that is the central area that consist or the southern half of the Yucatan peninsula. It is a plain made up of limestone with rivers and lakes underground. Here there is less rainfall than central part. In many areas the thin spill fails to cover the limestone. The Maya looked at Venus every day. They timed some of their wars they had on the way Venus and Jupiter were positioned. People were sacrificed on the first site after Superior Conjunction which is when Venus is at its dimmest point but they fear the most the first Heliacal Rising after the Conjunction. In the Dresden Codex the Maya had an almanac that showed the full cycle of Venus. They counted five sets of five hundred and eighty four days or five repetition of the Venus cycle. The Maya had many rituals that they performed and had a very different religion than most people have today. Rites of bloodletting are one, which is the offering of objects, human sacrifice. These ceremonies would have dancing, music, and the burning of pom, incense made from the copal tree. The mortal of ancient Maya ritual life was blood. They used blood on every important moment in the life of the community and in the life of the individuals. They sometimes sacrificed their own bodies, even cutting themselves in pieces. They would also sacrifice certain parts of their bodies. For example, they would pierce their tongue in slanting direction from side to side and pass pieces of straw through the piercing with awful pain. The Maya were truly an amazing group of tribes. They had many advances in Technology. They had a very good place to live. They had a very unique culture. They were amazing civilization that is still remembered, respected, and admired. .

The information for this project was obtained from sources like books and web pages in which a copious amount of information about this culture can be found.

>

Nacaome Home Page