Adam
2/8/02
L.A.
Daily Life in Maya
The ancient Mayans lived almost 2,000 years ago. They were so civilized that they had a number system, an alphabet and names for days, weeks and months. They were short, they were farmers, they lived in huts, and they lived very hard lives.
Mayan people had very complex lives. The average Mayan man was 5'1" tall. The height of a Mayan woman was 4'8". Sometimes, baby Mayans went cross-eyed from looking at a resin ball that was placed in their hair. Then, it would fall out of their hair and between their eyes. Being cross-eyed was considered to be beautiful in the Mayan culture. They also pulled facial hairs off their face instead of shaving. They had no common schools. Also, girls became adults when they were 12 years old, while boys were 14 when they became adults. Mayan men usually married when they were 20 years old. After that, they lived with their wives' parents. After six years, they moved and built their own houses.
Mayans made ornaments out of jade, jaguar teeth, and crocodile teeth. Cacao/cocoa beans were treasured and used as money. Mayans were very superstitious and believed in leprechauns, bad dwarves who brought sickness and aluxes (ah - loo - shes), who guarded their corn and other crops.
Average Mayans lived in hut-like houses. The huts were made of either wood or stone. The basic structure of these huts was the placement of poles with either a single door, or two doorways opposite each other. The roof thatch was made of palm. A stone wall surrounded each hut. The huts had a stone foundation. Powerful Mayans lived in the finer stone buildings. Temples and plazas were homes for priests and nobility. The temples were made of dirt and stone. Over the dirt and stone, a layer of cement was added to make the temple smooth.
For breakfast the Mayans ate a cornmeal pancake. This pancake was called a tortilla. For lunch they ate corn dough mixed with water. This made a white, milky mixture that they called pozole. Mayans were farmers. Their main crop was Indian corn, called maize, and which was sacred. It was planted in May. They planted the corn by making a hole in the ground, then putting the grains in the hole. After that, they covered the hole. After they picked the corn, the women washed it then let it dry in pottery overnight. The next day the corn was ground with a grinding stone called a metate. The farmers also grew beans, pumpkins, tomatoes, tamales and sweet potatoes.
Mayans had a very refined system of mathematics. For example, their base number was 20. In their number system, a dot stood for 1, and a bar stood for 5. Numbers larger than 20 were written in powers of 20. Instead of writing from left to right, numbers were written top to bottom. Mayan merchants used cocoa beans for addition.
Mayans also had very sophisticated astronomy. They figured out that most of Maya was south of the summer solstice point. For keeping track of time they used noon as a benchmark, because, at local noon, the sun cast no shadow. Venus was the astronomical object of greatest interest. It was even more important to them than the sun. Mayans also noted the extremes of the sun and also equinoxes. They also called the Milky Way the World Tree.
Mayans were not very different than some cultures today. These cultures also have a number system, an alphabet, their people are farmers and they live in huts.
Sources:
Barbara L. Beck, Ancient Maya
http://www.historylink101.com/1/mayan/mayan_daily_life.htm
http://www.michielb.nl/maya/astro_content.html?t3=1014042664550