the origin & where they live now

8/14/2019 The Origin & Where They Live Now

1/14


2/14


3/14
http://www.ablogabouthistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/sacrifice.jpghttp://www.ablogabouthistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/sacrifice.jpg


4/14

Their basic beliefs

Mayan religion was characterized by the worship of Naturegods, especially the gods of sun, rain and corn, a priestlyclass, the importance of astronomy and astrology, ritualsof human sacrifice and the building of elaboratepyramidical temple.

Some aspects of Mayan religion survive today among theMayan Indians of Mexico and central America whopractice a combination of traditional religion and romancatholism. The remaining Mayas were conquered by theSpanish and converted to roman catholism.

The present day Mayan peoples are spread mainly acrosssouthern Mexico with small numbers in Guatemala andBelize. They practice a religion that combines romancatholism with Mayan cosmology, deities, and domesticrituals.
http://www.ablogabouthistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/sacrifice.jpghttp://www.ablogabouthistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/sacrifice.jpghttp://www.ablogabouthistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/sacrifice.jpghttp://www.ablogabouthistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/sacrifice.jpghttp://www.ablogabouthistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/sacrifice.jpg


5/14

Arts and traditions

The Mayan society was a strict theocratic hierarchy, where the priests heldgreat power for their connection with the gods. Warfare played anessential part of Mayan society, and they did practice human sacrifice. It isbelieved that they sacrificed captured enemy warriors and ball players aswell as people of their own tribe, going willingly to the World of the Gods.Many offerings and sacrifices, human and others, have been found incenotes, the fresh water sinkholes found throughout the Yucatn.

The priests and royalty also performed auto-sacrifice, for example bypiercing a body part to offer their own blood. One popular bloodlettingceremony, shown on many examples of Mayan art, was to pierce their owntongue and thread a thin rope through the hole, thus letting the blood rundown the rope.

The tradition of offering alcohol or blood to the Gods is still in pratice inmany places around the Mayan World. Maya hand woven traditionalclothing can reveal the wearers identity as a belonging to a certainlinguistic group, her origin from a specific place, or place in a religioushierarchy.


6/14

More Arts and Traditions

In most Mayan villages, women weave cloth for their family's clothingor for ceremonial, artistic, and, increasingly, commercial purposesMayan women weave the design of the universe into their cloth. Likeprayers, the designs woven speak to the gods to convey wishes orreflect the glory of the universe. An embroidered scorpion calls downthe rain. Cotton symbolizes clouds. A diamond represents the world.The number thirteen recalls the sun's course through the sky andunderworld. Elaborate geometric designs repeated on each piece mapthe organization of the Mayan cosmos.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.pointcarre.com/Tribune/imarticles/Chiapas/Image/20.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.pointcarre.com/Tribune/imarticles/Chiapas/GB_resum.html&usg=__-3RzI_KbMf8_5nlwWOVooErGdXo=&h=322&w=306&sz=33&hl=en&start=10&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=ipIDVPrzYEQScM:&tbnh=118&tbnw=112&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmayans%2Bweaving%2Bcloth%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1


7/14

The Mayans Encounters with the Europeans

The early inhabitants of the Caribbean and Central America were

the Arawaks and the Caribs, who were skilled hunters,fishermen, and farmers. The Arawak people learned the skill offarming about 9,000 A.D. through cultivating wild seed fruits androots and growing crops of maize, yams, cassava, cotton, andtobacco. The Maya people developed complex civilizations inCentral America and Mexico, thousands of years beforeEuropeans arrived in the region.

The Maya civilization took thousands of years to develop, andreached its height between 250 A.D. and 900 A.D. These ancientpeoples were farmers and thrived on crops of beans, corn,cocoa, squash, and chile peppers. The Maya were also proficient

potters and cloth makers. They made beautiful clay pots thatthey hardened with fire. They wove fabrics from the cotton thatthey farmed and dyed the cloth with bright patterns. The multi-faceted Maya were also great stone workers, making jewelryfrom jade, gold, silver, copper, and bronze, as well as erectingvarious architectural wonders including plazas, palaces, publicbuildings, temples, and sculptures of their gods and heroes.


8/14

The Mayans Encounters with the

Europeans continued The Spanish began conquering Central American countries, including

Guatemala and Honduras, and devastating the Maya settlements.Spaniards tried to gain control of the Maya of Chetumal, which wasthe capital of a large Maya area in Belize, but the Maya peopleopposed the Spanish invasion with methods that included burningSpanish buildings, making the capital a refuge for the Maya in other

areas who were trying to escape the Spaniards. The Spanish never gained control of the Maya who resided in Belize.

