The Maya probably arrived in Yucatan by 2500 BC. Early on, they were influenced by the Olmec, which is reflected in their calendar and writing system. From 300 to 900 AD, the Classic Period and the apex of Maya civilization, the Maya flourished in three regions to the south of the Valley of Mexico: the highlands of Guatemala, from the coastal plain south of Chiapas in Mexico to the western half of El Salvador; lowland forests of northern Guatemala and Belize; and the Yucatan peninsula. They were also influenced by Teotihuacan (roughly 800 miles away in the Valley of Mexico) and had built great cities that featured pyramids and stone buildings. The carvings, pottery, paintings and ornaments of this period prove the Maya to have been superior artisans and artists.
Superior as well would seem to be the scholarly pursuits of the Maya. They had developed a sophisticated writing system using glyphs composed of both word pictures (logographs) and phonetic signs. The Maya created screenfold codices containing information about their religion, mythology, history, flora, fauna, trade, and tribute. Some 25 Postclassic and early Colonial screenfold codices are known, with eight of these being in pure pre-Conquest style. (Illustrated Dictionary of The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya, p. 65.) Mathematics also played a key role in Maya scholarship. As Edward James Olmos in the role of Jaim Escalante, a math teacher at Garfield High School in East L.A., chides his eighteen students from the barrio: Neither the Greeks, nor the Romans were capable of using the concept of zero. It was your ancestors, the Maya, who first contemplated the zero, the absence of value. True story. You burros have math in your blood! (Stand and Deliver, 1988 film). With a mathematical system based on 20s (perhaps representing fingers and toes), the Maya made advanced astronomical calculations and configured their calendar.
The Maya cleared rainforests to grow maize, beans, squash, chilis and tomatoes. They also grew cotton, which they wove into cloth. As one of the earliest peoples of Central America to grow maize (circa 600 BC), the Maya worshiped a pantheon of gods that were connected to nature and the corn harvest. They also built great cities that served as religious centers. Priests and noble families lived in these cities while farming families lived in nearby villages. The villagers were ruled by the priests, who also shaped the Maya culture. Quetzalcoatl -- who gives maize to sustain humanity and is known as Kukulcan by the Maya -- is also part of their mythology. There is a sky god, a war god, a god of travelers and commerce, gods of the elements and numerous animal gods, many of whom are nameless and have been assigned letters to differentiate them, such as: the god of death (A); the sun god (G); the water goddess (I). The Maya believed that after death, souls went to Xibalba -- a place of fright --regardless of moral or ethical standing. Only those who had died violent deaths were excused from an existence in this hellish underworld. Warriors and other special categories of people went to a kind of paradise dominated by a large Kapok tree where they could lie in its shade and rest eternally. The Maya legends and myths captured the interest of Spanish missionaries who found similarities between their religion and Christianity: the flood myth; baptism and rebirth; confession, penance, and pilgrimages; the cross (which for the Maya represented the four directions, i.e., north, south, east, west.)
By the end of the tenth century, the Toltec -- who had lived on the high plateau for many centuries before The Aztec became their successors circa 1300 -- dominated the Maya. Two hundred years later, Toltec power declined and the Maya separated into independent kingdoms or states, two of the strongest being Cakchiquels and Quich in highland Guatemala, not previously a site of the highest civilization. By the time the Spaniards had arrived in the early 1500s, the greatest era of Maya civilization had past. The conquistadors, having concentrated their early efforts in acquiring the riches of the empires of Central Mexico, did not colonize the Yucatan until 1542. Missionary efforts to convert the Maya were not as effective as they had been with the Aztec. Accordingly, the indigenous religion and beliefs of the Maya remained stronger than elsewhere in Central America. Today, over 30 Maya languages are still spoken and the typically Mayan physical characteristic of a sloping forehead remains visible in the many of Central Americas people.
In the lesson that follows, students will learn about the Maya creation myth, the Popol Vuh, a Quich narrative that dates from the middle of the 16th century and was initially translated by a Quich nobleman. Within the narrative are three main parts: The creation of the Earth and its first inhabitants; the Hero Twins and their forbears (which is the most ancient part of the story); the legendary history of the founding of Quich dynasties (up to the years following the Spanish Conquest). Similar to other mythologies, or even biblical stories, the deities in power are often at odds with their creations, which results in severe punishment and impossible challenges. Failing to receive the praise they feel is owed them from the creations they have made -- animals, men of mud, men of wood -- the gods are vexed and the sky is devoid of sun and moon. In the next part of the story, the world is eventually illuminated through the cunning of heroic twins and the sacrifice of their father. Students will focus on these two parts of the Popol Vuh as they are represented in The Pacific Mountain Network, The Classroom Channel production of The Popol Vuh, a 60-minute film by Patricia Amlin. In this film, the Popol Vuh is presented as the longest existing poem in the American Indian language and all the characters in the story have been taken from Classic Maya pottery and animated into figures: gods, tricksters, the Hero Twins and the underworld.
Since the ballgame is a main feature in the film (as well as in our lesson plan below), students will be informed that it was played with a rubber ball and was popular throughout prehistoric Mexico and Central America. Games were played on ballcourts that were sometimes formed in the shape of an I -- an alley with end zones (broader in width than the alley). Two small teams (of two or three players each) competed in the game, the objective of which was to hit the ball through a ring or at a marker that appeared in the alley or end zones. Players were forbidden to use their hands to hit the ball, instead striking it with the upper arm and thigh. While the ballgame was sport, it could also include human sacrifice with the defeated team being decapitated -- giving new meaning to the term sore loser -- as can be witnessed in the skullracks that often adjoin ballcourts. During the time of the Spanish Conquest, spectators gambled their fine clothing. The ballgame may also have symbolically represented the movements of the sun, the moon, and the planet, Venus. In the Popol Vuh, the Hero Twins descend to the Underworld to play ball against Underworld gods; the game becomes the metaphor of life, death, and regeneration, and they resurrect their father, the maize god, from the court of death. (Illustrated Dictionary of The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya, p. 43.)