Bell Ringer 1: (B) 4/18/11

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Bell Ringer 1 (B) 4/18/11

• When the Mayans suddenly disappeared, they left
  behind an unknown writing system, monuments,
  artifacts, etc. leaving archeologists with
  several questions about their cultures, beliefs,
  and intelligence.
• Why do you think an entire civilization of people
  disappear into the jungle? What type of people
  do you think the Mayans were? How do you imagine
  they lived their daily lives? Explain your
  answer!

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The Popul Vuh
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The Popul Vuh

• The greatest surviving Mayan document.
• It was written anonymously in the Mayan language
  using the Latin alphabet between 1554 and 1558.
• Scholars believe this document is either a
  translation of a manuscript in the ancient Mayan
  hieroglyphic language or a collection of stories
  and songs recorded directly from the Mayan oral
  tradition.

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The Popol Vuh

• In about 1700, a Catholic missionary translated
  The Popol Vuh into Spanish
• He spoke the Mayan language fluently, and he
  persuaded the Maya to show him this manuscript of
  their ancient history.
• There is no record that any other Spaniard ever
  saw the Mayan document.
• The Spanish manuscript disappeared for 150 years.
• In the 1850s, it was discovered in the library of
  the University of San Carlos in Guatemala City
  and was first published in Vienna in 1857.

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The Popol Vuh

• It reveals more than the talent of the anonymous
  recorder.
• It reflects the thoughts and values of this
  ancient people and the ability of their language
  to express them.
• The language and some of the ideas are similar to
  the opening chapters of the Old Testament. This
  is not surprising, given the fact that Spanish
  missionaries were already teaching the Maya about
  Christianty when The Popul Vuh was being
  recorded.

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Things to consider

• Compare the type of human beings the Maya gods
  wished to create and the relationship between
  these gods and their people with those of other
  creation myths.

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Writing Assignment

• You can only imagine the excitement when the
  lost translation of The Popul Vuh was
  discovered in the 1850s.
• Your job today is create an archeologists
  profile of the Mayan people based on their
  creation myth.
• What do you infer about the Mayan people?
• What did they worship?
• What were the goals of their society?
• What were the like?

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The Mayans

• Mayan World View
• Creation Myth
• Religion
• Gods and Goddesses

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Mayan World View

• Maya conceived of the earth as flat and
  four-cornered.
• Each corner had a color value
• East-Red
• White-North
• Black-West
• Yellow-South
• Center-Blue-Green

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World Supports

• Each corner was held up by four Powahtuns (old
  deities)
• The sky was held up by four Bakabs
  (Human/Atlantean figures) of the correct color
  for each direction.
• Although sometimes these are represented as
  trees.

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Mayan religion
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Mayan Religion    

• Religion was important to every part of Mayan
  life.  
• The Mayas worshipped many different gods.  Each
  day, month, city, and occupation had its own
  special god or goddess.  
• The Mayas had a variety of religious festivals
  and celebrations.  Most of these celebrations
  included human sacrifice.

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• Each Mayan city -state had a ruler called the
  halach uinic.  He may have also served as the
  high priest during religious ceremonies.
• The Mayans believed halach uinic was a living
  god.  He ruled until his death.  At his death,
  his oldest son became the next halach uinic.   If
  the halach uinic did not have a son, his brother
  would rule.  If  he did not have a brother, the
  ruler's council elected a member of his family to
  serve.   
• The halach uinic dressed in elaborate and
  colorful clothes.  He also wore a very large
  head-dress.  Temple wall paintings show him with
  large ear decorations, crossed eyes, and many
  tattoos.

http//www.spanishome.com/mayas/religion.htm
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Priests

• Many other priests served with the halach uinic.
   
• These priests, named ahkin performed many duties.
   
• They had the knowledge of mathematics and
  astronomy.  Some of the ahkin performed medical
  rituals.  
• The Mayans believed that only the priests could
  explain the mysteries of life and death.  
• They thought earth was on the back of a crocodile
  that floated in a large pond.  At another time
  they believed the earth was the floor of a lizard
  house.  

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Mayan Worlds

• The Mayas' religion taught that there were 13
  layers of heavens above the earth.  
• They also believed nine underworlds were below.
   They thought that they lived in the fifth
  creation of the world.  
• The previous four worlds had been destroyed by a
  great flood.  
• At the beginning of the fifth world, the gods
  created humans from corn.