Still, the Spanish took their toll on the Mayas. Before the Spanishinvasion, the Maya population numbered about 400,000. Afterward,the number of Maya people in the region dropped about 86 percentdue to war and European diseases.

When the British came to Belize, the Maya were no longer living onthe coast, and there are no recorded encounters between the twocultures until the late 18th century. In the 18th century, the Spanishforced the British out of the land, but never inhabited it, so the Britishreturned to Belize and expanded their settlements and logwood trade.


9/14

The Mayans Encounters with the

Europeans continued As the British moved deeper into Belize, they inevitably

came in contact with the Maya. The Maya were pushedback into the forests, but did not surrender easily. In 1866Marcos Canul, the leader of the Mayans, led a revoltagainst a British mahogany camp and captured British

prisoners. He demanded ransom for the hostages as wellas payment for the land that the British had stolen. TheBritish retorted by burning the Maya crops and destroyingtheir villages and food supplies in hopes of starving themout of the region. But within five years the Mayans hadrebuilt their villages and replanted their crops. They

continued attacking the British settlements until the deathof Canul.


10/14

How their lives were affected by

European colonist.Beginning around 1960, a civil war raged in

Guatemala for more than 30 years. First anelected leader who favored land reform wasoverthrown by the military. Then government

military forces fought rebel groups that wereliving I the highlands. Thousands of civilianswere killed, and many others fled the country.,The Mayas suffered during the civil war. Inhundreds of villages throughout Guatemala,

soldiers came to claim the Mayas land. ManyMayas lost all of their belongs and were forcedout of there villages.


11/14

Problems the Mayans face today in

the modern world The Maya today number about six million people, making them

the largest single block of indigenous peoples north of Peru.many Maya communities have succeeded in preserving theiridentity and their ways. This is partly because, throughout theirhistory, the Maya have been confined to a single unbroken

area including parts of southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize,and the western edges of Honduras and El Salvador. In 1996 agreements were signed promising that indigenous

communities would be rebuilt. However not all of theagreements have been followed. Violations of human rights bythe government increased again in 2000, and many

Guatemala's protested in the streets. The fight for the rights ofthe Mayas and for all of the ordinary people of Guatemalacontinues today.


12/14

How climate shaped mayans

cultureWhat caused the collapse of the great Maya

civilization?

A long time of dry climate, enlarged by three

intense droughts, led to the end of the Mayasociety. Climate change is to reason for one ofthe worst collapses in human history.

Then, almost in an instant, a society of some 15

million people imploded, leaving deserted cities,trade routes, and immense pyramids in ruins.The sudden demise is one of the greatestarcheological mysteries of our time.


13/14

How Mayans culture changed as a

result of European conquest The Mexican invasion of the Mayas in the Yucatan occurred in the century that followed the

end of the Classic Period for the Mayas. There is 800 miles that separates the groups andthis meant long and difficult travel for the Mexican Toltecs. Toltec art and architecture isseen first in the late 900s at Chichen Itza, a Mayan city that had flourished during theClassic Period. According to Maya records, the Toltec rule of Chichen Itza lasted for twocenturies and as a result, the Maya way of life was altered considerably. The Toltecsbrought with them many new religious cults and beliefs such as the worship ofQuetzalcoatl-Kukulcan, the feather-serpent god. This is important because after theMexicans gained control of the Mayas at Chichen Itza, this god became a part of the new

architecture that accompanied the arrival of the Toltecs and it proves that the Toltecs did infact change the Mayan way of life. The invaders also brought very militaristic attitudes withthem and this was also reflected in the new Maya art as warriors began to be depicted morefrequently.

Although the Itzas controlled virtually every aspect of the new Mayan society, after 200years of their rule, a famous character in Mayan history wiped out the Itzas almost singlehandedly. Hunac Ceel, also called Cauich, became the ruler after a ceremony in whichsacrifices were made to the rain gods. Ceel became the ruler of the area and in no timedrove the ruler of Chichen Itza and his followers from the city. This new leadership that was

started by Ceel controlled the Yucatan and surrounding areas for two and a half centuriesand there were numerous changes that resulted.


14/14

the origin & where they live now

Documents