What Are The Similarities Between The Americans And Singaporeans

Both located in once-jungle-like areas, The Maya of Mesoamerica and the Singaporeans of East Asia grew into powerful and prosperous hubs of commerce and culture. They also had similar justice systems, based on fair judgment and rights. The two civilizations were not exactly alike though, Singaporean government puts far less weight on religion, allowing for a more secular government.

With advanced methods farming, fishing, and livestock rearing, both societies harnessed their abundance of natural endowments to create for themselves a strong foundation for trade. This, to me, shows just how helpful lush, green, or forest habitation could be for a civilization. It gives such societies leverage for trade and commerce, and can be used to create beautiful nature reserves, attracting tourism to the economy -eventually making the society a center of culture- as both of these civilizations did.
In the Maya Empire, in each city, the laws were the same.
Laws were fair. Nearly everyone was subject to the same laws, even the lesser nobles. If you broke a law, a judge would hear your case. Maya civilization was an early example of a society that influenced present court systems. Featuring fair trials, equal rights for almost everybody, and a justice system that allows you to prove yourself innocent, or another guilty, the Maya court system was ahead of its time. Singaporeans and the world at large have taken that value- and many other Maya values- and expanded on them; today, equal treatment and freedom of speech are basic human
rights. Although it may seem like all Maya values are still widely used, one Maya value that many modern countries, including Singapore, have not adopted is the high role of priests in government. In Maya society, priests did much more than praying for others. The priests and the nobles made up the upper class of the Maya people (The merchants and traders were the middle class. The farmers and slaves were on the bottom.). One website put it like this: “The nobles ran the government. The priests ran everything else. Some priests also held government jobs” (Mayas.mrdonn). Priests told people when to farm, when to resign or leave their job, when to get married, when to make a sacrifice, and when to go to war among other things. That being said, although a few countries today make priests into high government officials, Singapore treats priests of all religions like ordinary citizens. A far cry from the political and social power that Maya priests controlled. This helps me to better define a civilization, it explains to me that an advanced civilization mustn’t only have elected officials in office, but can also be led by those devoted to religious life.

In conclusion, I would just like to repeat what I have said before, that Mayan culture, especially has immensely influenced western and eastern cultures today. They created arguably the most advanced systems of government, agriculture, timekeeping, mathematics, and astrology used in the 1300’s to 1700’s. Their influence can be seen in calendars, justice systems, mathematical formulas, and much more today. When comparing the Maya civilization to Singapore, I noticed that, compared to Singapore, Maya civilization can be called primitive at best, but is still widely considered as a very advanced civilization. It led me to believe that a civilization is not just a group of people who enjoy the benefits of modern technology. It made me come to the conclusion that the Maya of old were just as ‘civilized’ as Singaporeans, or Americans, or Dutch, or any other modern civilization today. It made me see that a civilization is a group of people who share common values or cultures. That is why we still call them the Maya civilization: because they had a shared culture.