Focusing on the Current Maya Population

Table of Contents

Introduction2

Discussion3

Mayans in Guatemala:5

Mayans in Mexico:5

Political and Social organization of Maya:6

The Decline of Maya:8

War:8

Overexploitation:9

Drought:9

Mayans in Today's World:9

Conclusion12

End Notes14

Focusing on the Current Maya Population

Introduction

The Maya are an indigenous people or a group of indigenous peoples in Central America, in particular because of them in the Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica are well known and established kingdoms of their highly developed culture. The Maya civilization inhabited a vast region known as Mesoamerica, in the territory of Central America, in the existing territories of Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras and the territory at the moment consisting of 5 south eastern states of Mexico that are Yucatan, Tabasco, Quintana Roo, Chiapas and Campeche. Mayans have a history of about 3,000 years. In this territory, hundreds of dialects that are spoken today have generated around forty-four diverse Mayan languages. The “Ancient Maya” is referred as the history of the cultures of Mesoamerican pre-Columbian, which is the most important one, because its legacy is astronomical and scientific. In contrast to the common beliefs, the Mayans never disappeared. In any case, not completely, as their descendants are still living in the region and a number of them speak any of the languages ??of the Mayan family. Maya literature demonstrates the life of this culture. Works like the numerous books of Chilam Balam, the Rabinal Achi, and the Popol Vuh are proof of that. What got ruined by the conquest was the model of civilization, which until the arrival of the foremost Spanish had generated 3 millennia of history.

The Spanish conquest of the Maya was consummated until 1697, with the taking of capital of the Maya Itza (Tayasal) and capital of the Maya Ko'woj (Zacpetén) in the Petén (now Guatemala). The Mayans had impressive and large buildings from the Middle Pre-classic and cities as San Bartolo, Nakbé, El Mirador, etc. are located in the Mirador Basin in northern Petén, and during the Classic, the renowned cities of Quirigua and Tikal (both the foremost to get declared as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1981 and 1979 respectively) Calakmul, Rio Azul, Copan, Palenque, Comalcalco (built of brick) and Ceibal, Cancuén, The Mayan pottery is classified as the most varied, fine and elaborates the ancient world. The Mayans participated in the trade over long distances in Meso America, and maybe beyond. Amongst the trade goods were obsidian, the salt, the corn, the cocoa and the jade. This paper discusses how the Mayan population fits into today's socio-cultural constructions of race in Mexico, Guatemala and the U.S.

Discussion

The Maya lived in southern and southeastern Mexico (Yucatan) and in parts of Guatemala, Honduras and Belize. This vast area encompassed approximately 350,000 square kilometers. In the north of the former dominates the country's Maya Yucatan Peninsula well into the Caribbean Sea. The rainfall in this area has always been extremely low, this unequal distribution, the region was therefore largely quilted and covered with thorn bushes. In the southern lowlands prevailed a savanna landscape whose floor level is hardly ever more than ...