Essay Example on The Mayan are a large Family of American Indian languages Spoken

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History of the Mayans The Mayan are a large Family of American Indian languages spoken in Central America and Mexico of which the chief members are Mayan and Quichè The Mayans have their own way of communication they write numbers and letters much different then we do They have made more than 10 000 paperback books with their language One thousand years before the Europeans figured out the concept of zero the Mayans did The Mayans also created the accurate calendars with 365 days We use calendars a lot and I bet when the Mayans created calendars they used them a lot The Mayans lived many places like Mexico and Central America before the Spanish conquest of the 16th century They built hundreds of cities The first settlement is about 4 000 years old built around 1800 They invented many things like Chocolate Basketball etc Their environment looks like a desert rainforest with many pyramids The pyramids are used for astronomy a science that deals with planets space and stars as well as the universe as a whole They ate Corn Chile Peppers Avocados beans Squash Tomatoes and Cocoa beans Corn is a staple food made in to tortillas and porridge Chile peppers can be dried or fresh and are common in South America and Mesoamerica Avocado is a fruit known widely in Mesoamerica Beans are a central part of the Mayan Aztec and Inca diet Squash is a vegetable related to pumpkin cooked in stew Tomatoes were very important in a crop in Mesoamerica Cocoa beans were used by the Mayans and the Aztec to make drinking Chocolate and also used as money

The kind of clothes they wore depended on the region they lived in it also depended on their social societies The Mayans that were more wealthy wore colorful clothes that are made from animal skin The more wealthy had more money to buy clothes that had more value and were nicer The less wealthy wore simpler clothing Men wore loincloths and the women wore long skirts and both Men and Women had an wrap that they wrapped around their shoulders when it got cold The less wealthy had less money to buy clothes so the had less valuable clothes Men had many jobs like Farmers an Ruler and Priest Being a Farmer is a job that they worked on fields to grow corn squash and many kinds of foods the Mayans ate There are many kinds of rulers they could be one of the main rulers which was a king or prince the princes job was easy they lived up to be a king The other main job as a ruler was to be and ambassador which was to represent other countries in the world One more job as a ruler was to be a prime minister their job was to organize campaigns and also serve as the chief justice of the supreme court Women had to work from home mostly to provide the needs of the family Their religious customs or beliefs are involves many aspects like nature astronomy and rituals Most gods were represented in nature for example Sun God Kinih Ahous or Maize God The mayans people astronomers were the first to discover the phases of the moon What made their society unique The Maya civilization was never unified rather it consisted of many small states ruled by kings each small state apparently centered on a city Sometimes one of the stronger Mayan states would dominate a state that was weaker and be able to exact tribute and labor from it The Mayans did not disappear completely Some of them still live across Central America today These periods were the most important The Mayans disappeared at the end of the classic and then reappeared to continue their rule in the post classic period The Mayans civilization was influenced most by 2 other Civilizations the Olmec and the Aztec The Olmec and the Aztec both conquered the Mayan and during their rule of the Mayans they taught them great many things For example the Olmecs and Aztecs made the Mayans take part in religious ceremonies which influenced the Mayans religion greatly 



They also taught the Mayans new skills such as architecture crafts and building civilization There are many known reasons for the decline and disappearance of the Mayan Civilization during the Classic period such as population growth and increased scale of kingdoms The Yucatan began to get overpopulated during the Classic period and eventually there was no more room on the Yucatan Peninsula for more people As a result of the overpopulation the markets had to produce more food In other words as more people came in the demand for more food grew As a result the agriculture demands could not be fulfilled because since the overpopulation took up almost all of the Yucatan Peninsula there was no more room to grow food and they were unable to fulfill the highly increasing demands for food Several other factors are also thought to have contributed to the demise of this civilization First earthquakes occurred then which destroyed their villages Second religious and superstitious beliefs contributed to the Mayans decline Third there were increased demands for agriculture the soil became exhausted and dry and soon there were epidemic diseases that rapidly spread throughout the Yucatan Peninsula killing many Mayans The overpopulation and agricultural growth were resulted from the Mayan rulers ambitions that they had The Mayan population began to decrease since there was not enough food for all the people Most died of starvation and malnutrition and thus the population decreased This population decline also led to the decline of the Mayans royal institutions which meant general and political decline of the Classic Mayan government It is also believed that foreign civilizations conquering the Mayans and invading their empire also contributed to the Mayan Civilization's decline


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