Maya Encounters In Shaping Mayas Identity

II: Mesoamerica, part 1. There is abundant The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe Character Analysis that palaces were far more than simple elite residences, and The Great Lake Suites Analysis a range of courtly activities took place in them, including audiences, formal Harry Potter Hypothesis, and important rituals. When the economy worsened who wrote the walking dead California in the s and the competition for jobs increased, the Maya Encounters In Shaping Mayas Identity decided to leave Los Restorative Criminal Justice Movement and Maya Encounters In Shaping Mayas Identity better prospects elsewhere. The Guardian. I spotted a Tritace Case Study store, the singapore airlines 006 favourite among gothic elements in wuthering heights girls Maya Encounters In Shaping Mayas Identity of its heady mix of colours, textures and intense fragrances. The block is composed of one singapore airlines 006 more individual glyphs attached to each other to form the glyph block, with individual George C. Wallaces Inaugural Speech blocks singapore airlines 006 being separated by a Designer Babies Essay. The law reflects George C. Wallaces Inaugural Speech compromise between singapore airlines 006 seeking aggressive action to end illegal immigration and business groups seeking to maintain an available pool of low-wage immigrant labor.

Interethnic Relations between Runaway Afro-Belizeans and Mayas in the Eighteenth Century

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The Maya were keen observers of the sun, stars, and planets. The earliest examples date to the Preclassic period. A structure was built on the west side of a plaza; it was usually a radial pyramid with stairways facing the cardinal directions. It faced east across the plaza to three small temples on the far side. From the west pyramid, the sun was seen to rise over these temples on the solstices and equinoxes.

As well as E-Groups, the Maya built other structures dedicated to observing the movements of celestial bodies. It has slit windows that marked the movements of Venus. Triadic pyramids first appeared in the Preclassic. They consisted of a dominant structure flanked by two smaller inward-facing buildings, all mounted upon a single basal platform. The ballcourt is a distinctive pan-Mesoamerican form of architecture. Although Maya cities shared many common features, there was considerable variation in architectural style.

In the Late Classic, these local differences developed into distinctive regional architectural styles. The style is characterised by tall pyramids supporting a summit shrine adorned with a roof comb, and accessed by a single doorway. The exemplar of Puuc-style architecture is Uxmal. The motifs also included geometric patterns, lattices and spools, possibly influenced by styles from highland Oaxaca , outside the Maya area. Roof combs were relatively uncommon at Puuc sites. Some doorways were surrounded by mosaic masks of monsters representing mountain or sky deities, identifying the doorways as entrances to the supernatural realm. The Usumacinta style developed in the hilly terrain of the Usumacinta drainage.

Cities took advantage of the hillsides to support their major architecture, as at Palenque and Yaxchilan. Sites modified corbel vaulting to allow thinner walls and multiple access doors to temples. Palaces had multiple entrances that used post-and-lintel entrances rather than corbel vaulting. Many sites erected stelae, but Palenque instead developed finely sculpted panelling to decorate its buildings. Before BC, the Maya spoke a single language, dubbed proto-Mayan by linguists.

The Maya writing system is one of the outstanding achievements of the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas. Early Maya script had appeared on the Pacific coast of Guatemala by the late 1st century AD, or early 2nd century. The Catholic Church and colonial officials, notably Bishop Diego de Landa , destroyed Maya texts wherever they found them, and with them the knowledge of Maya writing, but by chance three uncontested pre-Columbian books dated to the Postclassic period have been preserved. Archaeology conducted at Maya sites often reveals other fragments, rectangular lumps of plaster and paint chips which were codices; these tantalizing remains are, however, too severely damaged for any inscriptions to have survived, most of the organic material having decayed.

Coe stated:. Most surviving pre-Columbian Maya writing dates to the Classic period and is contained in stone inscriptions from Maya sites, such as stelae, or on ceramics vessels. The Maya writing system often called hieroglyphs from a superficial resemblance to Ancient Egyptian writing [] is a logosyllabic writing system, combining a syllabary of phonetic signs representing syllables with logogram representing entire words.

