By : Nande Bolton

8/14/2019 By : Nande Bolton

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The MayasBy : Nande Bolton


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The origin & where they live now

Mayans are originally from Guatemala. The majority of Guatemalas population is Mayan Indian. Most Mayanslive in villages and towns in the countrys highlands.From town to town Mayan groups speak slightly different

languages and create unique art. The Mayas built greatcities such as Copn in the present day country of Honduras and Tikal in present day Guatemala . Mayancities were religious centers. Large pyramid shapedtemples often stood in the middle of Mayan cities. The

Mayas worshiped their gods there and preformed ritualsincluding human sacrifice or the offering of human life totheir gods.


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Their basic beliefsMayan religion was characterized by the worship of Nature

gods, especially the gods of sun, rain and corn, a priestlyclass, the importance of astronomy and astrology, ritualsof human sacrifice and the building of elaboratepyramidical temple. Some aspects of Mayan religionsurvive today among the Mayan Indians of Mexico andcentral America who practice a combination of traditionalreligion and roman catholism. The remaining Mayaswere conquered by the Spanish and converted to romancatholism. The present day Mayan peoples are spread

mainly across southern Mexico with small numbers inGuatemala and Belize. They practice a religion thatcombines roman catholism with Mayan cosmology,deities, and domestic rituals.


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Arts and traditionsThe Mayan society was a strict theocratic hierarchy, where the priests held

great power for their connection with the gods. Warfare did play an essentialpart of Mayan society, and yes, they did practice human sacrifice. It isbelieved that they sacrificed captured enemy warriors and ball players aswell as people of their own tribe, going willingly to the World of the Gods.Many offerings and sacrifices, human and others, have been found incenotes, the fresh water sinkholes found throughout the Yucatn. Thepriests and royalty also performed auto-sacrifice, for example by piercing abody part to offer their own blood. One popular bloodletting ceremony,shown on many examples of Mayan art, was to pierce their own tongue andthread a thin rope through the hole, thus letting the blood run down therope. The tradition of offering alcohol or blood to the Gods is still in praticein many places around the Mayan World. Maya hand woven traditionalclothing can reveal the wearers identity as a belonging to a certain linguisticgroup, her origin from a specific place, or place in a religious hierarchy.

In most Mayan villages, women weave cloth for their family's clothing or for ceremonial, artistic, and, increasingly, commercial purposes Mayan womenweave the design of the universe into their cloth. Like prayers, the designswoven speak to the gods to convey wishes or reflect the glory of theuniverse. An embroidered scorpion calls down the rain. Cotton symbolizesclouds. A diamond represents the world. The number thirteen recalls thesun's course through the sky and underworld. Elaborate geometric designsrepeated on each piece map the organization of the Mayan cosmos.


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Their encounters with the EuropeansThe early inhabitants of the Caribbean and Central America were

the Arawaks and the Caribs, who were skilled hunters,fishermen, and farmers. The Arawak people learned the skill of farming about 9,000 years ago through cultivating wild seed fruitsand roots and growing crops of maize, yams, cassava, cotton,and tobacco. The Maya people developed complex civilizationsin Central America and Mexico, thousands of years beforeEuropeans arrived in the region.

The Maya civilization took thousands of years to develop, andreached its height between 250 A.D. and 900 A.D. These ancientpeoples were farmers and thrived on crops of beans, corn,cocoa, squash, and chile peppers. The Maya were also proficientpotters and cloth makers. They made beautiful clay pots that theyhardened with fire. They wove fabrics from the cotton that theyfarmed and dyed the cloth with bright patterns. The multi-facetedMaya were also great stone workers, making jewelry from jade,gold, silver, copper, and bronze, as well as erecting variousarchitectural wonders including plazas, palaces, public buildings,temples, and sculptures of their gods and heroes.


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Their encounters with theEuropeans continued

The Spanish began conquering Central American countries, includingGuatemala and Honduras, and devastating the Maya settlements.Spaniards tried to gain control of the Maya of Chetumal, which wasthe capital of a large Maya area in Belize, but the Maya peopleopposed the Spanish invasion with methods that included burningSpanish buildings, making the capital a refuge for the Maya in other areas who were trying to escape the Spaniards. The Spanish never gained control of the Maya who resided in Belize. Still, the Spanishtook their toll on the Mayas. Before the Spanish invasion, the Mayapopulation numbered about 400,000. Afterward, the number of Mayapeople in the region dropped about 86 percent due to war andEuropean diseases.

When the British came to Belize, the Maya were no longer living on thecoast, and there are no recorded encounters between the twocultures until the late 18th century. In the 18th century, the Spanishforced the British out of the land, but never inhabited it, so the Britishreturned to Belize and expanded their settlements and logwoodtrade.


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Their encounters with theEuropeans continued

As the British moved deeper into Belize, they inevitablycame in contact with the Maya. The Maya were pushedback into the forests, but did not surrender easily. In1866 Marcos Canul, the leader of the Mayans, led arevolt against a British mahogany camp and capturedBritish prisoners. He demanded ransom for the hostagesas well as payment for the land that the British hadstolen. The British retorted by burning the Maya cropsand destroying their villages and food supplies in hopesof starving them out of the region. But within five years

the Mayans had rebuilt their villages and replanted their crops. They continued attacking the British settlementsuntil the death of Canul.


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How their lives were affected byEuropean colonist.

Beginning around 1960, a civil war raged inGuatemala for more than 30 years. First anelected leader who favored land reform wasoverthrown by the military. Then government

military forces fought rebel groups that wereliving I the highlands. Thousands of civilianswere killed, and many others fled the country.,The Mayas suffered during the civil war. Inhundreds of villages throughout Guatemala,soldiers came to claim the Mayas land. ManyMayas lost all of their belongs and were forcedout of there villages.


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Problems they face today in themodern world

In 1996 agreements were signed promisingthat indigenous communities would berebuilt. However not all of the agreementshave been followed. Violations of humanrights by the government increased againin 2000, and many Guatemala's protested

in the streets. The fight for the rights of theMayas and for all of the ordinary people of Guatemala continues today.

By : Nande Bolton

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