The ancient Mayan civilization was one of the most
fascinating and influential cultures in our world’s history. Factors that make it so interesting are the
culture’s curious sophistication and its sudden demise. Lying in the tropical forest of Central
America, Mayan cities were vast creations encompassing a complex society far
ahead of its time. From 300 to 800 of
the Christian Era these cities flourished in a state of extensive scientific
and artistic enlightenment. Despite all
their progress, the Mayans never got past the stone age. Mayans can probably be credited with the
first manufacture of rubber and being the first group to cultivate cacao,
papaya, and the aguacate or avocado pear.
They were in possession of a complicated number and calendar system but
never developed a phonetic alphabet or discovered the wheel.
Historical
records suggest that after centuries of glory the Mayan people fled their
cities for no apparent reason and left their world to fall to ruin. By the time the Spaniards discovered these
cities hundreds of years later, all that left were the remnants of this great
civilization. Most of what we know
about the Mayan Empire has been discovered in archeological excavations and
interpretations of hieroglyphics. From
these we have at least a superficial knowledge of this society of the
past. In this section of our paper, we
will present you with a brief history of the Mayan past and then focus on the
modern Maya.
The Mayan region was by no means homogenous in culture or
in the distribution of natural resources.
While historical data suggests that the ancestral Mayan stock started in
a particular highland region of Central America, consequent dispersal led to
the formation of many differentiated groups in different areas. These groups often interacted with each
other through trade because of the need for resources. Various groups often followed the same
system of agriculture and worshiped the same tribal gods. However, each tribe still had its own
specific culture and style. The most
important region of the Mayan Empire and the area of our interest where the
famous civilization reached its maximum height is located in the tropical
forest-clad lowlands. Tikal is only one
of the many great cities in this area that produced the most intricate
architecture and abundant hieroglyphics.
It is very interesting that the cultural peak of the
empire was reached in an area covered with dense forest which man had to fight
with nothing but stone tools and fire.
The Maya in this lowland area were active traders and farmers of beans
and maize and succeeded to clear the forest through the practice of cutting and
burning for planting. Other sustenance
stemmed from trading cacao, jade, and other specialties. The principle medium of currency was the
cacao bean. This was ideal because when
the value of the cacao dropped due to overproduction, the Mayans simply took
more beans out of circulation for chocolate production. The Mayan city-states thrived as hubs of commerce
and the people were able to establish themselves in this unfriendly natural
environment.
Mayan art and scientific realizations have made a lasting
impression on modern mankind.
Achievements in art can be witnessed in sculptures, the vestiges of Mayan
paintings, and the beauty of their pottery, stone, and jade preserved in altars
and historical monuments. Much of Mayan
art is distinctly different from European art and is easily recognizable. The architecture of terraced pyramids and
the detailed planning of their cities such as Tikal also give notice to the
Maya’s great accomplishments. The
Mayans were special in that they used engineering skill in their building. While other indigenous groups built by
setting one stone on top of the other, the Mayans took into consideration
factors such as stress and strain.
Scientifically, the Mayans were more progressive than any
other civilization in this time period and advanced far beyond their own
personal needs. The calendar system the
Mayans invented allowed them to plot time for the next 400 million years and
predict occurrences such as the movements of the planets and the eclipses of
the sun and the moon to the nearest second.
The Mayans calculated the days in the year to add up to 365.2420 days
compared to our actual value of 365.2422.
Their number system allowed them to make sums up into the millions and
comprehend the concept of zero ahead of any other culture.
Considering that the Mayan Empire was stuck in the stone
age, the building of pyramids and temples must have taken teamwork and an
abundance of patience. With the average
Mayan lifetime being only thirty years, close cooperation between astronomers
and generations must have also existed to achieve such accurate measurements
and observations. Various religious
ceremonies and dances probably also helped to build stable communities.
The
last three centuries of this empire’s existence consisted of an increase in the
abundance and elaborate detail of art and building in these communities. This all ended very suddenly and without any
obvious explanation. One by one, life
in the cities ceased as no more monuments were erected and no more temples were
built. In many cases, work was actually
stopped before completion which suggests the deed of a sudden catastrophe. Several speculations have been made as to
what caused the collapse of the Mayan civilization but discrepancies have been
found in each hypothesis. Certain
people have tried to blame disease but epidemics such as malaria and yellow fever
were only introduced with the Spanish.
Others criticize the Mayan agriculture procedure of cutting and burning
the forest and suggest a lack of food as the reason for the culture’s end. Good soil fertility found at one of the
first cities to stop functioning helps to refute this explanation.
The theory that makes the most sense to historian, J.
