Culture, Continuity and Change the Mayan People

Culture, Continuity and Change

The Mayan people

In 800 A.D there existed the Maya Empire that comprised of many powerful city-states that spread south to Mexico and North to Honduras. The Maya culture was at its peak with massive temples lined up However a hundred yeas later the cities were in remains, unrestricted and just left alone for the jungle to reign. It still remains a great mystery of how the Mayan civilization disappeared. This in fact remains as one of the greatest mysteries in history.one among the mighty civilizations in ancient America just fell within a short period of time. No one is certain about what happened to the Maya people. However there are many theories which include varied alternatives that try to give an explanation of this abrupt and mysterious disappearance. Some of these theories will be discussed below.

The famine theory

Preclassica Maya (1000B.C -300 AD) carried out basic subsistence agriculture; the slash and burn farming on the small plots for families. They mostly planted beans, corn and squash. On the coast and the lakes there was fish farming being carried out. However the Maya civilization advancement came together with a growth in the population which was so large that the local population was unable to feed. There were some improvements in the techniques which they used on farming such as terracing hills, draining wetlands for farming and improved trade helped the situation too some extent. However it appears that the large population of the cities was such a great strain to the production of food. There was a major occurrence of a mega drought within the Central America region ( Del Sol, 2010).

The Warfare theory

The Maya was perceived to be a peaceful pacific culture. However this image has been shuttered due to the historical records of some discoveries made and deciphered stone carvings which are a clear indication that there were frequent wars among the Maya people which viciously occurred among themselves. city states like Dos Pilas, Tikal, Quirigua and Copan often went to war with each other.in 760 AD there was an invasion and destruction of Dos pilas .the question that beacons is if the wars that occurred between the cities was enough to cause the collapse of the civilization. This is quite possible because war brings sop much disaster to the economy as well as collateral damage that might have caused domino effect to these cities in Maya ( Minster, 2010).

Civil strife theory

As the population in the cities grew there was a lot of strain on the working class for them to produce more food, clear forests, build temples, mine obsidian as well as do other labor intensive tasks.at the same time there was an increased scarcity of food. The idea that there existed a hungry overworked working class who would want to overthrow the ruling elite is therefore not far fetched especially if there was an endemic warfare existing between the city states is thought to be quite endemic by researchers.