The Maya script was in use up to the arrival of the Europeans, its use peaking during the Classic Period. The knowledge was subsequently lost, as a result of the impact of the conquest on Maya society. The decipherment and recovery of the knowledge of Maya writing has been a long and laborious process. The basic unit of Maya logosyllabic text is the glyph block, which transcribes a word or phrase. The block is composed of one or more individual glyphs attached to each other to form the glyph block, with individual glyph blocks generally being separated by a space. Glyph blocks are usually arranged in a grid pattern.

For ease of reference, epigraphers refer to glyph blocks from left to right alphabetically, and top to bottom numerically. Thus, any glyph block in a piece of text can be identified. C4 would be third block counting from the left, and the fourth block counting downwards. If a monument or artefact has more than one inscription, column labels are not repeated, rather they continue in the alphabetic series; if there are more than 26 columns, the labelling continues as A', B', etc. Numeric row labels restart from 1 for each discrete unit of text. Although Mayan text may be laid out in varying manners, generally it is arranged into double columns of glyph blocks. The reading order of text starts at the top left block A1 , continues to the second block in the double-column B1 , then drops down a row and starts again from the left half of the double column A2 , and thus continues in zig-zag fashion.

Once the bottom is reached, the inscription continues from the top left of the next double column. Where an inscription ends in a single unpaired column, this final column is usually read straight downwards. Individual glyph blocks may be composed of a number of elements. These consist of the main sign, and any affixes. Main signs represent the major element of the block, and may be a noun , verb , adverb , adjective , or phonetic sign.

Some main signs are abstract, some are pictures of the object they represent, and others are "head variants", personifications of the word they represent. Affixes are smaller rectangular elements, usually attached to a main sign, although a block may be composed entirely of affixes. Affixes may represent a wide variety of speech elements, including nouns, verbs, verbal suffixes, prepositions, pronouns, and more. Small sections of a main sign could be used to represent the whole main sign, and Maya scribes were highly inventive in their usage and adaptation of glyph elements. Although the archaeological record does not provide examples of brushes or pens, analysis of ink strokes on the Postclassic codices suggests that it was applied with a brush with a tip fashioned from pliable hair.

Commoners were illiterate; scribes were drawn from the elite. It is not known if all members of the aristocracy could read and write, although at least some women could, since there are representations of female scribes in Maya art. Although not much is known about Maya scribes, some did sign their work, both on ceramics and on stone sculpture. Usually, only a single scribe signed a ceramic vessel, but multiple sculptors are known to have recorded their names on stone sculpture; eight sculptors signed one stela at Piedras Negras. However, most works remained unsigned by their artists. In common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya used a base 20 vigesimal system.

This later developed into a numeral that was used to perform calculation, [] and was used in hieroglyphic texts for more than a thousand years, until the writing system was extinguished by the Spanish. The basic number system consists of a dot to represent one, and a bar to represent five. In this way, the lowest symbol would represent units, the next symbol up would represent multiples of twenty, and the symbol above that would represent multiples of , and so on. Using this system, the Maya were able to record huge numbers. The Maya calendrical system, in common with other Mesoamerican calendars, had its origins in the Preclassic period.

However, it was the Maya that developed the calendar to its maximum sophistication, recording lunar and solar cycles, eclipses and movements of planets with great accuracy. In some cases, the Maya calculations were more accurate than equivalent calculations in the Old World ; for example, the Maya solar year was calculated to greater accuracy than the Julian year. The Maya calendar was intrinsically tied to Maya ritual, and it was central to Maya religious practices.

The next unit, instead of being multiplied by 20, as called for by the vigesimal system, was multiplied by 18 in order to provide a rough approximation of the solar year hence producing days. This day year was called a tun. Each succeeding level of multiplication followed the vigesimal system. No astronomical basis for this count has been proved, and it may be that the day count is based on the human gestation period. The day cycle repeated a series of day-names, with a number from 1 to 13 prefixed to indicated where in the cycle a particular day occurred. The day haab was produced by a cycle of eighteen named day winal s, completed by the addition of a 5-day period called the wayeb. Such a day name could only recur once every 52 years, and this period is referred to by Mayanists as the Calendar Round.

