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)

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
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4 comments:

  1. UnknownNovember 3, 2015 at 4:08 PM

    There is no reflexive comment here Lamear, please add it and email me. The color of the letters, you and the rest of the group member can look into it later, but you need a reflexive comment of 4 paragraphs. Thanks

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  2. Lamear DownesNovember 16, 2015 at 8:20 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Lamear DownesNovember 16, 2015 at 8:21 PM

    In my household, their were hardly any gender expectation. Most of the expectations or roles were interchangeable. There were 4 males and 4 females.Since there were 8 of us in a small household, everyone pitched in to maintain a healthy, protected home.

    My mom and dad both worked full-time. My grandmother lived with us also so she would take care of us when needed. My grandmother did most of the cooking for the family. My dad and mom were both protectors and providers. Between the two, there were no set role. There parenting may have been different but they had interchangeable roles similar to Mayan beliefs.

    I am the youngest of the family. My other siblings had more duties than me. The female children cleaned most and the young males were more of the protectors when no one were around. The males would be responsible for all of the children. The females were responsible for making sure we all ate. They would be giving money by our parents to get everyone food.

    I believe that we can be compared to the Mayans in some aspects. In the Mayan culture, the females were valued more and had more responsibilities. They took care of the house while also working to provide for the house. Like the Mayans, we were taught how to do things by our parents. The males were taught to protect while the females were taught to care and provide meals for the family with the funds given. When there was no supervision, the power in the home was passed down to the oldest son though the oldest child is a female. In the Mayan culture, the power is also passed down to the son.

    Every culture and household has different expectation or roles. In today's world, more and more culture and households have interchangeable roles. This could be because of the abilities each individual has. I do not believe that any gender is better or more capable to do on thing over another gender. I also believe that interchangeable roles allow for more flexibility within the home.

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  4. UnknownNovember 29, 2015 at 7:22 PM

    Well done Lamear. Thanks for following up :-)

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