Mayan Culture

Modern Mayan culture has its root in a real ancient culture. Ancient Mayan civilization spanned to a greater extent than 3000 years and featured a written language, agriculture, a well-ordered friendly class system, a well-developed religious system, development of a calendar and trade. to a greater extent of the ancient tradition and culture has survived and been incorporated into the ripe Mayan culture.ReligionMayan godliness is a hybrid of Christianity and ancient Mayan beliefs and rituals. The sixteenth century church, a central origination in the process of watchquest, prune 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 some(prenominal) of their Gods puzzle 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, stinkerdles and incense with a ritual spirituous drink.The Maya argon a very superstitious people and stick non-finite superstitions regarding events in mature which forewarn the observer of sickness, disaster, and death. Shaman/ daykeepers keep keep down of the 260 day ritual calendar and provide healing by identifying curses and pained ancestors, counting seeds and crystals in their divinations, and performing curando rituals.MarriageMayan spousal is not prearranged by the family, although in ancient times it was accepted practice. In the more traditional villages, the early man must still ask the father for his daughters hand in marriage and certain rituals be followed. There is a traditional fighting and uniteritual dance that some Maya use in their wedding ceremonies. Most young married couples will limiting away with either set of p bents 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 bea r unmarried as family and children are very important to the Maya.FamilyFamily is a very important part of Maya culture. The average Maya family will agree 6-8 children and some newlyweds take hold 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 respective duties faithfully. To their babies, how constantly, the Maya are illustrative and fondle and caress them, using baby talk as whitened parents do. It is evident that most parents are very fond of their children. Very seldom do fathers chastise their children physically and the mothers resort to harsh punishment that occasionally. (Steggerda, 1941, p. 49)Food Production StrategiesMany of the Mayan still live often the way they did when the Europeans came, weaving, cultivating corn and beans and roll up firewood to cook and heat the ir adobe houses. Electricity and road access collapse not changed the local traditions. Corn, which was cultivated by the ancient Mayans, re importants the main crop. Most farmers still use the slash and burn method of acres used by their ancestors.Other strategies are share cropping and renting land to leaven 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 more preferred to pay labor on the plantations, it requires a minimum amount of capital for transportation, food, tools, seed, and so on, and expertise 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, like most people who live in small and homogeneous groups where strong sociable controls operate, are button-down and un submitive. Slow to take up new ideas, their attitudes and their material cul ture drop been very little changed by modern trends and technological 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 workaday 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 being 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 m ethods of economic organization are being tried. (Steggerda, 1941, p. 37)In Belize, the founding of the Maya Village endemical 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 occasion more modern but they maintain the ancient rituals and beliefs, much like modern day New Orleans.These five concepts show the history and preserve 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 modus vivendi they currently possess.Living in the linked States, technology is readily available and most people are adept at using it. Things we take for grant such as telephones, co mputers, television, and automobiles are slow to make their way into the more rural areas of the Maya culture but they live full lives without these things. This is a extensive culture difference 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 knuckle under 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 around them. Both realize the importance of religion within a culture and continuing the race through 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 t he modern Maya still cultivate.ReferencesEarly, J. D. (1982). The demographic Structure and Evolution of a Peasant System 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 Southern 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 passionate Preachers The Anthropology of Protestantism in Mexico and Central America. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 9(3), 595+. Retrieved June 09, 2007