maya society and religion Flashcards
kings and ruling families -> then
priests
who kept a calendar and transmitted knowledge of writing as and astronomy math
rules
a hereditary nobility
- cooperates with kings and priests
- organizes military
- religious rituals
social system
hereditary nobility
- priests
- kings
- merchant (nobles)
- artisans, peasants, slavew
astronomy and math
understand movements of planets
- invented 0
- eclipses
- calculated the solar year
calendar
maya priests constructed the most elaborate out of the americas
- 365 day solar calendar and
- 260 day ritual year
end of the world the y believed
end of a cycle?
-52 year periods that the 2 calendars ran on
maya writing
most sophisticated and flexible system of writing of the americas
- with ideographic (chinese)
- and symbols for syllables
what was writing for
history poetry -myth -genealogical -administrative -astronomical records
what did they write on
paper from beaten tree bark
-velllum from deerskin
why are there no books to be found
when Spanish conquistadors came, they destroyed all the books they could find in hopes of undermining native religious belief
what books survived
4 books of astronomical and calendrical matters
the pool vuh
a maya creation myth
- teaches that he gods had created humans out of maize and water
- priests said that gods maintain the agriculture cycle from human sacrifice
bloodletting rituals
done to increase rain for crops
maya ball game
inherited from the olmecs
- players get a rubber ball through a ring without using their hands
- prisoners played for their lives
