mayan society
Mayan Temple
During the time of the Mayan Temple one thing that was very important was sacrifice. They did sacrifice by cutting themselves sometimes and they used by killing other people. Also human sacrifice was a central Mayan religion. It was believed to encourage fertility, demonstrate piety, and propitiate the gods. The Mayan gods were thought to be nourished by human blood, and ritual bloodletting was seen as the only means of making contact with them. The Maya believed that if they neglected these rituals, cosmic disorder and chaos would result.
At important ceremonies, the sacrificial victim was held down at the top of a pyramid or raised platform while a priest made an incision below the rib cage and ripped out the heart with his hands. The heart was then burned in order to nourish the gods. It was not only the captives who suffered for the sake of the gods: the Mayan aristocracy themselves, as mediators between the gods and their people, underwent ritual bloodletting and self-torture. The higher one’s position, the more was expected. Blood was drawn by jabbing spines through the ear or bladder, or by drawing a thorn-studded cord through the tongue; it was then spattered on paper or otherwise collected as an offering to the gods.
The Maya worshipped a pantheon of nature gods, each of which had both a benevolent side and a malevolent side. The most important deity was the supreme god Itzamna, the creator god, the god of the fire and god of the hearth. Another important Mayan god was Kukulcan, the Feathered Serpent, who appears on many temples and was later adopted by the Toltecs and Aztecs as Quetzalcoatl. Also important was Chac, a hooked-nose god of rain and lighting. A third god that frequently in Mayan art is Bolon Tzacab, who is depicted with a branching nose and is often held like a scepter in rulers’ hands. He is thought to have functioned as a god of royal descent.
The Maya had a highly sophisticated culture, and this included a written
During the time of the Mayan Temple one thing that was very important was sacrifice. They did sacrifice by cutting themselves sometimes and they used by killing other people. Also human sacrifice was a central Mayan religion. It was believed to encourage fertility, demonstrate piety, and propitiate the gods. The Mayan gods were thought to be nourished by human blood, and ritual bloodletting was seen as the only means of making contact with them. The Maya believed that if they neglected these rituals, cosmic disorder and chaos would result.
At important ceremonies, the sacrificial victim was held down at the top of a pyramid or raised platform while a priest made an incision below the rib cage and ripped out the heart with his hands. The heart was then burned in order to nourish the gods. It was not only the captives who suffered for the sake of the gods: the Mayan aristocracy themselves, as mediators between the gods and their people, underwent ritual bloodletting and self-torture. The higher one’s position, the more was expected. Blood was drawn by jabbing spines through the ear or bladder, or by drawing a thorn-studded cord through the tongue; it was then spattered on paper or otherwise collected as an offering to the gods.
The Maya worshipped a pantheon of nature gods, each of which had both a benevolent side and a malevolent side. The most important deity was the supreme god Itzamna, the creator god, the god of the fire and god of the hearth. Another important Mayan god was Kukulcan, the Feathered Serpent, who appears on many temples and was later adopted by the Toltecs and Aztecs as Quetzalcoatl. Also important was Chac, a hooked-nose god of rain and lighting. A third god that frequently in Mayan art is Bolon Tzacab, who is depicted with a branching nose and is often held like a scepter in rulers’ hands. He is thought to have functioned as a god of royal descent.
The Maya had a highly sophisticated culture, and this included a written