maya

My area for the group project was to research the ethnicity of Guatemala. Guatemala’s culture is unique in that each era’s traits are mix with traits of the previous era. Mayan customs frequently mix with Spanish colonial heritage in the current culture. Guatemala has a population of roughly 13 million people, and the majority is extremely poor. The people also struggle with issues such as malnutrition and illiteracy. The population has a relativity high birth rate and a low death rate, which does expand the population, which led to a bloom in the 1990’s but has since slowed dramatically. Guatemala’s population is in fact starting to regress a little, and many people are starting to flee the country over problems the 90’s population boom caused. These problems include political instability, and an increase in poverty.

The culture of Guatemala is broken up into three eras: the Mayan Era, the Spanish Colonial, and the Post-Independence era. Guatemala is unique in regards to how the different era’s of culture are layered on top of one another. A good example of this is religion; the traditional Mayan religion is still popular in the country, yet they also practice Christianity brought over during the Spanish Colonial era. People also experiment with modern religions in order to confirm their Mayan beliefs.

Food is indicative of how the culture in Guatemala is separated. In rural areas food is still made by hand using traditional methods, and it is usually foods we associate with the poor. Meanwhile in the urban areas landinos and mestizos have their food prepared for them and it is high end foods. However foods such and black beans, tortillas and chilies do transcend both economic and social status. The indigenous people also d...

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...ell known of Guatemala’s indigenous population. The Maya of today have to fight to keep their culture every day, despite peace agreements between the Maya and the Guatemalan government. The Maya have been discriminated and oppressed by the government in an attempt to get them to assimilate into mainstream Spanish culture. I think some of this rift may be due to the fact that the Mayans have a cultural identity and the landinos do not. In 1992 the Maya did get a little respect form both the landios and the Guatemalan government when Rigoberta Menchú won the Noble Peace Prize for her work in trying to establish the rights for Mayan people in Guatemala.

The ancestors to the current Maya was a very sophisticated Meso-American civilization that lasted for almost 4,ooo years. The Mayan civilization is broken up into three eras: Pre-Classic, Classic, and Post-Classic.