Mayan Civilization

The Mayan Civilization was once an Ancient Native American civilization which eventually expanded to become one of the most “cutting-edge”, developed civilizations in the Americas. Those that were part of this civilization were called the “Maya”. The Maya people lived in the eastern and southern areas of what we know today such as Mexico. They lived in regions of Guatemala, sections of El Salvador, the Belize and western parts of Honduras. The Maya people had constructed tremendous, gigantic pyramids that were made of stones; they constructed beautiful, detailed temples, and even beautiful sculptures that had significant meanings to their civilization. The Mayas were very well successful in the learning of mathematics and astronomy; this
was actually documented in the hieroglyphs.
For some strange, odd reason, it was such a mystery as to how and why the Maya suddenly vanished from the lowlands southern areas of Guatemala after 900. It was as if the civilization all disappeared at once but then later on was identified to have relocated to the northern region of the Yucatán Peninsula.
When they did so, life was peaceful for them as they continued their lives in a ruling, authoritative manner until the conquest of the Spanish arrived. Surprisingly, the descendants of the civilization presently manifest a substantial part of the population, including in the divisions. Despite many of the Maya have adopted and obtained Spanish techniques, there’s still a large population of modernized Maya people that also secure and value their old ethnic practices from ancient times.
The Pre-classic period was a length of time where the substructure or base of the modern civilization of the Mayan people was developed. This was a time where the Maya had experienced struggles and developmental hardships within in society and as a result of that, they were able to become more courageous and gain strength like no other. Just like it is in the world today, even the Maya had to go through the bad to get to the good. The Mayans were very advanced agriculture as they worked very hard to support their families and the civilization by
working in the fields and worked together constantly as a community to up-keep the crops. These amazing people had creative methods when it came to agriculture. For example, they use to take sticks and punch holes in the ground but then later on as time went on, they developed new and improved techniques for farming. Certain crops that were very popular in the Mayan civilization were food such as corn but back then, they called it “Maize”, other foods were avocados, squash, beans, chili peppers, and papayas. For a special, sweet treat, the Mayas would even raise cacao which was a crop they used to make into a chocolate drink and they would mix it with water. Not only was taking care of the fields a priority to the Mayans, but also fishing and hunting were a priority to food resources. When the Mayans would hunt, they would catch things like deer, rabbits, wild turkey and usually when they caught animals such as these, they would make them out of stew and use the fur for clothing, shelter or even for decorations. Days when the Mayans didn’t do cropping or go hunting or fishing, they took part in simple activities such as arts and crafts. Doing craft work was very special for the Mayas because they would make useful things for survival such as tools that were made of stones, ropes for hunting and survival in the woods, they would make baskets, clay figurines for the children and for decorations in their homes, and they would make mats. Now when the women participated in crafting, they would make things such as the clothing for their children and specialized in making skirts.
Just as many civilizations during the ancient times worshiped agricultural gods and goddesses, well so did the Mayas. The Mayas had a worshiped a god of rain and then worshipped a god of corn. The Mayan empire once believed that the gods they worshiped also had control in the events of everyday life as they even believed that the gods they served dominated every day, month and year. The Mayans were so dedicated in pleasing their gods that they would make offerings so that the gods would be pleased by them. The Mayas were deeply in tuned with astronomy so many of them who were astrologers, actually studied the moon and sun specifically but they also focused their studies of different planets and made astronomical calculations. Many Mayan people that were interested in astronomy, their studies emphasized on good times for different sorts of movements within farming and other activities.
Rulers and aristocrats of the Maya civilization were in charge of governing the lower class people such as the commoners or peasants, because they were the ones that constructed major settlements. Now when these settlements were completely developed of rubble, they shaped the mounds in the form of a pyramid and they even had alters on them, as well as temples. The location of the temples sat directly in the heart or center of the settlements. What’s so special about this is that religious priests use to demonstrate ritual sacrifices to the gods they worshiped on these mounds where the altars and temples were located.
Once the Pre-classic developed in a drastic manner, the use of stone was utilized more than ever by the Mayan civilization for constructing. What’s so unique about the aristocrats and the peasants or commoners is that they had something in common which was that they both resided in extended family composts. The Pre-classic period was a time where simple arrangements of the lives of the Maya civilization were accordingly settled. Nonetheless, the Pre-classic period was not a simple practice for actual Classic period but instead, it was a time of amazing achievements. Therefore, the Maya had transitioned from the Pre-classic period, to the classic period. The classic period for the Maya civilization was considered to be more complicated whenever the population expanded and once the hubs in the highlands and the lowlands united as one, not only did they do this for collaborating but for competing as well with one another.
During this period, the importance of warfare and trade was a huge factor and benefited the cultural growth and other developments. The Mayan societies consisted of many different and connected parts with recognizable social classes flourishing. When the Classic period existed, warfare was managed but coordinated on a fairly restricted scale. There was numerous Mayan rulers who were represented on large monuments that were made out of stones which were carved. On these monuments the rulers were also illustrated by carrying weapons. But the thing is this; the Mayan rulers had a mission and a goal to capture other individuals for sacrificial reasons so that they could really use them for ritual and political reasons. Many of the rulers that were associated with the Mayan civilization destroyed many of the cities but the main target or focus point were on the temples alone, the ones that were in ceremonial divisions of the land. Something interesting about this is that when the destruction took place, it had little to no effect on the population; not even effects on the economy. Let’s be clear though, city-states did conquer other city-states every once in a while but this wasn’t a constant thing that was
common; that is, not until towards the end of the classic period whenever the civilization of the lowland had started to dissolve.