Mayan Cultural Beliefs
The British Museum, home to 100 objects, explores and unravels fascinating truths of human history dating from two million years ago to the present. In each object, historians are able to establish what was important to individuals living at a specific point in time when the object was used or created. Objects such as the Maya Maize God Statue, the Egyptian Clay Model of Cattle, and the Chinese Zhou Ritual Vessel, reveal different rituals in various cultures. The unique cultural rituals associated with the three objects allow historians to understand the beliefs and every day philosophy of the Mayan, Egyptian, and Zhou Dynasty cultures. Specifically, the Maya Maize God Statue reflects the importance placed on maize for creation and agriculture,
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The stone statue portraying the sacred god is composed of a headdress shaped as a corn cob, draped with silky strands that line the corn to resemble hair. This statue would have originally sat alongside other gods on a stepped pyramid temple. Ancient Mayan ideology believed there were eight mythological beings, these beings were the ancestors of all Mayan people. Mayans believed these ancestors originated from corn, inferring all Mayans were formed from yellow and white maize dough. The Popol Vuh, a famous epic, describes the Mayan creation myth that maize and water became the ingredients for humans, flesh and blood. With the belief of corn as the source of human creation, the Mayans believed maize was a source of scared properties, becoming the basis of many rituals. One of the most well-known rituals associated with the food of maize is the decapitation of the Maya Maize God. Just like the physical maize plant, the Maya Maize God was decapitated at the harvest time, and reborn at the new growing season. The ritual performed during harvest time concludes that the Maya Maize God representing the agriculture cycle of planting, harvesting, and replanting, is mirrored in the faith of the human cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. This conclusion can be made since the Mayans believed humans were composed of maize, completing the same cycle of
The stone statue portraying the sacred god is composed of a headdress shaped as a corn cob, draped with silky strands that line the corn to resemble hair. This statue would have originally sat alongside other gods on a stepped pyramid temple. Ancient Mayan ideology believed there were eight mythological beings, these beings were the ancestors of all Mayan people. Mayans believed these ancestors originated from corn, inferring all Mayans were formed from yellow and white maize dough. The Popol Vuh, a famous epic, describes the Mayan creation myth that maize and water became the ingredients for humans, flesh and blood. With the belief of corn as the source of human creation, the Mayans believed maize was a source of scared properties, becoming the basis of many rituals. One of the most well-known rituals associated with the food of maize is the decapitation of the Maya Maize God. Just like the physical maize plant, the Maya Maize God was decapitated at the harvest time, and reborn at the new growing season. The ritual performed during harvest time concludes that the Maya Maize God representing the agriculture cycle of planting, harvesting, and replanting, is mirrored in the faith of the human cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. This conclusion can be made since the Mayans believed humans were composed of maize, completing the same cycle of