Geographical Location & Background Information
Geographic Location:
Both ancient Mayan and today’s modern Mayan culture occupy central America: the Yucatan Peninsula in southern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. The Mayan civilization was split up into three general areas, Central Maya Lowlands, Northern Yucatan Peninsula, and the Guatemalan Highlands. Central Maya Lowlands is where the core values of Mayan culture originated. Central Maya Lowlands flourished during the classical period of Mayan society before the decline around 900 CE. The cities of Tikal, and Palenque were located in this area, which is located in what is now known as Guatemala. The Northern Yucatan Peninsula had their best times in the post-classical period, after the collapse. Like the name sounds, this region is located on the Yucatan Peninsula in modern day México. The largest cities in this area are Chichen-Itza and Uxmal. The third region, the Guatemalan Highlands, is located in the mountainous region and expands to the western coast of Guatemala. This area flourished during the pre-classical period of Mayan society.
Background Information:
Throughout schooling most students are taught that the Mayans of Central America went extinct. That is not entirely true. The Mayan culture which started in around 2000 BCE still exists today, but not to the same strength that they had in their peak. Around 900 CE there was a great collapse where we began to see a noticeable decline in the population and the fall of several of their most prominent cities. But this fall was not noticed in all Mayan cities. Several cities on the Yucatan Peninsula and in modern day Guatemala actually flourished in the decline of their countrymen. When the Spanish arrived in the Americas in the 1500’s, with disease and superior technology, is when we see the next large decline in Mayan culture. After the Spanish conquest the Mayans and the other indigenous groups of Latin America were oppressed by the their conquerors and non-natives. Mayan history is split into three distict periods, Pre-classical period(2000BCE-300CE), the Classical period(300CE-900CE) and the Post Classical period(900CE-1200CE). As mentioned earlier, each specific region had more prominant periods in history. The Guatemalen Highlands had the Pre-classical period, the Central Maya Lowlands had the Classical period, and the Northern Yucatan Peninsula had the Post-classic period. The last big cites of the Mayan civilization were conquered at the end of the Post-classical period. After that what remained of the Mayan civilization was independently runned villages.
References:
Leventhal, Richard M., Carlos Chan Espinosa, Cristina Coc. (2012). “The Modern Maya and Recent History.” Expedition 54 (1): 46-51.
uidaho.edu. “Mayan Geography.” Retrieved September 22, 2015 (http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/arch499/nonwest/mayan/geography.htm)
Sunday, November 29, 2015
Monday, November 2, 2015
Gender & Family Roles
In many different cultures, we see that women in the civilization and household had strict power and responsibilities while the men were expected to work, provide, protect, and enforce. In the ancient Mayan culture, women were valued more and were said to be more important to the Mayan civilization. The believed to have had interchangeable roles. However, there were still gender expectations. In the workplace, for example, it was thought to be separate but equal. Men would produced goods for the women to process in order to make the goods usable or edible. Females could also produce goods by doing work such as farming, however it was the male's role. Women were more involved in economical, governmental, farming and gathering duties.
Since there was no schooling, the children learned from the parents. The fathers taught the sons how to clear and weed the fields, plant crops, and hunt. The mothers taught the daughters how to make clothing, care for the younger children, and cook food. These young children were also arranged for marriage by the parents. Power was hereditary. The ruling was to be passed to the son rather than the daughter. (Browne, Canty, Casey, Goldman, Gwen, Judy, & Goldman. 2001)
Today, the households, roles, and traditions are mixed with those of modern time. The ways the Mayans dressed have changed. This causes a change in the roles inside the civilization. The clothing are machine-made and there are not many traditional weavers. This means that the women aren’t necessarily making the clothing or teaching their daughters how to do so. As a result, more change will come as the civilization will become more reliant on machines instead of mankind. The younger generations are the most changed. The women stay at home to cook and care for the family and household. For the men, some labor jobs crashed which caused a downfall in income for the household. The older children may take transportation to modern jobs to help take care of their family. (Goldberg,2000).
References:
Browne, E., Canty, J., Casey, J., Goldman, L., Gwen, E., Judy, T., & ... Goldman, P. B. (2001). The Mayans. Monkeyshines On Ancient Cultures, 100. Retrieved from
Goldberg, B. (2000). Maya Today. Faces, 17(4), 18. Retrieved from
http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=13&sid=317af350-8b37-4e60-88cc-15617e4e0359%40sessionmgr4005&hid=4211&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=3812915&db=f5h
Mayan Politics
Mayan civilization was at its peak around 700-900 AD. With palaces being built and having a superfluous population. Mayans were not a unified civilization. They were divided into what is known as city-states; with each city-state having its own ruler. Also there would be one city-state that was more powerful than others, causing for the minor city-states to become puppets for larger ones. Even though each city-state was Mayan, trading causing for each city-state to grow closer culturally. War was also common between each city-state.
Each city-state, but more common in the larger city-states, had a four tier hierarchical system. There would be the main ruler in large city-states and then the smaller city-states would have their own rulers as well. Then would be minor nobility and then at the bottom is the hamlets, or people who worked the land.
There is an estimated six million Mayans left, with most of them living in, what is known as the birthplace of Mayans, Guatemala.Around the 1990's war was a major problem effecting modern Mayan civilization. A thirty year conflict has caused for internal problems in Guatemala. As an effect of the war in Guatemala, a new political party called the guerillas has emerged. Causing for international pressure on the Government to keep its promises it had with the Mayan people.
There have been many organizations trying to help Mayan culture survive through these times. “In the construction of a Pan-Mayan ethnic identity, the role of Mayan organizations and media information is essen-tial as they help to promote the revitalization of Mayan culture.” (CulturalSurvival). Mayan politics today is more of trying to recognize the Mayan culture again. Guatemala has recently had a presidential election, electing Jimmy Morales. This is after the former president Otto Perez Molina and his VP were accused of a massive customs fraud scandal. Guatemalan citizens are hopeful that Morales will bring no scandals to the office with him.
References:
Montejo, Victor D., The Pan-Mayan Movement: Mayans at the Doorway of New Millennium, Retrieved October, 30, 2015
McKillop, Heather. The Ancient Maya: New Perspectives. New York: Norton, 2004, Retrieved October, 30, 2015
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