- What was the Mayan culture?
- Geographic location of the Maya
- History of the Mayan culture
- General characteristics of the Mayan culture
- Mayan religion
- Mayan economy
- Social and political organization of the Mayan culture
- Mayan dress
- Mayan architecture
- Mayan writing
- Astronomy in the Mayan culture
We explain what the Mayan culture was, its location, history, economy and other characteristics. Also, what was left of its architecture.
What was the Mayan culture?
It is known as the Mayan culture or Mayan civilization to the set of pre-Columbian peoples who ruled Mesoamerica for 18 centuries, from the Preclassic Era (2000 BC - 250 AD) of the continent, until the Postclassic Period (900-1527 AD), when the Conquest of America occurred.
It was one of the most prominent civilizations in all of the original America. They left behind an important set of ruins and a cultural legacy that inspired the cultures later, part of which still survives.
The Mayans are celebrated for different aspects of their advanced culture. For example, they invented the only complete writing system in pre-Columbian America, and developed their own knowledge in artistic matters, architectural, math, astronomical Y ecological. Among other things, they are credited with the invention of zero.
For all these reasons, during their heyday they were the dominant culture of the entire region. They controlled much of the Mesoamerican territory and maintained dynamic exchange relations with other neighboring cultures, such as the Olmecs or the Mixtecs.
Other cultures:
| Teotihuacan culture | Toltec culture |
| Aztec culture | Greek culture |
| Olmec culture | Totonac culture |
| Zapotec culture | Mixtec culture |
Geographic location of the Maya
The Mayans were a Mesoamerican people, that is, they flourished in the Mesoamerican cultural area, one of the six cradles of human civilization on our planet. This region extends from present-day central Mexico to Central America.
The Mayans came to encompass southeastern Mexico, all of Yucatan, Guatemala and Belize, the western region of the current territories of El Salvador and Honduras. They met the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Coast and the Pacific Ocean. In other words, they controlled approximately a third of the total area of Mesoamerica.
History of the Mayan culture
The history of the Mayan culture lasts for almost 3,500 years. Its first peoples arose almost 4,000 years ago, and its disappearance as an independent culture occurs due to its encounter with the European conquerors. All this is usually organized into three large periods, which are:
- Preclassic period (2000 BC to 250 AD). The first vestiges of the Mayan people and their first settlements are found along the Pacific fringe and then the Atlantic. Slowly these become the first great cities of the region: Nakbé, Tikal, Dzibilchaltún, Xicalango, among others. This period is divided into three sub-periods: Early Preclassic (2,000-1,000 BC), Middle Preclassic (1,000-350 BC) and Late Preclassic (350 BC-250 AD); in the latter there was the first cultural flowering of the Mayans, and towards the 1st century AD. C., its first collapse. Many of its large cities were then abandoned, for reasons unknown until today.
- Classic Period (250-900 AD). In this period there is a rebirth of the Mayan culture, only comparable to the one that lived Europe after the Middle Ages, or perhaps the flowering of the Greece of the Antiquity. In this sense, great ceremonial centers such as Chichen-Itzá and Uxmal arose. It is also a period of great and bloody wars, which allowed the rise and fall of various monarchical systems. Eventually, this led to a new and great political collapse, the abandonment of cities in favor of the northern regions of Mexico, and an impoverishment that is still difficult to explain today. This period, in turn, contains three sub-periods: Early Classic (250-550 AD), Late Classic (550-830 AD), and Terminal Classic (830-950 AD).
- Postclassic Period (950 to 1539 AD). Significant vestiges of the formerly vast Mayan culture persisted after the fall in cities located in high territories, or near sources of Water, with an organization that recognized different Mayan states governed by a council of kings. That was until the arrival of the Spanish invaders, because being so weakened by their internal conflicts, the Mayan peoples could not cope with the conquest and were colonized by European culture.
General characteristics of the Mayan culture
In the Mayan culture, work was developed in stones such as jade.
Like many other human civilizations, the Maya was established from the abandonment of nomadism and the development of the farming, whose products constituted for centuries the foundation of the Mayan diet: corn, beans, squash and chili.
Its first cities arose around the year 750 a. C., and towards 500 a. C. they had already reached monumental architectural proportions, especially in their great temples and ceremonial centers. During its flowering, its city-states encompassed huge areas of influence and were connected to each other by complex networks of Commerce.
His artistic forms were sophisticated and left lasting traces, in which jade, wood, obsidian, ceramics and carved stone were used abundantly.
