I picked the Mayans because we have learned about them a lot in Social Studies. The Mayans are from Mexico and Central America. They are native people. They had a large population that peaked at 2,000,000 people. The climate where they lived was a tropical rainforest climate. The Mayans were very religious in their culture. The social structure of the Mayans was made of nobles, commoners, serfs, and slaves. The governmental structure of the Mayans was four-tiered political hierarchy. The Mayans economics were based primarily on trade and agriculture. They can be seen in today’s society because the structures and temples they built have become popular tourist destinations.
In these days, Mexico was made up of 40 city-states. Each city state
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Their religion had many gods, and it involved nature and astronomy. They had different gods represented for nature. For example, they had a Sun God and a Corn (Maize) God. They built structures and temples for religious purposes. These structures and temples they built were similar and different at the same time as the Egyptians. The Egyptian pyramids were also for religious purposes, but the top of the structure was pointed. The Mayan structures were flat on top. The Mayans had two different designed structures. One that had steps meant for climbing. This structure was for human sacrifices they made to please their gods. The other structure on the other hand, had steps but were not meant for climbing. This structure was not to be touched because it was meant to be sacred. In the Mayan culture, they had calendars. The calendar was made up of glyptic symbols. They would put these symbols on the sides of the buildings and put into books. They had a more complicated calendar that kept track of time using different things that could tell about a single day or from a thousand or more years later. A few years ago people thought the world was going to end because one of the Mayan calendars. This was not true. These calendars had a big part in the Mayan …show more content…
The definition of hierarchy is an organized system that people are ranked according to the authority. It is similar to the social structure they also have. The kings and priests were in charge. The rulers were thought to be god-like. Each city-state was independent and never became united. Many people thought only men could rule, but that is not true. They wanted it to run in the family because they thought the rulers were god-like and were called of god. The women in the family would rule if there was not a man to rule. The political structure goes along with the social structure. The kings and the priests were at the top of the social structure and the political structure. What the kings and priests says, it goes. Not only did the Mayans have a four-tiered political hierarchy, but they also had an economic plan and way of doing
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.
The Mayans were a native Mesoamerican group of people who erected one of the most sophisticated cultures in the Western Hemisphere. They inhabited areas in southern Mexico, and also surrounding Locations included Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and parts of Honduras. The Mayan religion civilization came into prominence in 250 A.D., administering a polytheistic approach to worship which included human blood sacrifices to honor their gods or to culminate the crowning of a King. Historians record that the Mayan civilization abruptly and mysteriously abandoned their cities between 900 and 925 A.D.; this also marks the end of the classical period in Mayan history. In this Annotated Bibliography, I will analyze and summarize key
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.
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.
The Egyptians used their pyramids to honor their gods and pharaohs, and the Mayans had flat pyramids that they worshipped their gods on. The Egyptian pyramids were huge and in a triangle shape. Both of these civilizations also sacrificed their gods on their specific pyramids. One thing the Mayans had that the Egyptians didn’t was a priestly caste, which is a social group that officiates sacrifices and leading prayers. Both of them used calendars in different ways than we use them today.
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.
They always build their cities and temples using Astronomy mostly on an East to West alignment, but there are some Early to Middle Pre-Classic examples of a Pleiades alignment in the Pacific Lowlands at sites such as: Ujuxte, Monte Alto and Tak 'alik Abaj. Aside from having religious functions, Mayan pyramids also had other purposes. The pyramids were built so high that their tops could be seen protruding out of the jungle. Because of this, the Mayan people were able to use them as landmarks. That was not the only significance of building them so high though. They also served as a reminder that the gods were ever present(Hernandez 13). Some pyramids even house burial chambers for high ranking officials. Housed inside these mammoth structures were small burial rooms. There were narrow corridors that led to these chambers(Hernandez 21). These burial chambers often contained treasures such as jade(Hernandez 13). The Vault and Arch was used also in tombs, such as those in Guaytán, in the eastern Highlands and Tikal or Río Azul in the Petén
The areas dominated by the Maya are known today as the southern Mexican states: Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan, Quintana Roo, and Tabasco. The Maya civilization spread all the way through the nations of Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and Honduras. A very large expanse of city-states that ruled the area linked by trade routes.
Among the original cultures of the New World, the Mayan culture is known for its art, architecture, and astronomical systems. Mayan art reflects their lifestyle and their culture. They painted and carved their art on things such as paper, plaster, wood, obsidian, bone, shells, jade, stone, and clay. “Painted cups and vases depict scenes of court life, and clay figurines portray members of the retinue that attended the king” (http://www.authenticmaya.com/maya_art.htm). Mayan people painted murals on buildings and in caves. These paintings were very important to them and their culture. They painted these murals with plants and mineral colorants to embody mythological scenes for the ancient Maya. The Mayan culture also made pottery. Archeologists
BYU Studies 38.4 (1999): 43-64. Print. The. Sharer, Robert. A. The Ancient Maya.
The Mayans were known for their engineering, one structure they were famous for is their pyramid temple
Mayan Political Structure The Maya were an indigenous people who occupied a vast expanse of land in Mesoamerica, stretching from modern day Honduras to the Yucatan peninsula. The Maya, though usually thought of as one collective empire, were never unified, but separated into around eighteen city-states. Often confused with The Aztecs, another ancient Mesoamerican civilization, the Maya and Aztecs were vastly different. While the Aztecs were a warmongering, aggressive civilization, the Maya were more focused on their advances in astronomy, mathematics, and writing which are still of importance today. But what is arguably more important than all their calendars and religious texts was their highly complex and layered government structure.
The Mayans had a calendar comparable to the one we employ today. In source one it says “The Mayans of central America relied not only on the Sun and Moon, but also the planet Venus, to establish 260 day and 365 day calendars”(53). Furthermore, this shows that the Mayans had a fascinating way of calculating time. Overall, they created calendars to help keep track of events like eclipses or other celestial
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...
The ancient Mayans, a diverse group of indigenous people who lived in the Yucatan Peninsula, had one of the most sophisticated civilizations in the Western Hemisphere. They were responsible for a number of remarkable scientific achievements in agriculture, astronomy and communications.Early Mayans developed a farming society, they were able to adapted to their environment buy using a system of clearing the dense rain forests called slash and burn which made farming easier. their farming consisted of their most important crop, maize. They would also cultivated beans, squash, maize together they called this process the three sisters this was important to the Mayan because it was a nutritionally complete diet. Astronomy was one of the greatest achievements of the Mayan Empire, The Mayans knew how many days were in a year and also developed a calendar according to their knowledge of astronomy. Another great achievement of the Mayan Empire is their system ...