CULTURES

Cultures

Cultures

Maya

The Maya culture did not hit a deadend with Spanish conquest in A.D. 1541. About 2 million people who speak more than 30 Mayan languages still live in Mexico and Central America. Their forebears, whose civilization arose in the region's tropical forests around 300 B.C., left behind pyramids, temples and inscriptions that have intrigued scholars for the last 150 years.

The video uses reenactments, computer generated animation and contemporary site footage of several Maya city-states to provide a solid general overview of Maya history and culture. A more detailed video chronicling the Maya would be very desirable, but, Time/Life does a more than adequate job in the scant 48 minutes of this video. As an introduction to the Maya the video is well suited. There is coverage of the ball game, blood-letting rituals, the Maya writing system and calendar as well as the central role of kingship to Maya society. The video does not make the mistake of stating that the Maya collapsed. It is accurately illustrated that although there was perhaps a regional collapse (for various reasons: drought, famine, war, disease and loss of faith in the king)the Maya continued to thrive in other parts of their realm and in fact still exist today.

During most of that time, researchers assumed that the images on stelae (carved tablets), temple walls, pottery and other artifacts showed mystical priests or gods primarily concerned with astrology and a complex calendar system. Furthermore, the archaeological remains at Maya sites were long believed to be the products of people who were peace-loving, religious, modest, conservative and clean, at least until the ninth century, when they began to adopt the bloody sacrificial habits of central Mexican invaders.

The first concrete traces of the Mayan civilization date back to the Preclassic period around 1,800 BC in the Mirador Basin in Petén, northern Guatemala, though some settlements are thought to be over 6,000 years old (Coe, 2005). Signs of chiefdom political organization emerged during the Middle Preclassic era (ca. 1,000-400 BC), leading to the birth of a ruling elite and the development of city-state governing systems in the Late Preclassic (ca. 400 BC-100 AD), leading to rivalry and wars among them.

The Mayan Culture developed between 3000 and 2000 BC. Pollen samples has shown the establishments of agriculture in Guatemala by 4000 BC, and around 2500 BC initiated the building of small cities with some permanent architecture all over the country (Pre-Classic). ...