The Mayans spoke a diverse language, derived from the ancestral protomaya in a set of Mayan languages, each one different depending on the kingdom in which it was spoken. Thus, there was a Huastecan, Quichean, Mamean language, etc. Most of the Mayan texts, however, coming from the classical period, were written in classical Choltí.
Mayan religion
The religion of the Maya shared traits with much of the rest of Mesoamerica. They believed in a spiritual plane inhabited by powerful deities. Their gods were to be appeased through ritual practices, human sacrifice, and ceremonial offerings.
Before them, the deceased ancestors themselves and the shamans served as intermediaries. That is why the Mayans buried their dead under the floors of their houses, in the middle of the corresponding offerings, according to their social status.
The worldview Maya was highly elaborate: it contemplated 13 levels in the sky and nine in the underworld, and between the two was the world of the living. In turn, each level consisted of four cardinal points, each associated with a color distinctive, and to which certain aspects of the main deities of his pantheon were associated.
Otherwise, religion was in the hands of the priests, a closed group whose members came from the elite of society. During the Classic Period, the high priest and conductor of the society, who also served as a ruler.
Mayan economy
Although the base of the Mayan livelihood was agricultural, trade played a fundamental role in their civilization, and in their contact with the other surrounding peoples. The largest and most important cities controlled access to means key, such as obsidian mines, salt sources, and even traffic in slaves on the Mesoamerican region.
In fact, the Mayans of Tabasco built an extensive river exchange network, which made them the greatest merchants in their region and their period. Elements of typical Mayan invoice could be found in distant cities of Nicaragua and Honduras, which is why they were transported and marketed in some way.
This activity was so fundamental to the Mayan economy that even after the conquest it continued to be carried out marginally.
Social and political organization of the Mayan culture
Maya society was divided, in its early days, between a dominant elite and a mass of commoners. This order was sustained by military force and tradition religious. But the sustained growth of the Mayan states led to the emergence of more complex economic and political classes.
For this reason, he subsequently distinguished himself between low-ranking priests, soldiers, artisans, officials, peasantry and serfdom, or captured slaves from other neighboring cultures.
Unlike the aztecs or the incasThe Maya did not form a central political system, that is, a single state or kingdom. Instead, they preferred the coexistence of state and various chiefdoms, eventually reaching temporary regional dominance.
However, their governments They always consisted of variants of the theocratic monarchy, that is, of a king imposed by divine will, chosen from a political elite. Thus, intrigues and alliances between castes were a frequent and controversial matter.
In addition, the Mayans were assiduous warriors and faced numerous conflicts political and military throughout its history. Partly because the various Mayan kingdoms competed with each other for regional dominance.
On the other hand, the war culture was central in the Mayan world conception: humiliation or physical sacrifice of defeated warriors were common practices, as well as rewarding victorious warriors with body parts of the fallen. His favorite weapons were always blowguns, obsidian swords and above all atlatl, a kind of long spears.
Mayan dress
The Mayan clothing was simple, with a predominance of cotton and long fabrics, such as skirts, for women. For their part, the men wore a kind of pants called "pati", which left the torso uncovered.
The nobility adorned their attire with embroidered stones and colorful feathers. In addition, they wore headdresses, belts and other luxurious accessories that served to differentiate them from the social classes lower.
Mayan architecture
The Mayans left behind an important architectural work, one of the largest in the premodern world. They built palaces, pyramidal temples, ceremonial and sports spaces. In addition, they developed structures specifically aligned for the observation astronomical.
However, in their cities there was no formal urban design of any kind. In fact, populations were growing erratically, from the outside to the inside. In the center of the cities were the administrative and ceremonial buildings, surrounded by residential buildings.
Its constructions used Neolithic technology, with stone and perishable materials. Through masonry techniques they could take advantage of the items available around.
Mayan writing
The Mayans developed a complex hieroglyphic writing system.The Mayan writing was a complete system of hieroglyphic writing, the only one in all of pre-Columbian America, the first signs of which are estimated between the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. C., in the coastal region of present-day Guatemala.
It is very similar to Mesoamerican isthmic writing (consisting of logograms), so it is possible that they arose in parallel. The Mayans used this spelling to label vessels, murals and stelae, for practical, ritual or religious purposes.
Astronomy in the Mayan culture
Another important Mayan legacy has to do with their meticulousness when contemplating the sky and recording their astronomical observations around the Sun, the Moon, Venus and stars.
According to his belief, divinatory tools could be obtained from the sky. In other words, the priests contemplated past astronomical cycles and linked them to events that could be repeated, thus formulating prophecies.
Although they did not have a clear scientific intention, the Mayans managed to measure the 584-day cycle of Venus with a margin of error of just two hours, since they also had a prodigious grasp of mathematics.