ipl-logo

Mayan Culture Essay

632 Words3 Pages

As a civilization in the jungle, the Maya are well known for their architecture, art, monumental sculptures, and calendars. The Mayan religious, ritualistic culture is developed and maintained in conjunction of the native people, as well as a communication and ties to the earth and sky. Understanding the Maya people and their religion is similar to understanding the geographical location of the people, and therefore their life source. There is great importance within the items that surrounded them geographically. Products or resources that sustained them as a community, or maintained their health and wellbeing, also created foundations for their religious belief system.
The ability to discover the forces of life, death, destruction, and creation are important to many societies, and the Maya are not excluded from this necessitate. One of the ways a society can preserve culture is through a practice of religious beliefs. Rituals that surround the creation myth for example, signify the importance of the mind, or wisdom of knowledge, the importance of a soul or spiritual preserve, and the life force or blood of the people and the Gods. These beliefs, practices and rituals form the subsidence and life in …show more content…

Spanish and Catholic influence is not disregarded in this text; regardless, it remains one of the best educated outlooks of ancient Mayan culture available. The Popol Vuh describes that the creation of man, and then their wives, were successfully formed from the staple food supply in the area, Maize. The Maya took something in which they identified with life, to help explain the complexity of creation. Items like corn and water were on the same level as blood and flesh in the Mayan world. Important articles to life like productive agriculture of the existing Maya, became important to the understanding the creation of

Show More
Related
538 Words | 3 Pages

Over a thousand years ago in the Mesoamerica region the culture that we know as Maya thrived. They had an amazement and intrigued fascination over the technical mastery of their intellectual studies. The Mayan’s history is rich with remarkable human achievements, as well as stories. Some of their most recognizable masterpieces are the Mayan trade network, building Cities, the Mayan number system, and the Mayan calendar.

Read More
227 Words | 1 Pages

Everything was perfectly planned out. As the calendar says, they have to sacrifice one of their own to please the Gods. The Mayan people would get together as a whole to practice their religious ceremony at the temple. The Mayan and Aztec civilizations are two ancient civilizations that were located near Central and South America. The Mayan civilization was more remarkable than the Aztecs because of their advanced knowledge.

Read More
1081 Words | 5 Pages

The Mayans believed that there was two gods that helped form Earth : Tepeu and Gucumatz. The two gods wanted a place where they would be worshipped, so they thought of Earth. Once the Earth was formed, they created different species of men that they wanted to be worshipped by . None of their creations turned out the way they wanted too, until the last

Read More
1170 Words | 5 Pages

During the Classical Period, the timeline that stretched between 250 A.D. to 900 A.D., the Mayans were a civilization filled with success and abundance. Located in Central America, mainly around the Yucatan Peninsula, the Mayans built complex cities large enough to house millions of people during a pre-industrial age. They also developed a number of trade networks that allowed them to connect regions one at a time to exchange goods and luxuries. Moreover, they created the idea of zero, their base-20 number system, and many calendars. The Mayans were undoubtedly one of the most progressive pre-industrial civilizations, creating revolutionary inventions and executing considerable feats that assisted their daily lives.

Read More
178 Words | 1 Pages

Religion The Olmec of Mexico had multiple beliefs of religion. They built big stone temples that had walkaways through the middle of it and everyone in the village went to this temple to either trade or pray. The temple will be located near our stone heads and will be in the middle of our display, this part is important because the olmec were a very religious tribe. They made stone statues of god heads, they usually looked like cubes. These stone carvings were very important to their religion because they believed in multiple gods, these statues will be located in the middle of our display.

Read More
926 Words | 4 Pages

The Mayans’ greatest achievement was neither developing a calendar, nor establishing a complex trade system- but rather, the building of their gigantic cities. But what defines excellency? The answer can be categorized into four sections: significance, scale, genius, and effort. The ancient Mayan civilization thrived in isolation, and it wasn’t until recently that we began to truly appreciate their culture and accomplishments.

Read More
602 Words | 3 Pages

The Maya and Cherokee colonialism is the “policy or practice of acquiring full, or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.” Both the Maya and Cherokee indigenous people had similar colonial experience involving different wars, and disease of their lands. The Maya colonial period was from 1520’s-1821. The civilization occupied a wide territory that included southeastern Mexico and northern Central America, and all of the territory now incorporated into the modern countries of Guatemala and Belize, as well as the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador.

Read More
442 Words | 2 Pages

The Maya civilization flourished in Mesoamerica, a region that includes the current territories of Southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and western Honduras. It is divided in three periods: Pre-Classic (2,000 B.C.), Classic (250-900 A.D.), and Post-Classic (900-1500 A.D.). Of these periods, the Classic is the most well-known and the one where the Maya reached the apotheosis. It witnessed the peak of large-scale construction and urbanism, the recording of monumental inscriptions, and a period of significant intellectual and artistic development. See MICHAEL D. COE, THE MAYA (6th ed.1999).

Read More
1079 Words | 5 Pages

The ancient Maya civilization of Mesoamerica had a complex and sophisticated economy that supported their society for over a thousand years. The economy was primarily based on agriculture, with maize as the most important crop. The Maya also traded extensively in a variety of goods such as salt, obsidian, jade, and cacao beans, which were used as a form of currency. The Maya had an intricate system of trade routes that connected their cities and allowed for the exchange of goods over long distances. They also had a complex system of taxation, with tribute paid in the form of goods or labor.

Read More
814 Words | 4 Pages

Maya architecture also incorporates various art forms and hieroglyphic texts. Along with their great architecture, trade was a key component of the Maya

Read More
469 Words | 2 Pages

Maya also had hundreds of principal deities (197). The gods and goddesses had direct control of nature and their being as well. The peoples of Mesoamerica’s life’s was solely based on pleasing their gods and goddesses even though there were so many.

Read More
94 Words | 1 Pages

Medicine influenced the ancient Mayan society by forcing the ancient Mayans to believe in the limited treatments that were available to them. Much of Mayan medicine was reliant on spiritual chants because of their lack of in-depth research, however they did use plant extracts to cure certain ailments; relying on the color of the plant to determine what it could cure. Today, we know that the color of the plant means very little about its healing properties which shows us how the Mayans had to trust their remedies because they had no other options.

Read More
366 Words | 2 Pages

Introduction Maya art was expressed in a multitude of artistic facets, such as monumental architecture, modeling stucco, ceramics, paintings on walls or ceramics, carving on wood or engraving on bones, and modeled figurines. All of these artistic manifestations show the creativity and genius of ancient Maya art in representing individuals, animals, deities, rulers, dwarves, including scenes from everyday life. In most cases, the artistic representations of the ancient Maya portrayed aspects of nature, based on observations of their immediate surroundings. In other instances, the representations show that knowledge or acquisition of specimens that were the result of regional trade and exchange.

Read More
557 Words | 3 Pages

The ancient Mayans, who lived in parts of present-day Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, created one of the most complex and advanced civilizations in the Western Hemisphere. The Mayans accomplished many remarkable and influential achievements, most notably, in art, astronomy, and engineering. The achievements of the Mayans influenced the cultures around them and are still influential today. The Mayans created amazingly sophisticated works of art.

Read More
220 Words | 1 Pages

The Mayan art and scientific realizations have made a long lasting impression on modern mankind. Achievements in art can be witnessed in sculptures and the vestige of their cities. Much of mayan art is distinctly is differently from European art and is easily recognizable. The Mayan art is distinctly different from European art and is easily recognizable. They’re known for being regarding as the inventors of many aspects of their cultures including hieroglyphic writing in the western hemisphere.

Read More

More about Mayan Culture Essay

Related Topics

Open Document