•Now here is a brief article dealing specifically with Maya religion. Read the article carefully.
Maya Religion:
Like the Aztec and Inca who came to power later, the Maya believed in a cyclical nature of time. The rituals and ceremonies were very closely associated with hundreds of celestial and terrestrial cycles, which they observed and inscribed as separate calendars, all of infinite duration. The Maya shaman had the job of interpreting these cycles and giving a prophetic outlook on the future or past based on the number relations of all their calendars. If the interpretations of the shaman spelled bad times to come, sacrifices would be performed to appease the gods.
The Maya, like most pre-modern societies, believed that the cosmos has three major planes: the underworld, the sky, and the earth. The Mayan Underworld was reached through caves and ball courts. It was thought to be dominated by the aged Mayan gods of death and putrefaction. The Sun and Itzamna, both aged gods, dominated the Mayan idea of the sky. The night sky was considered a window showing all supernatural doings. The Maya configured constellations of gods and places, saw the unfolding of narratives in their seasonal movements, and believed that the intersection of all possible worlds was in the night sky.
Mayan gods were not discrete, separate entities like Greek gods. The gods had affinities and aspects that caused them to merge with one another in ways that seem unbounded. There is a massive array of supernatural characters in the Mayan religious tradition, only some of which recur with regularity. Good and evil traits are not permanent characteristics of Mayan gods, nor are only "good" traits admirable. What is inappropriate during one season might be acceptable in another since much of the Mayan religious tradition is based on cycles and not permanence.
The life-cycle of maize (corn) lies at the heart of Maya belief. This philosophy is demonstrated in the Mayan belief in the Maize God as a central religious figure. The Mayan bodily ideal is also based on the form of the young Maize God, which is demonstrated in their artwork. The Maize God was also a model of courtly life for the Classical Maya.
It is sometimes believed that the multiple gods represented nothing more than a mathematical explanation of what they observed. Each god was simply a number or an explanation of the effects observed by a combination of numbers from multiple calendars. Among the many types of Mayan calendars which were maintained, the most important included a 260 day cycle that approximated the solar year, a cycle that recorded the periods of the moon, and also one that tracked the synodic period of Venus.
As late as the nineteenth century, Maya influence was evident in the local branch of Christianity followed in some parts of Mexico. Among the Ki’che's in the western highlands of Guatemala, the Mayan calendar is still replicated to this day in the training of the ajk'ij, the keepers of the 260 day calendar called ch'olk'ij.
Interestingly, the Maya did not seem to strongly distinguish between past, present, and future. Instead they used one word to describe all instances of time, which can be translated as "it came to pass." Philosophically, the Maya believed that knowing the past meant knowing the cyclical influences that create the present, and by knowing the influences of the present one can see the cyclical influences of the future.
The multiple gods of Maya religion also represented a mathematical explanation of what they observed. The Maya knew long before Johannes Kepler that the planets have elliptical orbits and used their findings to support their view of the cyclical nature of time.
The Maya believed that the universe was flat and square, but infinite in area. They also worshiped the circle, which symbolized perfection or the balancing of forces. Among other religious symbols were theswastika and the perfect cross.
•Once you feel comfortable with that information, write a brief description of Religion in Maya Civilization. Be thoughtful and use your own words. The idea here is to use the information from the above section to present a concise and accurate portrayl of Inca Warfare. This section of your encyclopedia entry should be 2 or 3 sentences.*
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Mayan Observatory at Chichen Itza