Maya (people)

I

Introduction

Maya (people), group of related Native American peoples of the Mayan linguistic stock, living in Mexico, in the states of Veracruz, Yucatán, Campeche, Tabasco, and Chiapas, and also in the greater part of Guatemala and in parts of Belize and Honduras. The best-known people, the Maya proper, after whom the entire group is named, occupy the Yucatán Peninsula. Among the other politically significant peoples are the Huastec of northern Veracruz; the Tzental of Tabasco and Chiapas; the Chol of Chiapas; the Quiché, Cakchiquel, Pokonchi, and Pokomam of the Guatemalan highlands; and the Chortí of eastern Guatemala and western Honduras. With the exception of the Huastec, these peoples occupy contiguous territory. They were all part of a common civilization, which in many respects achieved the most complex level of development among the original inhabitants of the whole of the western hemisphere.

Agriculture formed the basis of the Maya economy in pre-Columbian times, maize being the principal crop. Cotton, beans, squash, manioc (or Cassava), and cacao were also grown. The techniques of spinning, dyeing, and weaving cotton were highly perfected. The Maya domesticated the dog and the turkey but had no draught animals or wheeled vehicles. They produced fine pottery, unequalled in the New World outside of Peru. Cacao beans and copper bells were used as units of exchange. Copper was also used for ornamental purposes, as were gold, silver, jade, shell, and colourful feathers. Metal tools, however, were unknown. The Maya peoples were ruled by hereditary chiefs, descended from the male line, who delegated authority over village communities to local chieftains (see Patrilineage). Land, held in common by each village, was parcelled out by these chieftains to the separate families.

II

Architecture

Maya culture produced a remarkable architecture, of which great ruins remain at a large number of sites, including Palenque, Uxmal, Mayapán, Copán, Tikal, Uaxactún, and Chichén Itzá. These sites were vast centres for religious ceremonies. The usual plan consisted of a number of pyramidal mounds, often surmounted by temples or other buildings, and grouped around open plazas. The pyramids, built in successive steps, were faced with cut stone blocks and generally had a steep stairway built into one or more of their sides. The substructure of the pyramids was usually made of earth and rubble, but sometimes mortared blocks of stone were used. The most common type of construction consisted of a core of rubble or broken limestone mixed with mortar, and then faced with finished stones or stucco. Stone walls were also frequently laid without mortar. Wood was used for door lintels and for sculpture. The arch was not known, but its effect was approximated in roofing buildings by making the upper layers of stone of two parallel walls approach each other in successive projections until they met overhead. This system, requiring very heavy walls, produced narrow interiors. Windows were rare and were small and narrow. Interiors and exteriors were painted in bright colours. Exteriors received special attention and were lavishly decorated with painted sculpture, carved lintels, stucco mouldings, and stone mosaics. The decorations generally were arranged in wide friezes contrasting with bands of plain masonry. Commoners' dwellings probably resembled the adobe and palm-thatched huts seen today among Maya descendants.

III

Writings

The Maya peoples developed a method of hieroglyphic notation and recorded mythology, history, and rituals in inscriptions carved and painted on stelae (stone slabs or pillars), on lintels and stairways, and on other monumental remains. Records were also painted in hieroglyphs and preserved in books of folded sheets of paper made from the fibres of the maguey plant. Four examples of these codices have been preserved: the Codex Dresdensis, now in Dresden; the Perez Codex, now in Paris; and the Codex Tro and the Codex Cortesianus, both now in Madrid. The Codex Tro and Codex Cortesianus comprise parts of a single original document, and are commonly known under the joint name Codex Tro-Cortesianus. These books were used as divinatory almanacs containing topics such as agriculture, weather, disease, hunting, and astronomy.

IV

Calendar and Religion

Chronology among the Maya was determined by an elaborate calendar system. The year began when the Sun crossed the zenith on July 16 and consisted of 365 days; 364 of the days were grouped into 28 weeks of 13 days each, the new year beginning on the 365th day. In addition, 360 days of the year were divided into 18 months of 20 days each. The series of weeks and the series of months both ran consecutively and independently of each other; however, once every 260 days, that is, the multiple of 13 and 20, the week and the month began on the same day. The Maya calendar, although highly complex, was the most accurate known to human beings until the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in the 16th century.

The Maya religion centred on the worship of a large number of nature gods. Chac, a god of rain, was especially important in popular ritual. Among the supreme deities were Kukulcán, a creator god closely related to the Toltec and Aztec Quetzalcoatl, and Itzamná, a sky god. A Maya trait was their complete trust in the gods' control of certain units of time and of all peoples' activities during those periods.