book of the Quiche Maya, and the customs of the ancient Maya can still be observed in Quetzaltenango and Chichicastenango near Lake Atitlan. The Maya are a most resilient people.
Classical Mayan Civilization
While Teohihuacan and Monte Alban flourished, Mayan peoples farther south
in Yucatan and Guatemala produced the most splendid cultural achievements of
the classical era and perhaps of native American societies in any time.
Artistic and intellectual activity rose to new heights in numerous Mayan
centers, each boasting its temples, palaces, observatories, and ball courts.
Although it borrowed from Teotihuacan before the latter's fall in the seventh
century A.D., Mayan civilization subsequently cast a brilliant shadow over the
whole of Mesoamerica.
The earliest Mayas are thought to have migrated from the northwest coast
of California to the Guatemalan highlands during the third millennium B.C.
From that homeland, Yucatec and Cholian speakers settled the northern and
central lowlands between 1500 B.C. and A.D. 100, respectively. Mayan villages
developed steadily, many becoming ceremonial centers by the Christian era. In
the highlands, Kaminaljuyu had by then developed architecture and primitive
writing under the influence of Oaxaca and Teotihuacan. In the early classical
period before A.D. 550, Tikal in the central lowlands assumed the Mayan
leadership, as it traded with Teotihuacan and allied with Kaminaljuyu. The
fall of Teotihuacan brought temporary confusion, soon followed by the glorious
renaissance of the late classical era at Tikal, Palenque, Yaxchilan, Uxmal,
and many other Mayan centers.
Mayan communities were supported by productive economies, based upon
agriculture but heavily involved in handicrafts and long distance trade. In
the rich soil, improved by clearing, irrigating, and terracing, the Mayas
raised squash, chile peppers, and many other crops, including maize, which
supplied 80 percent of their food. Slaves did the hard labor in the fields and
in construction. On the next social rung were common peasants, craftsmen, and
merchants. The governing class of priests and nobles, drawn from elite
lineages, performed overlapping functions because religion and government were
so closely allied. This social structure was rigidly differentiated, with each
class distinct in rights and responsibilities.
Mayan women were respected and sometimes honored, but they exercised
their limited freedoms within the bounds permitted by a culture characterized
by male domination. As keepers of households and experts in handicrafts, they
did all of the weaving and alone produced the highly artistic pre-wheel
pottery, for which the Mayans are famous. In performing such important roles,
Mayan women earned a modicum of respect and status. When a maiden married, her
husband came to live in her family's house until he proved himself. She could
divorce him and marry again, if she waited a year. She was also permitted to
hold property. In many other ways, however, Mayan women were subordinated.
They were prohibited from looking directly at men; they waited on men at
meals, eating later with other women; and they could not hold public office or
enter a temple. Those in elite or royal families were regularly exported for
marriage into foreign families, serving as political trade goods for cementing
alliances or clinching trade agreements.
Each Mayan center was governed by a hereditary priest-king, although some
very few states may have had ruling queens in earlier times, before the sixth
century. The typical ruler in the late classical period was considered to be a
descendant of the sun god. He was assisted by a council of priests and nobles.
His government levied taxes, supervised justice, conducted foreign relations,
and made war - indeed, as time passed in this era, warfare became increasingly
common. Headmen, selected after passing examinations, were appointed to
administer affairs in outlying villages. They commanded local militias,
subject to strict control by the top military officers of the states. Some
centers remained independent, but most were members of loosely organized
leagues, based on common religions, royal marriages, or diplomatic alignments.
Religion permeated all phases of Mayan life. Law and taxation, for
example, were interpreted as religious principles and religious offerings.
Education was conducted mainly as training for priests, who made reading,
writing, and learning caste specialties. They conducted the numerous public
rituals, including some human sacrifice by decapitation. Mayan thought was
more ritualistic than scientific; mathematics and astronomy were considered
necessary to schedule ceremonies honoring the divine heavenly bodies. These
were but some among a vast hierarchy of deities, ruling the universe under a
supreme god and his consort.
The two most enduring achievements of the Mayas were their calendar and
their writing system. Neither of these was original, but both were more
efficient than those of earlier Mesoamerican peoples. The Mayas perfected a
solar calendar with eighteen months of 20 days each and a five-day period for
religious festivals. Using an ingenious cyclical system of notation known as
the "long count," they were able to date events of the distant past for
accurate record-keeping and astronomical observations. Their notational
mathematics, based on 20 rather than 10 in the current decimal system,
employed combinations of dots and bars, in vertical sequences, to indicate
numbers above 20. For non-numerical records, they combined pictographic and
glyphic symbols, which have only recently been partially deciphered.
Their remarkable accomplishments in mathematics, astronomy, and writing
were more than matched by their truly magnificent art and architecture. The
plaza of each Mayan community was marked by at least one pyramid, topped by a
temple. With their terraced sides and horizontal lines, these buildings
demonstrated a prevailing sense of proportion. The highly stylized sculpture
which decorated their terraces is regarded by some authorities as the world's
finest, even though Mayan sculptors accomplished their intricate carving with
only stone tools. The Mayas also developed mural painting to a high art. Even
their lesser arts, such as weaving, ceramics, and jewelry making, reveal
aesthetic sense, sublety of design, and manipulative skills superior to
artistic creations in many other high civilizations.