mayan society - ms. blevins'...
TRANSCRIPT
MAYAN SOCIETY
DAILY LIFE
Most Mayans lived outside of city centers and farmed. Men and women divided their labor into separate domains. Men farmed, hunted, and maintained village buildings. Women raised the children, tended to small gardens outside their homes, tended to livestock, and prepared food. Most Mayan families lived in thatched huts with their extended families nearby. It was common for multiple generations to live next door to one another.
• Sedentary lifestyle • Developed farming • Lived in small farming
communities
• Greatest era of building, writing, and sculpture
• Increased warfare
Slash-‐and-‐burn agriculture technique used by Mayan farmers.
Typical Mayan housing.
FUN FACT
Mayan society was broken
into two main groups: nobles
and commoners. Each of
these main groups had sub
groups. Farmers were part of
the commoner group.
SOCIAL STRUCTURE While most Mayans were farmers, or commoners, throughout the Classic Period there was a social hierarchy that people were born into. It is as follows
MAYA RULE
Each major Mayan city had a king that ruled over the city and the surrounding farming villages. This kingship was usually passed down from father to son. Nobles helped the king run the city and the king turned to his nobles for assistance and advice on a regular basis. Kings used their great wealth to keep nobles loyal to them so no one would try to overthrow them.
Kings increased their power through warfare. They were able to gain captives, take control of trade routes, and take land from neighboring areas. Mayans never really formed an empire, though. They more formed spheres of influence, or areas were they had a strong influence or control over. To help in their quest for more power, Mayan kings formed alliances with other strong cities that could extend their respective spheres of influence.
King
Nobles
Priests
Merchants/Artisans
Peasants
Slaves
• was considered a god-‐king • responsible for political leadership • mostly men, but women had influence over political decisions
• Lived near ceremonial city centers and helped king run city • Gathered taxes, supplies, and labor for construction projects • Served as war captains who led peasant armies during war
• Powerful because maintained favor with gods • Led rituals, calculated positions of stars, treated sick • Practiced human sacrifice on limited scale
• Traded salt, cotton, fish for obsidian, jade, feathers, cocoa beans over long distances
• Produced sculptures, codices, murals for gods
• Men worked fields, women ran households • Rewarded for loyalty by being able to attend
special ceremonies • Recruited from surplus children,
POWs, criminals • Required to do undesirable tasks • Not treated badly
MAYAN ECONOMY Mayan merchants were highly respected members of Mayan society. They even had their own god, Ek Chaub. These merchants created vast trade routes, some of which went throughout the Caribbean Islands. Through the interior of the Yucatán Peninsula, merchants used human caravans of slaves to carry goods. They used no animals or wheeled vehicles in the trade process. They also did not build a major road system to help with trade. Instead, they used small pathways that crisscrossed the land.
Along the coast, Mayans used large seagoing canoes to get through the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. Christopher Columbus reported seeing a Mayan canoe in 1502. He recorded that it was over 50 feet long and about eight feet wide, had a cabin structure, and a crew of about 12 men. The Mayas used the barter system. Goods were exchanged instead of money. At the time, Mayans did not have money, they used cacao (chocolate) beans instead. One Mayan record showed that a slave was worth 100 cacao beans. Mayans traded fruits, vegetables, salt, honey, dried fish, turtle eggs,
deer meat, and birds. They also exchanged items such as, cotton cloth, animal skins, feathers, shells, gold, emeralds, and jade. Mayans also traded slaves.
Mayan mural of Toltec traders at Chichen Itza.
Cacao beans like what were used as currency in the Maya civilization.
CASE STUDY: TIKAL
Tikal was one of the first major Mayan cities. Archaeologists believe that Tikal’s location was no accident. The position of the temples at Tikal aligns with the largest mountain peak in the region, as well as with sunrise and sunset times of the solstices and equinoxes. This showed the advanced astronomical achievements already taking place in the Mayan civilization during the Pre-‐Classic era. Tikal continued to be a center of trade and strength throughout most of the Classic era, as well. During the Classic period, Tikal extended their sphere of influence to nearly 500,000 people, with an immediate city center of almost 50,000. They also created alliances with other powerful cities, like Palenque. This made Tikal the most powerful Mayan city, and therefore the seat of government for the civilization. In 869 CE the residents of Tikal mysteriously left, along with other cities in the region. No one is quite sure why they left, but the reign of Tikal was over.