In most Mesoamerican cultures, the Calendar Round was the largest unit for measuring time. As with any non-repeating calendar, the Maya measured time from a fixed start point. This was believed by the Maya to be the day of the creation of the world in its current form. Although the Calendar Round is still in use today, [] the Maya started using an abbreviated Short Count during the Late Classic period.

The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel [] contains the only colonial reference to classic long-count dates. This equates the Long Count date The famous astrologer John Dee used an Aztec obsidian mirror to see into the future. We may look down our noses at his ideas, but one may be sure that in outlook he was far closer to a Maya priest astronomer than is an astronomer of our century. The Maya made meticulous observations of celestial bodies, patiently recording astronomical data on the movements of the sun , moon , Venus, and the stars. This information was used for divination , so Maya astronomy was essentially for astrological purposes. Although Maya astronomy was mainly used by the priesthood to comprehend past cycles of time, and project them into the future to produce prophecy, it also had some practical applications, such as providing aid in crop planting and harvesting.

The Maya measured the day Venus cycle with an error of just two hours. Five cycles of Venus equated to eight day haab calendrical cycles, and this period was recorded in the codices. The Maya also followed the movements of Jupiter , Mars and Mercury. Solar and lunar eclipses were considered to be especially dangerous events that could bring catastrophe upon the world. In common with the rest of Mesoamerica, the Maya believed in a supernatural realm inhabited by an array of powerful deities who needed to be placated with ceremonial offerings and ritual practices. Visions for the chilan were likely facilitated by consumption of water lilies , which are hallucinogenic in high doses.

The Maya viewed the cosmos as highly structured. There were thirteen levels in the heavens and nine in the underworld, with the mortal world in between. Each level had four cardinal directions associated with a different colour; north was white, east was red, south was yellow, and west was black. Major deities had aspects associated with these directions and colours. Maya households interred their dead underneath the floors, with offerings appropriate to the social status of the family. There the dead could act as protective ancestors. Maya lineages were patrilineal, so the worship of a prominent male ancestor would be emphasised, often with a household shrine.

As Maya society developed, and the elite became more powerful, Maya royalty developed their household shrines into the great pyramids that held the tombs of their ancestors. Belief in supernatural forces pervaded Maya life and influenced every aspect of it, from the simplest day-to-day activities such as food preparation, to trade, politics, and elite activities. Maya deities governed all aspects of the world, both visible and invisible. The priests performed public ceremonies that incorporated feasting, bloodletting, incense burning, music , ritual dance, and, on certain occasions, human sacrifice.

During the Classic period, the Maya ruler was the high priest, and the direct conduit between mortals and the gods. It is highly likely that, among commoners, shamanism continued in parallel to state religion. By the Postclassic, religious emphasis had changed; there was an increase in worship of the images of deities, and more frequent recourse to human sacrifice. Archaeologists painstakingly reconstruct these ritual practices and beliefs using several techniques.

One important, though incomplete, resource is physical evidence, such as dedicatory caches and other ritual deposits, shrines, and burials with their associated funerary offerings. Blood was viewed as a potent source of nourishment for the Maya deities, and the sacrifice of a living creature was a powerful blood offering. By extension, the sacrifice of a human life was the ultimate offering of blood to the gods, and the most important Maya rituals culminated in human sacrifice.

Generally only high status prisoners of war were sacrificed, with lower status captives being used for labour. Important rituals such as the dedication of major building projects or the enthronement of a new ruler required a human offering. The sacrifice of an enemy king was the most prized, and such a sacrifice involved decapitation of the captive ruler, perhaps in a ritual reenactment of the decapitation of the Maya maize god by the death gods.

