Guatemala

The Mayan civilization, located in Central America, was an advanced, agricultural society that dominated for around 1200 years. The earliest civilizations date back to 1800 BC, while their civilizations peaked around sixth century AD. The early Maya were agricultural, growing, maize, beans, and squash. At their peak, they excelled in agriculture, pottery, hieroglyph writing, mathematics, and architecture. The Maya focused on improving ways of health or medicine, and also focused on religion…

Introduction Guatemala has become the leading place for conducting researches on religions in Latin America. The predominant religions in Guatemala are Catholicism, Christianity and Mayan spirituality. However, during the colonial era, Catholicism was the main religion. There has been a tremendous growth in the Protestants community. According to the The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, “Pentecostals represent the most rapidly growing sector of Latin American Protestantism”. The other…

The book titled Popol Vuh written by Dennis Tedlock is a book filled with tales of mytho-historical narratives that were founded in the kingdom of K’iche’ in the West Highlands of Guatemala. The title Popol Vuh can be translated to mean the “Book of the People”. In Popol Vuh we can find many different tales, however the most popular tales are those of the creations myths, and the ones of the Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque. Popol Vuh has been a book that has greatly influenced the Mayan…

Clendinnen recounts the history of the Yucatan peninsula once the Spanish arrived. She splits her recounting into two sections: the Spanish’s perceptive and the Mayan’s perspective. Clendinnen’s recounting the Spanish side of history demonstrates a struggle not only between the Spanish and the new land and its inhabitants, but also the internal conflicts between the Spanish settlers and the friars. At first she tells us how the Spaniards’ interactions with the natives consisted of tribute…

The Decline of the Mayan Civilization Thought to be the founders of the Mesoamerican empire, the Mayan culture began around 1800 B.C. Around 200 A.D, the mayans experienced a time of great advancements and thrived until about 900 A.D. The Mayans were able to create large cities without “essential” tools such as metal or the wheel. They were also about to create a 356 day calendar, which we still base our calendars off of today. To creating their own writing system using a form of…

This article is about the role of water control in Classic Maya civilization. Water control played a role in the elite control and the increased power of rulers of civic-ceremonial centers. The centers lacked water resources due to them being established far from natural water resources. The centers were located in higher elevation areas that had little rainfall. The Maya would get their water supply through artificial reservoirs. The kings were responsible for providing clean water to their…

David Zheng Honor Mr. Schutz World Cultures 8 16 December 2015 The Mayan: Isolated Achievers The Mayans were an impressive civilization, which existed around 3,000 years ago. During this time, they were mostly isolated, only making contact with the rest of the world 500 years ago. The Mayans were located on the Yucatan Peninsula in North America. Put simply, the geography of Mesoamerica was less favorable than the geography in Eurasian. This, coupled with the lack of useful animals of labor,…

The ancient Maya lived thousands of years ago, their history preserved by archaic, mysterious, yet quintessential glyphs and records. Their culture deprived, their traditions burned, modern day scholars have very limited access to the ancient life of the Maya. When the Spaniards first came to the Yucatan in the 1600s, they were appalled by what they thought was "devil writing," therefore making the Maya synonymous to evil, sinister peoples. In an effort to "save" them, and save themselves, the…

The demise of the Mayan civilization parallels the threats that America and other nations experience today in several different ways. Geopolitical tensions, water scarcity, and a worldwide pandemic all parallel the Mayan demise with threats in America and other nations today. Most people wouldn’t be able to make the connection that the demise of the Mayan civilization shares similarities with America and other nations today. Geopolitical tensions have existed between nations for decades, and…

I. ARCHITECTURE The Maya culture used architecture as a way to represent power. This culture achieved this representation by the creation and construction of massive monuments. Besides showing power, the Maya architecture had as a main objective to show the respect and passion to their religion, that is to say, that these enormous monuments were sacred for them, in other words, these constructions were seen as gifts from their gods. The Maya received inspiration from the Olmec and the…