Indigenous Religion: The Mayan Religion

Mayan Religion

Bob Marthy
English 4
Period 6
The Mayan religion is a distinct type of religion and a very interesting one. Throughout this research I found many interesting facts. Mayans were an important part of the Mesoamerican culture and were in fact from Mesoamerican territory. “The Maya civilization was one of the most dominant indigenous societies of Mesoamerica (a term used to describe Mexico and Central America before the 16th century Spanish conquest). Unlike other scattered indigenous populations of Mesoamerica, the Maya were centered in one geographical block covering all of the Yucatan Peninsula and modern-day Guatemala; Belize and parts of the Mexican states of Tabasco and Chiapas; and
250, was the golden age of the Maya Empire. Classic Maya civilization grew to some 40 cities, including Tikal, Uaxactún, Copán, Bonampak, Dos Pilas, Calakmul, Palenque and Río Bec; each city held a population of between 5,000 and 50,000 people. At its peak, the Maya population may have reached 2,000,000. “(The Rise and fall of the Mayan Empire) This was a high population number that was reached at that time period. Many people would think that it would have grown more and more as time went on but it did not, the number actually declined.” From the late eighth through the end of the ninth century, something unknown happened to shake the Maya civilization to its foundations. One by one, the Classic cities in the southern lowlands were abandoned, and by A.D. 900, Maya civilization in that region had collapsed. The reason for this mysterious decline is unknown, though scholars have developed several competing theories.” (The Rise and fall of the Mayan Empire) Al though the reason of the declination is unknown the amount it dropped was drastic. There are many different theories of why the Mayan population diminished such as; “Some believe that by the ninth century the Maya had exhausted the environment around them to the point that it could no longer sustain a very large population. Other Maya scholars argue that constant warfare among competing city-states led the complicated military, family (by marriage) and trade alliances between
Mayan hieroglyphics were carved into stone monuments or pieces of bone, painted on pottery, and written on books (codices) of bark paper. Mayan texts describe religious rituals, astronomy, and divination, and are the most valuable source of information on the ancient civilization. The most famous of these texts is the Popol Vuh (1554-1558), which was written in Quiché, a highland Maya language, and translated into Spanish by a priest. It tells the mythology and cosmology of the Post classic Guatemalan Maya, and shows central Mexican influences. That’s why it is the most famous text. Also the Mayan calendar is very important because it consists of a solar year of 365 days. It was divided into 18 months of 20 days each, followed by a five-day time period. There was also a 260-day sacred year (tzolkin), divided into days named by the combination of 13 numbers and 20