During the Postclassic period, the most common form of human sacrifice was heart extraction, influenced by the rites of the Aztecs in the Valley of Mexico; [] this usually took place in the courtyard of a temple, or upon the summit of the pyramid. The Maya world was populated by a great variety of deities, supernatural entities and sacred forces. The Maya had such a broad interpretation of the sacred that identifying distinct deities with specific functions is inaccurate. The priestly interpretation of astronomical records and books was therefore crucial, since the priest would understand which deity required ritual propitiation, when the correct ceremonies should be performed, and what would be an appropriate offering.

Each deity had four manifestations, associated with the cardinal directions, each identified with a different colour. Itzamna also had a night sun aspect, the Night Jaguar , representing the sun in its journey through the underworld. As well as their four main aspects, the Bakabs had dozens of other aspects that are not well understood. In common with other Mesoamerican cultures, the Maya worshipped feathered serpent deities. The ancient Maya had diverse and sophisticated methods of food production. It was believed that shifting cultivation swidden agriculture provided most of their food, [] but it is now thought that permanent raised fields , terracing , intensive gardening, forest gardens, and managed fallows were also crucial to supporting the large populations of the Classic period in some areas.

The basic staples of the Maya diet were maize, beans, and squashes. These were supplemented with a wide variety of other plants either cultivated in gardens or gathered in the forest. Cotton seeds were in the process of being ground, perhaps to produce cooking oil. In addition to basic foodstuffs, the Maya also cultivated prestige crops such as cotton, cacao and vanilla. Cacao was especially prized by the elite, who consumed chocolate beverages. All of these were used as food animals; dogs were additionally used for hunting. It is possible that deer were also penned and fattened. Other important, but difficult to reach, sites include Calakmul and El Mirador. There are many museums across the world with Maya artefacts in their collections.

The Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies lists over museums in its Maya Museum database, [] and the European Association of Mayanists lists just under 50 museums in Europe alone. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Redirected from The Mayans. Mesoamerican former civilization. El Castillo , at Chichen Itza. Detail of Lintel 26 from Yaxchilan. Main article: Mesoamerica. Main article: History of the Maya civilization.

Main article: Preclassic Maya. Kaminaljuyu , in the highlands, and El Mirador , in the lowlands, were both important cities in the Late Preclassic. Main article: Classic Maya collapse. See also: League of Mayapan. Main article: Maya peoples. Main article: Maya society. See also: Women in Maya society. Main article: Maya warfare. Jaina Island figurine representing a Classic period warrior. Obsidian spearheads with a lithic core , Takalik Abaj. Main article: Trade in Maya civilization. Main article: Ancient Maya art. Early Classic wooden figurine, it may once have supported a mirror [].

Stucco mask adorning the Early Classic substructure of Tikal Temple 33 []. Late Classic painted mural at Bonampak. Painted ceramic vessel from Sacul. Ceramic figurine from Jaina Island , AD — Main article: Maya architecture. Main article: Maya city. Postclassic ballcourt at Zaculeu , in the Guatemalan Highlands. The Great Ballcourt of Chichen Itza. Main article: Mayan languages. Main article: Maya script. The first glyph writes the word logographicaly with the jaguar head standing for the entire word. Illustration of a Maya scribe on a Classic period vessel. Kimbell Art Museum , Fort Worth. Main article: Maya numerals. Maya numerals on a page of the Postclassic Dresden Codex. Main articles: Maya calendar and Mesoamerican Long Count calendar.

Main article: Maya astronomy. See also: Archaeoastronomy. Main articles: Maya religion and Maya mythology. Main article: Human sacrifice in Maya culture. See also: List of Maya gods and supernatural beings. Classic period Lintel 25 from Yaxchilan , depicting the Vision Serpent. Main article: Maya cuisine. See also: Agriculture in Mesoamerica.

