The Mayans
- Submitted by: will97677
- Views: 1004
- Category: Other
- Date Submitted: 05/24/2010 06:42 PM
- Pages: 13
- Report this Essay
aThe Ancient Mayans
The mayans were one of the highest advanced cicilizations at their time. They were the first civiliation to have a writing system in south america. The mayans civilization was astablished in 600 Bc and hit their peak in 900 BC. We do not know an awful lot about this antique and fascinating civilzation, because the spanish came killed and burned all the Mayan hieroglyphs because they believed that the Mayans worshipped Satan. They thought so because the Mayans sacrificed young people, salves and prisoners. The Mayans had a valid reason to sacrifice those people, they believed that the sun god needed blood in order to go through the ground to heat and fertilize the ground. The Mayans were polytheistic meaning that they believed in many different gods. Like the Greeks and many other cultures the Mayans have a god for death: Chack. The Mayans believed that a god has a corresponding female god that has the same duties as the male god. Even though we don't know what role woman played in this ancient civilization we think that woman and man were equal. The creator god was called Izanami meaning reptile house. The Mayans believed in an underworld and a place where rightful poeple would live eternity in peace. The Mayans also have many different stories of the origin of life. Their stories particularly focus on the role of mankind and the cosmos.(freidel)
The Mayans had a very different definition of looking good than we do today. The Mayans purposely broke their nose, in order to get a long and funny shaped nose. Parents also inserted object in the infants eye to make the infant cross eyes. The Mayans also strapped something on the infants head to make it longer. All this was considered beautiful back than and for the Mayans that survived still today, this is still considered beautiful.(mcKillop)
The Mayans had a caste system which consisted of the King who represented a god. He did not have a particular...
The mayans were one of the highest advanced cicilizations at their time. They were the first civiliation to have a writing system in south america. The mayans civilization was astablished in 600 Bc and hit their peak in 900 BC. We do not know an awful lot about this antique and fascinating civilzation, because the spanish came killed and burned all the Mayan hieroglyphs because they believed that the Mayans worshipped Satan. They thought so because the Mayans sacrificed young people, salves and prisoners. The Mayans had a valid reason to sacrifice those people, they believed that the sun god needed blood in order to go through the ground to heat and fertilize the ground. The Mayans were polytheistic meaning that they believed in many different gods. Like the Greeks and many other cultures the Mayans have a god for death: Chack. The Mayans believed that a god has a corresponding female god that has the same duties as the male god. Even though we don't know what role woman played in this ancient civilization we think that woman and man were equal. The creator god was called Izanami meaning reptile house. The Mayans believed in an underworld and a place where rightful poeple would live eternity in peace. The Mayans also have many different stories of the origin of life. Their stories particularly focus on the role of mankind and the cosmos.(freidel)
The Mayans had a very different definition of looking good than we do today. The Mayans purposely broke their nose, in order to get a long and funny shaped nose. Parents also inserted object in the infants eye to make the infant cross eyes. The Mayans also strapped something on the infants head to make it longer. All this was considered beautiful back than and for the Mayans that survived still today, this is still considered beautiful.(mcKillop)
The Mayans had a caste system which consisted of the King who represented a god. He did not have a particular...