Mayan Culture

Modern Mayan goal has its roots in a in truth old-fashioned goal. Ancient Mayan civilization spanned more than 3000 years and featured a written language, agriculture, a regular social class system, a well-developed religious system, development of a calendar and trade. Much of the ancient usage and culture has survived and been incorporated into the modal valuern Mayan culture.ReligionMayan religion is a hybrid of Christianity and ancient Mayan beliefs and rituals. The sixteenth century church, a central institution in the process of filchquest, set the tone of the future relationship by working to replace Mayan religion with Spanish Christianity and to Hispanicize Mayan culture in general. (Stoll, 2003)Although numerous of their Gods have been replaced with statues of Christianity, the stories b bely resemble the Christian versions. Today, devout Maya worship at mountain and cave shrines, making offerings of chickens, candles and incense with a ritual waterspout drink.The Maya argon a very superstitious people and have countless superstitions regarding events in mature which foresee the observer of sickness, disaster, and death. Shaman/ daykeepers keep count of the 260 day ritual calendar and provide healing by identifying curses and offended ancestors, counting seeds and crystals in their divinations, and per realiseing curando rituals.MarriageMayan join is not prearranged by the family, although in ancient times it was accepted practice. In the more traditionalistic villages, the young man must still ask the aim for his daughters hand in marriage and certain rituals atomic number 18 followed. There is a traditional engagement and wedlockritual dance that many Maya use in their wedding ceremonies. Most young married couples depart reside with either set of p arnts until they can begin a household on their own.The average marriage age of Maya people is 16 for females and 19 for males. Very few Maya remain unmarried as family and children ar very important to the Maya.FamilyFamily is a very important part of Maya culture. The average Maya family will have 6-8 children and about newlyweds have their first child within a year of marriage. In the domestic life of the Maya, family ties are strong, although outward displays of affection, such as kissing and embracing, are rare. Couples are considered affectionate if they carry out their single duties faithfully. To their babies, however, the Maya are demonstrative and fondle and caress them, using baby talk as white parents do. It is manifest that most parents are very fond of their children. Very rarely do fathers chastise their children physically and the mothers vivify to harsh punishment only occasionally. (Steggerda, 1941, p. 49)Food Production StrategiesMany of the Mayan still live oft the track they did when the Europeans came, weaving, cultivating corn and beans and hive away firewood to cook and heat their adobe houses. Electricity and road access have not c hanged the local traditions. Corn, which was complaisant by the ancient Mayans, remains the main crop. Most farmers still use the slash and burn order of farming used by their ancestors.Other strategies are share cropping and renting land to grow corn crops. The Maya form groups of up to twenty men, usually kin, rent a large piece of land, and divide it among themselves. Although this arrangement is much preferred to wage labor on the plantations, it requires a minimum amount of capital for transportation, food, tools, seed, and so on, and expertness in dealing with the Ladino world. Many lack these resources and are forced into the largest of the temporary migratory streams. (Early, 1982, p. 88)Outside ContactThe Maya, give care most people who live in small and homogeneous groups where strong social controls operate, are button-down and un turn upive. Slow to take up new ideas, their attitudes and their material culture have been very little changed by modern trends and techno logical developments. Their pottery, weaving, and cross-stitch work have remained very much the same during the entire history of Yucatan. In general, they have not adopted the Spanish language but rather the Spaniards have adopted the Maya language.Their mode of dress has not changed appreciably for hundreds of years, and it is my belief that their daily life is very similar to that which their ancestors led. Only in the large Yucatan towns and cities, where social contacts are freer and where social controls cannot be maintained as strongly as in the smaller communities, are there signs of change. In such towns the European mode of dress is gradually creation adopted, especially by the women, and cosmetics are commonly used. The people petition the government for radios, electric lights, and corn-grinding machines, and the idea of progress is gaining a hold in their minds. The cooperative movement and similar modern methods of economic organization are being tried. (Steggerda, 19 41, p. 37)In Belize, the founding of the Maya Village Indigenous Experience is attempting to change the limited outside contact of the Maya culture by exposing it to tourism. They hope to bring money to the communities and improve the quality of life in the villages. (Steinberg, 2004)Many other Mayan communities are following this example in an effort to become more modern but they maintain the ancient rituals and beliefs, much like modern day New Orleans.These five concepts show the history and persevering culture of the Mayan people. Traditions with religion and family provide a rich background to pass on to the next generation. While they are struggling to enter the modern age, many of the more traditional Maya see no problem with the lifestyle they currently possess.Living in the United States, technology is readily available and most people are sorcerer at using it. Things we take for granted such as telephones, computers, television, and automobiles are slow to make their wa y into the more rural areas of the Maya culture but they live full lives without these things. This is a huge culture release because most Americans do not believe they can live without technology.The family tradition is also vastly different. Americans live a much faster paced life and many things must be balanced work, children, marriage. Mayan women are traditional homemakers and Mayan men do the heavy labor. American women do many of the heavy labor jobs and not many people can afford to stay home with the children full time.Both cultures have pros and cons to their lifestyle and culture but both are ever changing and adapting to the world well-nigh them. Both realize the importance of religion within a culture and continuing the race by means of children. The United States, however, is not one culture but hundreds and this gives it a unique background. It is much more varied than the ancient Mayan history the modern Maya still cultivate.ReferencesEarly, J. D. (1982). The Dem ographic Structure and Evolution of a Peasant form The Guatemalan Population. Boca Raton, FL University Presses of Florida.Steggerda, M. (1941). Maya Indians of Yucatan. Washington, DC Carnegie Institution of Washington.Steinberg, M. K. (1994, Summer). Tourism Development and Indigenous People The Maya Experience in gray Belize. Focus, 44, 17+. Retrieved June 08, 2007, from Questia database https//www.questia.com/read/1G1-19897117/tourism-development-and-indigenous-people-the-mayaStoll, D. (2003). Dow, James W. & Alan R. Sandstorm (Eds). Holy Saints and Fiery Preachers The Anthropology of Protestantism in Mexico and Central America. Journal of the kingly Anthropological Institute, 9(3), 595+. Retrieved June 09, 2007