History

The Mayan Culture

The Maya civilization was one of the grandest in the history of the world and the reason for this collapse is still shrouded in mystery. The ancient Maya occupied a vast geographic are in central and South America from around 200BC until 1500AD. Today descendents of the Old Maya or Indigenous, as they are locally referred to, account for more than 50% of the Guatemalan population.

The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization and that means that is a region and culture area In the Americas, extending approximately from Central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. Known for the only fully developed written languages of the pre-Columbian Americans when incorporates all period subdivision in the history and pre history of the Americas before the Appearance of significant European, influences on the American continents. It was established during the Pre-Classic period 2000BC to 250AD according to the Mesoamerican arrangement of events in time many Mayan cities reached their highest state of development during the classic period and continued throughout the Post classic period until the arrival of the Spanish at its peak, it was one of the most densely populated and culturally dynamic societies in the world. The Mayan civilization shares many features with other Mesoamerican civilization due to high degree of interaction and cultural diffusion that characterized the region. Advances such as writing, epigraphy and the calendar did not originate with the Maya however, their civilization fully developed them. Maya influence can be detected from Honduras, Guatemala, Northern El Salvador and to as far central Mexico more than1000km from the Maya area. Many outside influences are found in Maya act and architecture, which are thought to result from trade and cultural exchange rather than direct external conquest. The Maya people never disappeared, neither at the time of the classic period decline nor with the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores and the subsequent Spanish colonization of the Americas. Today, the Maya and their descendants form sizable populations throughout the Maya area and maintain a distinctive set of traditions and beliefs that are the result of the merger of pre-Columbian and post-Conquest ideas and cultures. MNY Mayan languages continue to be spoken as a primary languages today; The Rabinal Achi, a play written in the Achi’ language, was declared a masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2005. 

OPINION: I think this Maya Culture is very interesting to learn about because I never knew this existed. The video of Women Empowerment that we watched in History class really reminds me off the Maya Culture because they do not speak Spanish, they were speaking another language that I do not understand well that most of us do not understand. I wonder how that dialect came about and how it is written. My parents own a store in Attleboro, Ma and there are a lot of Central American people over there. I randomly asked one of the customers if he knew anything about the Maya Culture and he filled me up with wonderful facts. I learned that there are different types of separate cultures. The one that exist in Mexico are called Nigua. They live in the mountains and have their own beliefs; they seem to be very famous. Incas lived in Machu Pichu, Peru there’s another called Tikal, but I don’t know where that’s located. There’s actually this one guy that I know he speaks another language, well a different dialect. He’s from Guatemala, he’s really short he had to be from a Maya culture, because he looks like he’s mixed with Indians or Natives. Its very intrigue the way they talk and write it’s different and you can tell it’s really ancient. I wonder how most of the people dress I don’t think they dress very modern they probably still wearing clothing from back then, like big dresses with feathers on their heads. No matter what is it I consider it art because they’re very different from others and that’s what make them have their own culture. The Plymouth plantation comes up to mind when I think of the Mayan people. I visited the Plymouth Plantation in 2^nd grade for a field trip and the experience was just priceless, people there live so pure, women used big old fashioned dresses. Had very antique houses made out of wood, they cleaned there teeth with mint leave that grows. I actually like things like this people you get to see different angles of life. People still lived the same without so much disruption of unnecessary things early in the years everything was just made out of nature now everything is just based on technology. It’s sad because people now can’t even live without it and as the years pass by technology keeps growing and growing. Everything that the Mayan do have to do with nature. To get there medication they don’t go to the pharmacy and order it, they make there own medication with pure leaves. And according to some studies Mayan people count dates and times by looking at the stars I thing that’s super interesting I would like to look more into that to see how that works. I was researching on Google and according to them the life cycle is going to end in December 23, 2010, because the Mayan calendar is more accurate then our own that’s some scary facts!

          REFLECTION: This year I didn’t see my self indolent towards this portfolio I thought it was very straight  forward to find the information for this topic, I was very elated because had my information ahead of time with no worries or delays. I actually learned a lot of information because this was a topic that I wasn’t very similar with and it’s always nice to learn new things even if you might not need it afterwards. It was fun can’t complain and I felt like I had enough time for the portfolio to get it done. I’m done! Hopefully I did a good job on it, because im ready for 2^nd term already BYE JOMO!