Instituto Tepeyac

Campus Cuautitlán
2nd Grade

History

Proyect

“Mayan Civilization”

Bruno Hernández Casas

N.L: 10 Grup: 204
Teacher: Juan Carlos Velázquez Quiroz
Monday, May 25th 2020
Etymology

The origin of the Mayan word is controversial; although in Mexico today it is very
easily associated with the culture of the Yucatan peninsula, the ethnic group or its
language, its meaning can be translated as “the sediment left by the water”, which
refers to the composition of the land of the Yucatecan peninsula and much of Central
America. However, in Maya-ancestral Maya means the family of God, "God's chosen
people".

The use of the word is located in the pre-colonial era. The natives of the Yucatan
peninsula used it to refer to the Yucatecan language (“mayathan”) and to certain
sacred and ancient objects. For the Spaniards, meanwhile, it meant indigenous or
related to Yucatan.

According to records from the Chilam Balam de Chumayel, the Mayapán, “land of
the good excavator” or “unbroken ground”, was founded, and then the men were
called Mayas; that later they were defeated and dispersed and 120 years later they
were Christianized. That is why by the time the Spanish Maya and Mayapán arrived
they were already referring to an ancient culture from which the language and some
religious objects were preserved.

History

The Mayans settled in Central America from the 20th century B. C. until the fifteenth
century AD. C, because its last vestiges are kept during the conquest of America.
Therefore, its history covers about 2,600 years, separated into three major periods:
Preclassic. In this period, which runs from 2000 B.C. at 250 AD. C., the first traces
of the Mayan people are given. The settlements become the first major cities in the
region. In the late Preclassic this culture flourished and around the 1st century AD.
C. collapsed, as many cities were abandoned for unknown reasons.

Classic. In this period, which ranges from 250

to 900 AD. C., a renaissance of the Mayan
culture occurs and, subsequently, great and
bloody wars take place, which led to a new
political collapse and abandonment of cities,
now in favor of the Northern regions.

Postclassic. In this period, which goes from 950 to 1539 AD. C., signs of the Mayan
culture persisted in cities located in high territories, whose organization in various
Mayan states obeyed a council of kings and kingdoms whose internal struggles left
them weakened for the arrival of the Spanish colonists.

Contact and Spanish conquest, The Mayans defended themselves with weapons
in hand before the Spanish conquering armies; however, the Spanish took
advantage of the disagreements between the Mayan kingdoms and broke alliances
at their convenience, thus falling in 1697 the last of the independent Mayan cities,
Nojpetén of the Itzá kingdom, at the hands of Martín de Urzúa.

Map

The Mayan Culture occupied the territory of what are currently the Mexican states of
Yucatan, Campeche, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Chiapas, part of the countries
Guatemala and Honduras and all of Belize.

The "Country of the Mayas" or "El Mayab" is divided into three zones: the Yucatan
peninsula, the central zone of Petén and the Highlands of Chiapas and Guatemala.
The central zone is the one that gives more problems to human progress due to the
abundance of rains, rivers, swamps and dense forest; however it is there where the
Mayan culture has its maximum splendor.

The Mayans occupied the area of the Yucatan peninsula (Mexico) and its
surroundings. There they built large pyramids, monuments and temples.

Currently they would occupy the territory of several Central American countries, such
as a part of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and part of El Salvador and Honduras. This
geographical area has a variable topography, volcanoes, mountains and jungle
areas with some semi-desert coastal areas.

Today there are ruins of the main Mayan cities: Yaxchilán, Tulum, Cuello, Coba,
Copán, Palenque and Chichén Itzá.

Government

The main lineage that monopolized both administrative

and religious tasks was the Halach Huinic (true man) or
Ahau (Lord) who was considered demigods because they
were descendants of the founding ancestor and
intermediary between the gods and their inferior relatives,
men.
The Halach Huinic was the one who had the political, economic, judicial and military
command of the community and had the right to transfer the most responsible
political positions to his brothers and nephews, the Bataboob, who helped him
control the life of the community, since they were in charge of administering the
subordinate secondary centers, presiding over the communal councils, supervising
the collection of tributes and administering justice.

The omnipotent position of Halach Huinic passed hereditary from father to son, but
if he died without a male inheritance, daughters could take over; the next, in order to
the throne, would be the older brother.

In times of war, the Bataboob had to cede their authority to the Nacom, the supreme
military commander who enjoyed full powers for a period of time not exceeding three
years.

The Mayans had cities with independence and

their own governments that together formed the
Mayan civilization with the same customs and
religion. One of the most important cities of the
Mayan culture was Chichen Itzá,

Art of the civilization

The Mayans inherited a great architectural work in

which the temples, palaces, ceremonial spaces
and the fields for the ball game stood out. They
also developed structures for astronomical
observation that were expressly aligned.

Cities did not have a formal urban design; the cities grew irregularly from the outside
to the inside and in the center were administrative and ceremonial buildings
surrounding residential buildings.
The Mayans contributed a great concept to the false
vault, built by approximation of huge slabs. They also
developed beautiful murals like the one in
Bonampak.

The Mayan writing was made up of more than 700 signs that appear in stone, in
codices that were strips of maguey fiber folded in the form of a screen and on the
surface of some ceramic vessels. The spelling is not yet fully deciphered, but it is
partly phonetic and partly ideographic.

They also stood out in sculpture, as evidenced by the beautiful stelae of Piedras
Negras and Tikal, and in painting, although, unfortunately, only vestiges that amaze
with the sobriety of the line and the safety of the line are preserved.

Sources

deChile.net. (21 de Mayo de 2020). Etimologias de Chile. Recuperado el 21 de Mayo de 2020, de

http://etimologias.dechile.net/?maya

Enciclopedia de la Historia. (2018-2020). Enciclopedia de la Historia. Recuperado el 21 de Mayo de

2020, de https://enciclopediadehistoria.com/cultura-maya/

Enciclopedia de la Historia. (2018-2020). Enciclopedia de la Historia. Recuperado el 21 de Mayo de

2020, de https://enciclopediadehistoria.com/cultura-
maya/#Ubicaci%C3%B3n_de_la_civilizaci%C3%B3n_maya

Hemeroteca PL. (21 de Septiembre de 2015). Prensa Libre. Recuperado el 21 de Mayo de 2020, de
https://www.prensalibre.com/hemeroteca/los-origenes-de-la-palabra-maya/

Historia Mexicana. (s.f.). Recuperado el 21 de Mayo de 2020, de Cultura Maya:

https://lahistoriamexicana.mx/antiguo-mexico/cultura-maya

Máxima Uriarte, J. (30 de Diciembre de 2019). "Cultura Maya". Recuperado el 2020 de Mayo de
24, de Características.co Enciclopedia Online: https://www.caracteristicas.co/civilizacion-
maya