Annotated Bibliography Lasal Mapitigama Thesis: Constant warfare created strong instability in Mayan society because no city state could rule all the Maya, causing a lack of central authority, and a strong emphasis on capturing and executing captives often left regional leaders dead after wars. Aoyama, Kazuo. "Warfare, Warriors, and Weapons." In Encyclopedia of the Ancient Maya, edited by Walter R. Witschey, 376-79. New York City, NY: Roman & Littlefield, 2016. Aoyama's work focuses on the motivations of intensive Mayan warfare, being primarily the capture of enemies, as well as analyzing in detail the specific weapons used in warfare. He also describes the importance of warfare to the Mayan state, and how the success of city states was represented …show more content…
The glyphs, particularly their construction and variety, provide valuable insight into the religious undertones of Mayan warfare as well as the motivation, to capture important subjects. The source translates the combination of a star glyph and a the glyph of a city to mean war against that city, indicating the Mayan belief that war was divine and righteous. The text also includes a glyph indicating "captor of," which is to be added into a lord's title. This section suggests the Maya placed significant importance on holding captives. The presence of three symbols relating to captives within the text, which only analyzes a few samples, shows the significance in Mayan warfare of captivity. The information provided in the source may be the result of a certain translation; other translations may differ in interpretation. However, this source is important in understanding the reasons and motivations behind Mayan …show more content…
The competition between many cities meant that no city state had the power to dominate all of Mayan affairs, leading to disunity, Houk claims. The article analyzes warfare's religious influences, as after a city won a war it was expected to sacrifice to the gods or build new temples. Houk also puts forward that endemic warfare led to the demise of the Maya. He quotes many sources, and puts forward a solid and reasoned argument. His work is important in understanding the impacts of Mayan warfare as well as the reasons behind