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The Maya tribe is among the Native American tribes. Contrary to popular belief, the Maya tribe

is not one ethnicity. It is made up of various groups such as the achi people, the chajoma people,

the ixil people and the kejache people. It also consists of several languages such as Huastecan,

Mamean, Yucatecan, Quichean and Q’anjobalan. About six million people in southern America

speak these languages. Currently, the people of this tribe mainly inhabit the southern region of

Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Belize and Honduras. The people living in this area, therefore,

share to some extent some similarity regarding their cultural heritage and most of them have

managed to maintain their traditional cultural heritage. The Maya tribe has always been an

interesting research topic to archaeologists and other interested researchers, from their origin,

great culture, religion and the present day Maya people.

The topic on the origin of the Maya tribe has for many years been a puzzling topic of

discussion mainly because there have been some contradictions in the finding or conclusions

brought forward by archaeologists. The challenge is greatly attributed to the great evolution this

tribe has gone through over the many years they have been in existence. Down the generations,

tales have been told which try to explain their origin, but no concrete evidence has been found to

support this tales. One of this tales is that they came from the east, and when they got to the Red

Sea, the sea split up creating a path for them to cross to the other side. This tale has been related

to the Exodus story in the Bible, and there has been a lot of research to establish if the tribe of

Maya is related to the Israelites (Teresi, 2002).

Like other tribes, the Maya tribe had its own political and social structure. The tribe had

independent city states. This means that each city-state runs its affairs on its own. There was no

centralized government that joined these city-states. Each independent city-state was ruled by a

king or queen. The post of king or queen had hereditary and was therefore passed from one

generation to the other down a family line. Apart from the king or queen, other people who held

authoritarian positions were priests. They also ruled cities, helped run the government, led

ceremonies among many other duties. People were divided into classes depending on your

position in the tribe. These positions include peasants, slaves, noblemen, priests and leaders. The

basic unit of the tribe was the family. The man was the head of the family (Teresi, 2002).

The Maya tribe is well known for its outstanding culture which excelled in astronomy,

mathematics and arts. As a result of their great astronomy skills, they are known for their star

based calendar. This calendar caught the world’s attention when controversy arose in regards to

the prediction that the end of the world would be in 2012. Some say that this prediction was done

by this calendar while some disagree. The Mayan people used both astronomy, mathematics and

art to keep records. They were able to do this by keeping a close record of the movement of the

sun, moon and stars. With these records, they were able to record many things among them the

best time to plant, earth cycles, eclipses and the moon’s phases (Jones, 2007).

There were clearly defined roles for every member of the tribe. One of the roles played

by men was being recruited as king’s men. These men worked directly for the king. Some men

were also warriors of the tribe tasked with protecting the tribe from external attack. Other men

also worked in the fields as farmers while others were builders. Women also played a great role.

Women were involved in pottery and weaving. They also conducted home chores such as

cooking, fetching water and cleaning. Women from royal families got married to other royal

families in other city states. This strengthened ties between these city-states regarding alliances

and trade (Jones, 2007).

The religious beliefs of the Maya are based on the notion that everything in this world has

some degree of sacredness. The Maya belief that human being was created by superior beings or

deities. They, however, have several creation myths which try to explain how human beings

were created by deities. Some believe they were created from mud while others believe they

were created from wood. The Maya people believe in multiple numbers of gods and goddesses.

Each god or goddess has its personality and is treated differently. Some deities are however

considered more superior to others. Many of these gods are an amalgamation of specific humans

or specific animals. These gods are believed to be in control of various factors and forces in the

universe. Some of these gods include huracan, yum caax, ix chebelyax, chak, k’awil among

others. The Maya believe in the upper world, the centre world and the underworld which

correspond to heaven, earth and hell. The Maya people also conducted rituals most of which

were to appease their deities. The main criteria for conducting rituals was through bloodletting

which involves spilling of blood as a way of sacrifice. Human sacrifice was also conducted

which involved decapitation, removing the heart from the individual or throwing the individual

into a natural well (Mayan Temple, 2007).

The Maya tribe was involved in some economic activities. One of the major activities

they were involved in is trading. The Maya tribe is known for their great expertise in trading.

They conducted trade between the city states and also with other tribes. Their record keeping

skills and calendar helped them predict the best time for a trade. Their main items for trade were

agricultural products. This is because of they are very active in agriculture. They produced

enough to supply both their city-state and leave some for trading. The tribe’s great economic

system ensured that the members of the tribe contributed both food and labour to the state(Native

peoples of the world : an encyclopedia of groups, 2013).

The present day Maya people can be found all over the world. Most of them conserve their

traditions up to date.

References

Jones, D. M. (2007). The mythology of the American nations : an illustrated encyclopedia of the

gods, heroes, spirits, sacred places, rituals and ancient beliefs of the North American

Indian, Inuit, Aztec, Inca and Maya nations. New York : Hermes House.

Mayan Temple, B. (2007). The Mayan; devoted to spiritual enlightenment and scientific religion.

Mayan temple handbook. Brooklyn: Mayan Temple.

Native peoples of the world : an encyclopedia of groups, c. a. (2013). Native peoples of the world

: an encyclopedia of groups, cultures, and contemporary issues. Armonk, NY: Sharpe

Reference, an imprint of M.E. Sharpe, Inc.

Teresi, D. (2002). Lost discoveries : the ancient roots of modern science-- from the Babylonians

to the Maya. New York : Simon & Schuster.

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