Mayan Indians

531 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: ancient maya beliefs

Mayan Indians

The Maya Indians are Indians that Lived in parts of present time Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

The Maya Indians had a complex hieroglyphic alphabet and a complicated calendar system. Only the high priests and kings knew how to read it and write and read the complex alphabet.

The Maya Indians did not live in teepees like you may think they lived in houses sort of like ours but no nails or installation to keep it warm. The Maya Indians where great builders they made large buildings made out of stone some stones weighed more than 2 tons that is over 4,000 pound.

When a child was born in the Maya civilization it was a sign of good luck. After it was born the priest was called and the baby was given a sacred name and then the priest predicts the future.

In marriages the woman was allowed to marry when she was 14-15 years old. The boy in the relationship had to be at least 18 years old like our country in marriages.

The Maya men and woman where very short compared to us. The average woman was 4â€(tm) 8†quite short for our women who reached an average of 5â€(tm) 4â€. The men where also short but not too short. They reached5â€(tm) 8†only 2 inches shy of our men who reach an average of 5â€(tm) 10â€.

The Mayan disappeared close to the year 900 A.D. By 1450 most of the major cities where abandoned. Nobody knows for sure but there are theories that the men would go to war and the family would hide in a near by countryside and take cover. The tribe made their culture so advanced and just abandoned it for war. So why would a culture ruin their life style to fight but that is just a theory we may never know.

The stylish thing to do in the Mayan civilization was having tattoos and wearing tons of jewelry was considered hip. Also they thought that filling your teeth to a sharp point and having your eyes crossed was attractive.

Priests had three main types of calendars. The first was a civil calendar this was based on the solar cycle of the sun. The year lasted 365 days there was no leap year though so they where a day off every 7 years. The long court had a special system that kept track of long spans of time such as decades and centuries.

Show More
Related

  • The Last Americans: Environmental Collapse And The End Of Civilization, By Jared Diamond

    938 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Dbq Mayan Achievements

    636 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Dysfunctional Family in Why I Live at the P.O.

    1327 Words  | 3 Pages

    Since Sister was affected the most by certain actions of the family, Welty narrated this short story through Sister’s point of view to show how the function of the family declined through these actions. Sister was greatly affected when her sister broke the bonds of sisterhood by stealing her boyfriend and marrying him. Secondly, Sister was affected by the favoritism shown by her family towards her younger sister. Since her sister was favored more than her, this caused her to be jealous of her sister. For example, Sister shows a lot of jealousy by the tone she uses when describing what Stella-Rondo did with the bracelet that their grandfather gave her. Sister’s description was, “She’d always had anything in the world she wanted and then she’d throw it away. Papa-Daddy gave her this gorgeous Add-a-Pearl necklace when sh...

    Read More

  • Galileo and His Strong Beliefs

    376 Words  | 1 Pages

    Science contradicts the bible in many ways according to Galileo because scientists are looking further into and past what the bible says. So therefore scientists have different meanings of what the bible says. Scientists are more complex than the bible and it words. He explains this by saying that in the bible you will find words that say the sun moves and the earth stands still.

    Read More

  • Galileo's Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina, 1695

    1199 Words  | 3 Pages

    In his Letter to The Grand Duchess Christina, Galileo challenged the widely accepted religious beliefs of the time, claiming that the conflict lies in their interpretation, not the context. In Galileo’s eyes science was an extremely useful tool that could and should have been used in interpreting the Scriptures. He argued that “the intention of the Holy Ghost is to teach us how one goes to heaven not how heaven goes” (Grand Duchess). The purpose of science was not to counter what the bible teaches; rather its purpose was to help explain the teachings of the scriptures. Furthermore, it was “prudent to affirm that the holy Bible can never speak untruth-whenever its true meaning is understood” (Grand Duchess). However, because of the terminology in which the bible was presented the perception of what the Scripture defined as truth was skewed. The Bible was written so that the common man could understand it and follow its commandments. The people also showed a greater inte...

    Read More

  • The Mayans of Mesoamerica

    739 Words  | 2 Pages

    The ancient Mayans were a very well developed society with a very accurate calendar, skilled architects, artisans, extensive traders and hunters. They are known to have developed medicine and astronomy as well. All of this was developed while the Europeans were still in the Dark Ages.

    Read More

  • The Tikal Mayan Civilization

    913 Words  | 2 Pages

    Today more than six million Maya live in Guatemala Mexico and Belize. Modern Maya has brought their unique way of life. Their religion to has changed from idolatry to Catholicism, animal offerings. Tikal is a Visitor site with museums and hotels cover the space was camp of Arc.

    Read More

  • Mayans

    741 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Maya have been called the “Greeks of the New World” because of their intellectual accomplishments. They were the most advanced in writing, math, architecture, and astronomy of all the Indian civilizations.

    Read More

  • Women in the Revolutionary War and The Civil War

    1435 Words  | 3 Pages

    When we hear the names, Paul Revere, Benjamin Franklin or George Washington, we can immediately identify these men as noble leaders and celebrated heroes who made extraordinary contributions during the fragile infancy of our country. These men and many others unselfishly risked their lives to fight for a united nation in both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. However, do the names Philis Wheatley, Jenny Hodges or Sybil Ludington inspire the same recognition and admiration for their unprecedented sacrifices for the same “cause”? The answer may be “no” and, unfortunately, it would be expected.

    Read More

  • Mesoamerican Civilization Essay

    1254 Words  | 3 Pages

    Descendants of the ancient Maya civilization live today in the Yucatán Peninsula of Southern Mexico, Guatemala, and parts of Honduras and El Salvador.

    Read More

  • Mayan Religion

    1535 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Decline Of The Mayan Civilization

    999 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Mayan Civilization Dbq

    779 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Mayans lived in Southern Mexico and Central America in their capital, Tikal, which is in present day Guatemala. The Mayans were known for their engineering, one structure they were famous for is their pyramid temple in Tikal (Document 1). This pyramid was the tallest structure in the Americas up until the 20th century and is still standing today. The government must have been strong and well organized in order to carry out such a large task. The Mayan religion had multiple gods and this pyramid was most likely devoted to one or used as a place for sacrifices. Another accomplishment of the Mayans was the creation of their calendar. An extra document that would be useful is one that explains how the calendar was created. The Mayans must have studied astronomy and math to a great length. Similar to the Ancient Egyptians, they wrote with symbols and pictures known as glyphs that were used in the calendar. These glyphs were gods, such as Zotz (Document 2). The use of glyphs is an acknowledgement of a writing system, which is another accomplishment.

    Read More

  • The Features of Mayan Architecture

    2445 Words  | 5 Pages

    Thompson, john. The Rise and Fall of Maya Civilization. 2 edition . Univ of Oklahoma, 1973. 335. Print.

    Read More

  • The Maya Civilization

    1075 Words  | 3 Pages

    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...

    Read More

More about Mayan Indians

Open Document