Antropologia

MAYA CULTURE
INTRODUCTION
The culture of the groups in the southeast of Mexico and parts of Central America that spoke Maya languages began to develop approximately 4000 years ago theirs descendants inhabit the región to this day : Chontal , Chol , Chort , Yucatec , Tzetzal ,Tzotzil and Lacandon.
The maya forged one of the most brillant meso-American cultures , especially in science and art .They built large civic and ceremonial centers and cities , with pyramids and temples around patios and squares where they erected stelae and altars .Politically they organized themselves into independent states and were powerful warriors
They created their own hieroglyphic writing and a positional system of counting based on twenties . Their advanced numeracy required the invention and use of theEuropeans learned it from Arab scholars
The era of greatest cultural development , the classical period , was betwen 300 and 900 hundred years A.D ..a time when they consolidated and perfected their material intelectual and artistic creations .
Because of social and economic factors and the arrival in the maya área of new groups from the central planetau and the Gulf coast –Toltecs and itzaesor Puntun- this time of cultural splendor went into decline after the 10th century and the post classical period began . This brought cultural change , ideological innovation and material transformations , in other words , a new way of life
That historical period and the cultural processes it involved were abruptly interrupted by the arrival of the Spanlards and their conquest of the lands andthe native inhbitants they encountered .

The mayas
Ancietn maya civilization developed over a period spanning more than two thousand years extended this culture over a territory almost 400 thousand years ,extended its culture over a territory almost 400 thousand square kilometers . Due to its artistic and scientific creativity , it was one of the most outstanding and complex civilizations inthe Mesoamerican world , it managed to establish itself in a diversified environment , composed of high mountainous zones , rainforest and extensive coastal regions . This natural variety served as a context for an equally multifaceted culture still astoniching to us today to a large measure thanks to the continuities evident among the different Maya people now living in southearstern Mexico ,Guatemala , Honduras , Belize and el Salvador and customs with pride
This all displays an important collection of pieces from ancestral maya communities which allows us to appreciate different stages and scenarios of their history and visión of the world .Here may be found testimonies of their everyday life political and social organization and their knowledge , customs and traditions regardingtrade and militaristic thought . In addition there is material evidence of the profound religious meaning underlying a number or ritual practices and that simultaneously defined the traits and significance of their architecture and art with endurance and persistence . The visitor may also see the vestiges of a writing system that contains the secrets of community memory and time in its structureThanks to the extraordinary task of recovery and study by archseologists , historians ethnologists , physical and social anthropologists , as well as epigraphers , linghists and restorers, among other specialist , it has been posible to assemble an increastingly clear and in – depth profile of this millennial , highly original civilization that forms a fundamental part of Mexican culture

Nomadiclife and the first urban centers
The earliest evidence of occupation in the maya highlands was found in the state of Chiapas at the ubandoned by hunters and gotheres around the year 35,000 B.C. In the Quiche basin , an important number of pre-agricultural sites dating to between 11,000 and 12,000 B.C. have been found .Flint tolos from the coast of Belize and the cave of Loltun , in Yucatan ,...