Ancient Maya Social Evolution (Part II)

Part II of III: Ideological foundation The question I posed last week was how the ancients developed and sustained a common political structure and unified ideology that covered an enormous territory (Guatemala, Belize and southeastern Mexico) for over a millennia. I imagined how their political structure might have gotten started and described how it might have grown from small villages with a “chief” to cities with  divine kings, monumental architecture, hieroglyphic writing and a unique art style. Again, my catalyst for imagining these developments is *Ancient Maya Politics: A political anthropology of… Read More

Maya Shamanism

A shaman in his workshop. Catarina, Guatemala. Shamans were specialists in ecstasy, a state of mind that allows them to move freely beyond the ordinary world, beyond death itself, to deal directly with the gods, demons, ancestors and other unseen but potent things that control the world of the living. David Freidel, Archaeologist The perception that everything in the cosmos is imbued with the life force and interconnected, gave rise to the practice of contacting the spirits of ancestors and gods in altered states of consciousness, asking for guidance, favors and prophecy…. Read More

Ancient Maya Water Management

The rise and fall of intensive agriculture in the Maya area In this model of central Tikal, Guatemala the dark-colored basins indicate the location of  large, very deep reservoirs. The entire city was built with slopes so the runoff would fill them during the rainy season, and these sustained the city all year long. Around 2000 BCE, much of the Central Lowlands of the Yucatan peninsula consisted of year-round wetlands (bajos or swamps). The rainy season usually insured the swamps would be inundated, but during the dry season they dried up and… Read More