Welcome to our learning module, "History of the Maya." At this point in the course, you have studied Unit One: Ancient Civilizations, Unit Two: The Classical Era, Unit Three: World Religions, and some of Unit Four: Globalization. 

At the conclusion of this module, you will be able to explain how geography influences development of civilization, analyze primary and secondary sources, and research and conclude the impact of historical memory on society today.

Fig. 1: (n.d.). Maya Map [Map] Latin America Studies. http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/maya/maya-map.gif

1. Reflecting on your past knowledge of the Olmecs, what do you think is the difference between this map's labels—"Olmec Heartland" and "Maya Empire"?

2. What physical features do you notice in the Mayan territory? Where are they?

3. What modern countries do you see that include some Mayan territory?

Comment: Imagine that you are a Mayan, living in the southern highlands. How might your life be different than Mayans in the northern lowlands? What do you think your relationship is like with them?

Make an update: Consider another civlization we have studied that has distinct physical features. How did the geography affect their development, and what were the effects?

Pre-Classic Mesoamerica:

• Maize, the local variety of dried corn, was the biggest crop of the region.
• However, corn lacks nutrients (amino acids). A population whose diet depended on untreated maize would be malnourished and unsustainable.
• Ancient Mesoamericans developed the nixtamal process (also called nixtamalization): cooking with lime or ashes to enhance the balance of essential amino acids.​
• Without the invention of this technique, Mesoamerica could never have increased its population.​
• See in figure 2 how the nixtamal process is used to make tortillas:

toxins-11-00227.pdf

Fig. 2: The Nixtamal Process

Dating of the Maya:

• The Pre-Classic Period is the early development of Mayan civilization and culture. According to famous Mayan scholar Michael D. Coe (2015), this Pre-Classic period ranges from 2000 B.C.E. – 250 C.E.
• The Classic Period was the height of Mayan power and influence. This was from about 250-800 C.E. 
• It should be noted that the Classic Period emphasizes the success of the lowland Maya, whose extant structures can be seen today throughout the Yucatan Peninsula. 
• The Terminal Classic Perid lasted from 800-1000 C.E. As its name suggests, this was the end of the Maya as a regional power, but its people and culture survives to this day.

Comment: What's your favorite Latin American food that uses the nixtamal process? Have you ever thought about how it's made before?

Make an Update: Considering the effectiveness of the nixtamal process, what is another region of the world that suffers from hunger and malnutrition? What is their staple crop? See if there is a cooking process similar to the nixtamal process that aids their nutrition.

Mayan Religion

• Just like the Olmecs and Teotihuacanos, some of the most important Mayans gods had agricultural connections. ​
• Some people believe that the Maya predicted the end of the world. Those people call their calendar the "doomsday calendar."​
• They—the conspiracists—thought the world would end in 2012. They were wrong, but did the Maya really believe that?​

Reading:

Please read the following handout from the Smithsonian. After you read, take the comprehension quiz that follows.

WHG10_U4L08_Resource_The_20Maya_20Calendar.pdf

Fig. 3: A reading on the Mayan Calendar.

Mayan Government

• Mayan government was a theocracy. This is a government type whose officials are believed to be guided by the gods.
• Mayan kings believed they had a mandate of heaven. ​This is the belief that they received their power from the gods, and therefore had an obligation to rule and conquer in the names of the gods for whom they ruled. ​
• If the king won a battle, he believed that the gods would be thankful, and the people would have a good harvest.​
• In this way, Mayan theocracy encouraged city-states to fight each other.
• The center point of cities was the ritual temples and houses of government​.
• Although Mayan city-states were all theocratic, the temple and government worked separately in their daily functions.​

Comment:​ What is another conspiracy theory that you have heard about an ancient civilization? Is this theory supported by evidence?

Make an update: Many ancient civilizations developed many ways to record time. Recall another civilization's calendar that we have studied and compare it with the Maya's.

Mayan Sport:

• Over 1,300 Mayan ball courts have been discovered. Historians don't know exactly how the game was played, but due to stone walls and no helmets, it was probably much bloodier than any modern sport.​

Fig. 4: Smithsonian Channel. (2019, February 23). How this Mayan legend inspired a deadly ball game [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYcWs7qJeCI

1. In this video, what three dimensions of life did the Maya believe in?
2. How was the ball game connected to Mayan religion?

Mayan Art:

• Also, the famous “Maya Blue” was created in the Classic Period, a striking blue color made by mixing indigo with a special clay and then heating the combination. ​

Fig. 5: Fenster, A. (2017, March 20). The mystery of Maya blue finally solved. McGill University.

