Mayas

CULTURE: mAYA

NAME: CLAUDIA JOSELINE GOMEZ PIZAÑA

TEACHER: NATZALY

GROUP: 31L

SUBJECT: ENGLISH
introduction
The Mayan civilization spread across the southern Yucatan from Guatemala and Honduras. between III and XV centuries.
The Maya were not a unified state, but is organized into several independent city-states if they controlled a territory more or less wide. Neither spoke asingle language.
History
The Maya people are a homogeneous group which has occupied nearly the same territory for thousands of years. They speak some thirty languages ​​so similar that linguists have concluded that they all have the same origin, a proto Mayan language could also be as old as 7,000 years! They also explain how geographical isolation has evolved from the origin this language to abranch of this subdivided into proto-K'iche and Mam and other western branch subdivided into proto-proto-Tzeltal Q'anjob and as the next division of these two sub branches gave birth to the thirty languages ​​spoken today. The in situ evolution of language implies that the Maya were the original inhabitants of this region and permanent implies that the two million Maya living today probably share acommon genetic root very old.
This situation is very different from that of the warlike Aztecs and Incas who invaded his neighbors and absorbed the populations by imposing their languages, customs and religion. The Aztecs were a small tribe chichimeca (wild) ambitious north-west who migrated in search of new lands was fueled by new ideas, evolved further and became powerful enough to impose theirlanguage and their gods (Huitzilopochtli) to indigenous peoples vanquished. This is the story of aliens deviniendo the ruling elite of existing stocks for a relatively short period. The Incas of Cuzco were also a foreign elite that has ruled over a relatively short time, a variety of existing towns. -

The Maya had no centralized political power. They developed a common culture by absorbing anddeveloping elements borrowed from their neighbors. The long count calendar, writing with glyphs and the fundamental principles of their religion can be directly correlated with the Olmecs by the intermediary of Izapa. The Olmec civilization disappeared before the coming of Christ but his legacy was the basis for all other Mesoamerican civilizations such as the Zapotecs of Monte Alban, the hegemonyof the great Teotihuacan, the Toltec of Tula and finally the the Aztecs.
The Maya were also influenced by Teotihuacan that controlled the highlands of Mexico from first to seventh century. Its golden age lasted five centuries from 300 to 800 AD. Then they stopped building temples, declined and fragmented into several states that were easy prey for the invading forces of the north as the Toltecswho had been expelled from Tula around the end of the tenth century. The latter became the ruling elite of the Maya Postclassic period. The Toltec god were added to the Maya pantheon but the Toltecs were absorbed and they adopted the Yucatec Maya language.
The Maya were organized into city-states, which sometimes helped, sometimes fighting but they shared the same beliefs and underwent priestswhose power came from his knowledge of astronomy, mathematics and numerology. The Mayans were well aware of the passage of time. They recorded some dates on stelae and probably many books currently in lost because the Spanish Catholic priests fanatics systematically destroyed to obliterate every mark of "pagan beliefs". Reconstruct the history of the Maya is like discovering the mystery of a crimenovel because it must take into account the smallest details can be found in what remains in archaeological sites have been looted or destroyed by the Spanish. -
There are many unanswered questions on the subject of the Maya but the cause of its decline has been in the greatest mystery. Their civilization was not destroyed by an unstoppable alien force. The Olmecs were the destruction of San...