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Sacrifices and Blood Offerings

• Many of the Mayas religious ceremonies included
  gifts and sacrifices to the various gods and
  goddesses.  The Mayans believed the gods would
  give factors to them in return for prayers,
  offerings, and sacrifices.
• In many ceremonies, the priests cut themselves to
  get blood to present to the gods.  
• Other people like the king and high-ranking elite
  would pierce their tongues, or in the case of
  men, pierce their foreskin with a stingray spine.
•  

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Rituals

• The Mayan ritual acts were generally dictated by
  the sacred almanac.
• The numbers 4, 9, 13 and the color directions are
  prominent.
• Before the rituals there are usually periods of
  sexual abstinence and food taboos.

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Two women drawing thorn-ropes through their
tongues.
http//www.northstar.k12.ak.us/schools/tan/project
s/mayan/relegion.html
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Sacrifices

• The Mayas had several methods of giving the human
  sacrifices.  
• Often, the priests took the victim to the altar
  at the temple.  Then the priests cut the heart
  out of the living victim and presented it to the
  god.
• In another method, the priests tied the victim to
  a wooden pole.  Then they threw spears and arrows
  at the victim's chest in the area of the heart.
• The priests were assisted by four old men, called
  Chacs.

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Post-Classic

• In the third type of sacrifice, they threw the
  victim into a sacred well.  the most famous of
  these wells is the Well of Sacrifices at Chichén
  Itzá.  
• If victims survived the fall and did not drown,
  the priests pulled them back out of the well.
   The Mayas believed the gods had chosen to spare
  these victims.  
• The priests then asked the victims what messages
  they brought back from the gods.  The victims
  received special treatment from then on since the
  Mayas believed they had spoken to the gods.

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Sacred Cenote
http//www.mysteriousplaces.com/mayan/Cenote.html
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Sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza
This view of the wall of the cenote shows how
high it is from the water (72 feet). It also
shows the green algae that guards the secret of
its contents.The walls visible here are made of
limestone. http//www.isourcecom.com/maya/cities/c
hichenitza/cenoteside.htm
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Ancestors

• The Mayas also worshipped the dead.  They
  believed the dead became one with the gods.  
• They worshipped their ancestors at many religious
  ceremonies.  
• They also built pyramids over the sacred remains
  of their dead rulers.

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Mayan Gods and Goddesses

• Pre-Conquest codices mention approximately 30.
• Post-Conquest manuscripts Ritual of the Bakabs
  (18th c) depicts 166 deities.

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ITZAMNÁ

• He was the head god, lord of the heavens and lord
  of the night and day.  
• His name meant lizard.  Carved pictures show him
  as an old crossed-eyed man, and sometimes with a
  lizard's body.  The Mayas believed he invented
  books and writing.

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KINICH AHUAU

• He was the sun god and the god of the rulers.

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CHAC

• He was the rain god.  Carvings show him as a
  reptile with a large nose pointing down and
  curling fangs.  He had four aspects
• Chac Xib Chac Red Chac of the East Sac Xib Chac
  White Chac of the North Ek Xib Chac Black Chac
  of the West Kan Xib Chac Yellow Chac of the
  South

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YUN KAAX

• He is the god of maize (corn) and agriculture.  
• Pictures always show him as a young man either
  carrying a plant or has a plant as a headdress.

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AH PUCH

• He is the god of death.  Carvings of him show a
  skull and skeleton.

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EK CHAUB

• He is the god of trade.  Mayan artists painted
  his face black and he had a drooping lower lip.

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IX CHEL

• She is the moon and rainbow goddess.  She is also
  the goddess of weaving and childbirth.
• Wife of Itzamna.

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BULUC CHABTAN

• He is the god of war and human sacrifice.
  Carvings of him show a black line around his eye
  and down onto his cheek.  He is at times shown
  with a torch or weapon in his hand.

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Minor Gods and Goddesses

• Cit Bolon Tum a god of Medicine.
• Ekahau the god of Travelers and Merchants.
• Ixtab the goddess of the Hanged. She receives
  their souls into paradise.
• Kan-u-Uayeyab the god who guarded cities.
• Kinich Kakmo the Sun god symbolized by the
  Macaw.
• Mitnal Mitnal was the underworld hell where the
  wicked were tortured.
• Nacon Nacon was the god of War.
• Tzultacaj (Tzuultaq'ah) For the Mayan Indians of
  central Guatemala, known as Kekchí, this was the
  god of the mountains and valleys.
• Yaxche Yaxche is the Tree of Heaven under which
  good souls rejoice.

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Writing Assignment

• Rituals, games, buildings, artwork, etc. from the
  Mayan culture were tied into their belief system
  concerning the gods, astronomy, calendar system,
  etc.
• Your task is to design a building, calendar,
  mural, etc. that could have been used in Mayan
  worship or cultural interest.
• Be sure to include both a picture and EXPLANATION
  that describes why the Mayan would use this as a
  part of their daily life.