Mayan Civilization: Exploring the Complexities of Maya Society

The Maya are indigenous people, whose civilization was in south eastern and Northern Central America. This area included all of the Yucatan Peninsula, Quintana Roo, Campeche, Tabasco, and Chiapas in Mexico. These territories are now in the modern-day countries of Guatemala and Belize, and the western parts of Honduras and El Salvador.

In Maya they had lots of individual city states, with their own independent government, they were made up of a major city and surrounding areas which had smaller settlements and cities. Archeologists believed there were hundreds of Maya cities at the peak of the civilization. Each city state was ruled by a king. They believed the king was given the right to rule by the gods, and that the king was like a middle man between the people and the gods. The position of king was usually inherited by the oldest son. If there wasn’t a son, then the oldest brother became king, although there were many woman rulers. As there was very little written back in the day of the king’s name, there is one king who was named K’inich Janaab’ Pakal the Great of the city of Palenque. He ruled for about 70 years, starting at the age of twelve, although his parents took political charge until he was older. The leaders were called “Halach Uinic” or “Ahaw” which means lord or ruler. This is an image of King Pacal. Powerful councils were also leaders who ran the government. They were chosen from the class of nobles. These less powerful lords were called the “Batab” and military leaders were called the “Nacom”.

Since religion was in important part of the Maya life, priests were powerful figures in the government. The kings were sometimes considered as a priest. The Kings would often come to priests when for advice on what to do in an emergency and to get predictions of the future, meaning priests had a big influence on how the king ruled. 

The laws of Maya were very strict. If you were to commit a crime like murder, arson, or doing something against the gods, you would be punished with death. The punishment could be decreased, which was determined whether or not it was an accident. The Maya did not have prisons, so other punishments would be slavery, fines, and sometimes they would shave the persons head because it was considered a sign of shame. Even if a noble was found guilty of a crime, they would be punished even more then a commoner.

Many of the resources from Maya were natural like the crops they grew. Maize was the most important, as was beans, squash, tomatoes, chili peppers, cacao (chocolate), and avocadoes. They traded these natural resources between cities. An essential good they had traded which was always in high demand was salt and obsidian. 

Merchants traded two different types of goods, subsistence goods, which were items used in the daily life like salt, and luxury items which were things that royalty and nobles used to show their wealth and power, like jade, gold, ceramics, jewelry, and feather works.

Big cities with large populations had food brought into markets. Majority of this food was grown by farmers who lived outside the city. Other food that wasn’t grown near by had to be brought in by trade. It was mostly traded regionally or by local markets. But luxury items often came from long distances. Cultural values and ideas had travelled along with the merchants, resulting to how many cultures in Mesoamerica had influenced each other.

Food products that were brought into the markets included turkeys, ducks, dogs, fish, honey, beans, and fruit. The currency used to pay for these items were cacao beans. Merchants traded cacao beans in all of Mesoamerica, like the Olmec, Zapotec, and Aztecs. Merchants also traded raw materials such as jade, copper, gold, granite, marble, limestone and wood. As well as manufactured goods like textiles, embroidered cloth, clothing, feather capes, headdresses, paper, furniture, jewelry, toys, and weapons. Specialists like architects, mathematicians, scribes and engineers sold their services at markets.

Maya cities became commercial hubs along big trade routes. But they also traded across seas. The Tainos of the Caribbean island of Cuba and the Quechua from south America traded with the Maya for cacao beans. They transporting this as well as many other goods, in large trading canoes that held about 20 people, with lots of space for goods which traveled up and down the coasts.

Mayans believed that they could communicate to their gods by human sacrifice. Self sacrifice was also quite common. It was common for the Maya to pierce their tongue, lips, or ears with sting ray spines, or cut themselves with an obsidian knife. Many of their beliefs and religious practices were not recorded meaning we know don’t know much about the culture of Maya.

Social Classes in Mayan Society

The Maya society was divided between nobles, commoners, serfs, and slaves. The noble class was at the top of the hierarchy. There status and jobs were determined through there families. Nobles served as rulers, government officials, tribute collectors, military leaders, high priests, local administrators, cacao plantation managers, and trade expedition leaders, nobles were wealthy people and most likely lived in the central areas of Maya cities.

Commoners worked as farmers, laborers, and servants. Some commoners became wealthy enough by their work as artisans and merchants, which put them higher in the hierarchy. They generally lived outside the central areas of cities and worked individual and communal plots of land. Commoners had to pay taxes to support the king and nobles. The men had to serve as warriors when the king commanded. Sometimes when the king appeared in public, his servants would cover his face, so commoners could not see him, as were they not allowed to talk to him directly. Commoners were forbidden from wearing the clothing or symbols of nobles, or purchase or use luxury and exotic items.

Serfs usually worked lands that belonged to the ruler or a local town leader. In the Maya region, there was an active slave trade. Commoners and elites were allowed to own slaves. People were enslaved as punishment for crimes and being unable to pay back their debts. Prisoners of wars who were not sacrificed would become slaves, and poor individuals sometimes sold themselves into slavery. Slavery status was not passed on to the kids of the slaves. But unwanted orphan children became slaves or were even sacrificed during religious rituals. If a man married a slave woman, he would become a slave too for the woman’s owner, and the same thing applies the other way around.

In the world there are so many different indigenous groups, when you compare a European society to an indigenous one there are so many differences. As there are to one indigenous to another, they are also still very different. This shows how such similar things can be so different within societies.