In this website what it focuses on is the history, culture, and religion of the Mayas. It talks about the Mayan calendar, origins, the Mayan civilization at its peak, collapse? The mythical origins, the Maya Universe, human sacrifices, writing and astronomy, and economy and power. The purpose of the website is to educate people about the Mayan civilization. The intended audience is mostly for students, teachers, and other anthropologists. The strengths of this website is how it is organized and the information that they put. All the information seemed to be accurate. Weaknesses were that there weren’t that many pictures. For example, at the beginning of the page there was only one picture of a Mayan temple, then it had four different topics. …show more content…
There were all sorts of gods and goddesses for different types of things. For example, there were two sun gods, one was Kinich Ahau and the other one was Ah Kinchil. Others were Chac, who was the god of rain and thunder, then there’s Yumil Kaxob who was the god of maize, Yum Cimil who’s the god of death, Ixtab is the goddess of suicide, Ix Chel was the goddess of the earth and moon. Those are some of the god and goddesses of the Mayan civilization. What the intended purpose of this website is to inform people about the different types of gods and goddesses that the Mayan people worshiped. The intended audience is mostly for students, teachers, as well as other anthropologist. The strengths on the website would be that there’s a lot of information on each god and goddess and it’s also organized very, while weaknesses would be that it didn’t contain pictures of the rest of the gods and goddesses towards the bottom of the site. This websit is to inform people of what they have found. This is a commercial site that provides all the information. The website contains facts and also personal opinion. For example, it talks about Ix Chel who was the Earth and Moon goddess, as well as the patroness of weavers and pregnant women too. There’s a myth about her and it talks about the sun god was a lover of hers. None of the information on the site is cited. I think that the site was not created by a professional,
The most remarkable achievement of the Maya was their calendar. Every Mayan achievement listed, however, are very remarkable in their own right. Remnants of the Mayan society are still seen throughout our world today from all four of their discussed achievements. One could have an ethnocentric denial of the sheer remarkability of the advancements of the Maya because of some of the advancements of the Western World at that time period, however, the Maya achieved feats that the Western World could not even fathom. In fact, much of Maya architecture, such as their pyramids, cannot even be replicated today. The Mayan civilization may have physically declined centuries ago, but their concepts and principles will forever keep the Maya alive.
Shrouded in mythology and mystery, and frequently solely the focus of academic and archaeological exploration, the ancient Maya remain relatively misunderstood by contemporary culture-one needs to look no further than the endless array of alarmist 2012-centric texts that topped last year's best-seller lists, or commercialized salves and potions touting antiquated Mayan cures, to experience the general misconceptions about the remarkable civilization first
Before the end of the 20th century archeologist began making progress in translation of the ancient writing. Discoverers believed to have solved the mystery of the Maya when archeologists J.Eric Thompson, after conducting many excavations, concluded the people of Tikal were peaceful and free from conflict. After his analysis of the hieroglyphs believe declared the Maya people were spiritual and used Tikal as ceremonial site. As studies of the Maya people continued translation of the hieroglyphs went undispu...
Medina, Laurie Kroshus. 2003 ‘Commoditizing Culture – Tourism and Maya Identity’. Michigan State University, USA. pp 353-368
Mayan, Inca, and Aztec Civilizations. The Mayan, Inca, and Aztec civilizations each originated in Latin America. The Mayans lived in southern and central Mexico, other Mayans lived in Central America in the present day countries of Belize, Guatemala, and ancient Honduras. The Incas lived along the long coastal strip, and in the high peaks and deep fertile valleys of the Andes Mountains, and along the edges of the tropical forest to the east; this would be the country of Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina in present days.
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.
Many civilizations have similar qualities as other civilizations, but they also have their differences. Some of these differences include: Religion, Geography, and Government. These three things were a big part of any civilization. Two civilizations had many different things and many similar things. These civilizations are The Maya and The Romans. The Romans had a very unique and interesting culture, The Maya were also very interesting and different. Even though they were unique in their own way, they also had many similar qualities.
The Early Preclassic Era is the time period when the beginnings of agriculture emerge in Maya culture. The earliest evidence of agricultural field burning and cultivation of maize along with other crops dates well before the beginning of the Early Preclassic period. Agriculture was already being practiced in some areas of Guatemala that were settled by distinctively Maya groups.
The design of the website is appealing, although it may seem a bit over-whelming at first glance. Upon review, the design provides little written information regarding the actual purpose of the publication, but does include many easy to navigate hyper-links on various topics that may be very appealing to a person needing specific information on one topic.
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. 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).
Hermine BALLO – The Zinacantecos of Mexico, A Modern Maya Way of Life, Evon Z.Zogt, 1990
The Mayan civilization was located in southeastern Mexico on the Yucatan Peninsula. One of the first American civilizations, it lasted from about 1000 B.C.-1542 A.D. Their civilization flourished during the Sixth Century. They built many temples and over forty cities. The Mayan population consisted of almost fifteen million people who were all living in one of the many cities. The Mayan people were extremely religious and believed in multiple gods which meant they were polytheistic. Their most commonly worshiped god was the Maize God, or god of corn, as corn was the most grown and most relied on crop. The Mayans grew all of their own food so they needed to have useful farming methods. The one they used most often was the slash and burn method, which involved cutting down trees and burning them to make the soil fertil which was necessary to grow crops. This method worked for many years, but soon started to backfire. The Mayans were ahead of their time, but that did not prevent their mysterious decline which occurred between the years 800 A.D.-900 A.D. Although it is not known exactly why the powerful empire fell, but there are various probable theories. The mysterious decline of the Mayans may have been caused by
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.
These are a flaw because it combines and mixes the bad in one making it seem like Mayan culture was evil civilization. The film combines together “Classic Maya” period with the time period just a couple of days before the arrival of the Europeans. The movie details a period of agricultural failure and extreme food scarcity created thanks to a decreasing amount of rainfall, extremely descriptive of the Classic Mayan civilization of 250-950 C.E. (Lucero 2002; 814, 820). Some may argue that maybe Gibson perhaps to try and show the audience as much Mayan as possible in the film. The second is the wild exaggerations and violence that is seen in the movie. It is seen in the film that Jaguar Paw and his tribe never heard or seen a Mayan city where there are huge monuments and temples. According to the National Geographic “During the Classic period Maya settlement was so widespread that you lived at least within 10 to 20 kilometers [6 to 12 miles] of a large community. Pyramids were never more than 20 kilometers away from anywhere in the Mayan world.” So typically it’s impossible for Jaguar Paw to have never heard of the Maya before. The movies makes it seem like the tribe is the only living civilization living at the time and when they first meet the
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.