For what special purpose was the Maya blue used in their art?

• According to Ariel Fenster (2017) from McGill University, "Maya Blue was prepared as part of a ritual process to appeal to the rain god Chaak. When the sky was persistently blue and the rain failed to arrive, the Mayas would organise a ceremony to prepare the sacred colour. Various offerings would be prepared at this ceremony, and human sacrifices, painted with Maya Blue, were thrown into the cenote. Satisfied, Chaak would then call in the dark clouds to cover the sky and bring in the rain. Or so it was hoped."
• These and other cultural and technological inventions are used by historians to mark the Classic Period, a golden era for the central lowland Maya.​

Comment: Reflect back on what you learned in update three. Why was sacrifice important to the Mayans, and how might that explain their need to play the ball game?

Make an update: The Mayan blue is a distinctive color that we can instantly recognize. What is a cultural mark of another civilization we have studied? Find an example online, post it, and explain its historical purpose and modern significance. 

The Termainal Classic:

• At its peak, the lowland Classic Maya was a densly populated and richly complex civilization.
• However, the Classic Maya experienced sudden decline in the Terminal Classic Period from 800–1000 C.E.

To understand how the Classic Maya collapsed, reach this report from Tom Sever, a specialist in Mayan archaeology:

https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2009/06oct_maya

Fig. 6: Early, C. (2009, July 23). Deforestation in Guatemala. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/journalismcompetition/deforestation-guatemala

Comment: Explain the connections Tom Sever makes to explain the collapse of the Maya in the Terminal Classic.

Make an Update: Read the following article on deforestation today in Guatemala today:https://www.theguardian.com/journalismcompetition/deforestation-guatemala 

Explain the causes and effects of this deforestation, including how it's affecting the livelihood of local people and the world. 

​

The Maya Today:

• After the Terminal Classic, the Maya decreased in power but survived as a civilization. They were later usurped in power by the Aztecs, and both were conquered by the Spanish in the early 16th century.
• The Maya have remained as a minority, indigenous group in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. There are about six million Mayans living today, but as a minority group, they have faced extreme discrimination.
• Called the Guatemalan Genocide, the U.S.-backed Guatemalan government killed about 200,000 Mayans during a civil war between 1978 and the mid-1980s. Their objective was ostensibly to defeat the rebel opposition, but in targeting civilians of Mayan ethnicity, allegedly harboring rebels, many suggest that their killings were genocidal.

What do you think? How do we define genocide, and was this genocide if it happened during a civil war and with a military objective?

Fig. 7: Castillo, M. (2013, April 11). Guatemala confronts a dark chapter. CNN.

• Reflect on what your own ethnicity means to you. Are you proud of your family's traditions? Your ancestral history? How would you feel if a military government sought to eliminate your people and culture from existence? Share with a partner.
• To learn more about this history and Mayans' activism to safeguard their rights and culture, please watch 500 Years, a documentary. 

The full-length film can be watched with a university login or public library card here: https://www.kanopy.com/product/500-years

Comment: From what you learned in watching 500 Years, how are Mayans today using their voice to assert their rights and preserve their culture?

Make an Update: Find an article about the Mayan language in Guatemala today and summarize what you learned. Possible questions to answer: How is its survival maintained by schools and government? How has its preservation changed since the 500 Years documentary (2017)?

Final Project: For our final project, you will research and present a people/place whose memory has changed over time in history. Note: This is different than a change-over-time presentation. Rather than studying how history itself changed, this project studies how we choose to remember history differently over time. The history has not changed; our memory of it has because of changing biases and/or intent.

Possible research areas:

Hominid evolution
The Neolithic Revolution and the environment
Greek democracy and the Roman Republic
Jesus Christ and Christianity
The Crusades and modern jihad
African history before colonization
The Mongol Empire/Yuan Dynasty*
The Dark Ages/Middle Ages*
Christopher Columbus and the Taínos
The Mayans in Guatemala
Other (must be within the realm of our class and approved by your teacher)

*These topics were not covered in class, but they fit the assignment should you wish to choose them.

Your presentation: You should create a PPT, Prezi, or other (with permission from your teacher) to present your group's changing historical memory to class. 

Rubric categories: The project will be peer-reviewed by information literacy, critical thinking, knowledge application, and attribution. Your peers' grades will be recorded in this learning module's Analytics, and the rubric will be visible on Creator after the projcet has been assigned to you.