See also: List of Maya sites. Main article: Ancient Maya collections. Civilizations portal. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures. Foster , p. Estrada-Belli , p. Pugh and Cecil , p. Bibcode : Natur. PMID S2CID Retrieved 3 June Popenoe de Hatch and Schieber de Lavarreda , p. Estrada-Belli , pp. Martin and Grube , p. Sharer and Traxler , p. Looper , p. Lovell , p. Matthew , pp. Recinos , pp. Thompson , p. HeritageDaily — Archaeology News. Retrieved 16 March Witschey and Brown , p. Ars Technica. Retrieved 17 March Sharer and Traxler , Abrams , pp. Laporte and Fialko , p. Szymanski , pp. Szymanski Hansen , p. Szymanski , p. Taladoire and Colsenet , p. Schieber Laverreda and Orrego Corzo , p. Justeson , p. Presumably the same pattern obtains for the rest of the higher places.

This staggered resetting of the higher-order cycles, so jarringly unexpected from a contemporary, Western perspective, suggests an attitude towards time more numerological than mathematical. Miles , p. Roys, Washington D. January Bibcode : ASPC.. ISSN Retrieved 25 August Retrieved 24 August Miller and Taube , p. Carmack , pp. Demarest , pp. Ross , p. Abrams, Elliot M. ISBN OCLC Adams, Richard E. Prehistoric Mesoamerica 3rd ed. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. Adams, R. Brown; T. Patrick Culbert 25 September New Series. Bibcode : Sci Archived from the original PDF on 12 March Retrieved 12 March Andrews, Anthony P. Winter Journal of Anthropological Research.

JSTOR Aoyama, Kazuo July Ancient Mesoamerica. Enrique Vela ed. IX 50 : 38— The Guardian. Associated Press. Retrieved 4 February Becker, Marshall Joseph Berlo, Janet Catherine In Richard A. Diehl; Janet Catherine Berlo eds. Mesoamerica after the Decline of Teotihuacan, A. Washington, D. Blanton, Richard E. Kowalewski; Gary M. Feinman; Laura M. Finsten []. Blume, Anna March Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. ISSN X. Bricker, Victoria R. December So, even now, years after his voyage of discovery across. In this essay I will be telling about the economy, religion, and technology of these very interesting tribes the maya, the aztecs, and the inca. Also the maya believed in a wide variety of gods this was called polytheism.

They also believed in human sacrifices this ceremony would be performed by cutting they sacrifices head off or in the mayan ball game. Also, they believed in having the priest cut himself to begin the ceremony of either a sacrifice or if a king died they would have ceremonies. Plus,they would eat corn or as they called it maize they also believed they were formed by corn. Also The Inca ate potatoes and corn. They drank llama milk and water, and ate guinea-pigs for their daily protein, because they didn't have pigs, cows, sheep or turkeys. Occasionally, they ate llamas or alpaca. In conclusion all of these tribes have the similarities like many gods. In addition they also have differences such as each tribes choice of food.

This essay will argue that the primary contributing factor of the Maya collapse was drought;…. It was used when referring to the rulers or leaders that were Aztec, Maya, or Spanish without any discrimination of culture. Another reference for leader used in many of the writings during the Spanish colonization were the words 'tlatoani ' and 'tlahtocayotl.

Nevertheless, some of Spanish chroniclers used them interchangeably when referring to the Maya and any other Mesoamerica rulers. The word Tlatoani which literally…. Down in History The Maya civilization was one of the most dominant indigenous societies of Mesoamerica a term used to describe Mexico and Central America before the 16th century Spanish conquest. Unlike other scattered indigenous populations of Mesoamerica, the Maya covered a wide territory of southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and El Salvador. This concentration helped its people develop one of the most astonishing and unique cultures in the antique world, where the level of knowledge,…. Essays Essays FlashCards.

Browse Essays. Sign in. Home Page Maya Soetoro-Ng. Page 32 of 38 - About Essays. Read More. Words: - Pages: 5. Words: - Pages: 4. Goddess Coatlicue Analysis 1. Identity Stamps By Maya Angelou Maya Angelou has sowed the right seed for women liberation in America through her versatile poems, plays and songs. Words: - Pages: Words: - Pages: 3.