Eric S. Thompson, is that the cities were not actually abandoned with the end
of cultural activities. Excavation has
shown that burials and sacrifices were still made in cities even after building
had stopped. Most likely a series of
peasant revolts against the upper class of priests and nobles was the cause of
the empire’s demise. As the demand for
labor in construction and food production grew at the peak of the civilization,
the underclass probably rebelled and drove out or killed the ruling group. This would explain the abrupt cessation of
art and monument erection, along with the continuation of religious ceremonies. The buildings presumably slowly began to
deteriorate with the peasants half-heartedly tried to keep their cities in
shape and failing.
The modern day Maya still live within the boundaries of
their old empire in Central America.
The region that makes up this area now consists of the countries of
Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and five states in Mexico. Guatemala is considered to be the birthplace
of the Mayan civilization and consequently still has a very active Mayan
population. Tikal, often named the
greatest Mayan city to ever exist, lies in the northern part of the country
near the border of Mexico. Of the
approximately six million Mayas left today, the majority live in Guatemala
(July 1995 estimate).
Despite half a millennium of European dominance in this
country, much of the native and historical Maya tradition has remained with its
people. When the Spaniards arrived in
Guatemala 500 years ago many of the indigenous people were living out in
recesses in mountainous areas. This
kept them isolated from the many missionaries eager to convert them to
Catholicism and also allowed them to keep much of their own culture. Despite the inevitable repression suffered
due to the Spanish invasion, the Mayans’ secret to keeping their Indian culture
alive seems to be their adaptability.
Although the culture could not help but be influenced by the invaders,
it managed to keep many traditional foundations.
A very important part of this culture is associated with
the Mayan language. Although the
language of the ruling minority (sixty percent of Guatemalans are of Mayan
descent) is Spanish and this is the official language, forty percent of the
approximately eleven million Guatemalan people today have managed to stay with
an Indian language. This category
consists of twenty-three Mayan dialects that the indigenous people use as their
first language. Many of the Maya today
speak Spanish as a second language because of contact through trade and
tourism, but remain native dialect speakers.
Again
in religion, the Maya have fought to keep much of their own tradition and
blended it with Spanish influences. The
result is that the Maya have their own brand of Christianity which consists of
characteristics of old tribal religions and Roman Catholicism. One can for example often see Catholic Maya
performing ceremonies that have obvious characteristics of shaman rituals. Chicken sacrifices and food offerings are
witnessed in some churches. In
addition, some Mayans still worship old deities like the corn god for good luck
with the harvest.
Other things have also remained the same. The majority (more than sixty percent) of
the Mayan people work in agriculture.
The main crops are still beans and corn; the fields are still prepared
and cleared by cutting and burning as was done by the ancient Mayans so long
ago. Much of the traditional dress and
weaving is also still established custom.
However,
only ten percent of the Guatemalan people live a totally Mayan lifestyle
compared to the sixty percent that have Mayan ancestors. Only two percent of
the Guatemalan population own as much as seventy percent of the land. As has been true since the arrival of the
Spanish, the people of Mayan descent lack basic human rights. Despite the fact that Guatemala won its
independence from Spain in 1821, the Spanish invasion still greatly affects the
indigenous people.
As of 1995, Guatemala had been involved in a thirty-some
year civil war which had led to more than 100,000 civilian deaths, and 40,000
civilian disappearances for political reasons.
Activists supporting the indigenous people had repeatedly been
threatened by death squads, military groups, and the police. Excavations of mass graves are evidence of
many of the atrocities that have gone on in the past decades and that the
government so painstakingly aimed to hide.
Many Guatemalans fled to neighboring countries such as Mexico and did
not begin returning until 1993. Foreign
military aid, also from the United States, was sent to the Guatemalan
government during this period and in this way supported the horrible acts.
Much of the conflict dealt with indigenous rights and
land distribution. Many modern Maya
live at or below the poverty level. The
most fertile land of the country is used for mass production of coffee and
cotton which leaves the indigenous population with the land scraps. The Maya are mainly used as a labor force to
work on the main plantations and are treated equal to slaves. During the civil war, Mayans had no
political representation and civil guerilla groups were feared by the
government and put down with force as were people suspected of being
supporters.
In 1993 after negotiations to resolve the conflict, the
first Guatemalan refugees returned home. As late as October of 1995, the
government had broken promises and shot down families in a returned refugee
camp. Peace Accords that ended the then
thirty-six year civil war were signed in December of 1996. Now that the internal conflict is over the
country needs to be put back together again.
First of all, the many guerillas need to be reintegrated into a
Guatemalan society of which they have never been a part. A second problem lies therein that many of
the criminals of the war have been acquitted of their crimes or are still not
sure of being convicted. However on a positive
note, the guerillas now exist as a political party and the government is being
pressured by the country itself and by international powers to carry out its
commitments to the Mayan people.
The Mayan people once had an ancient civilization
comparable to that of the Greeks in the Old World. While the empire crumbled and no longer exists, its children
still inhabit Central America and have a heritage of great wealth. In Guatemala, this heritage has been
repressed and beaten down and is hopefully now getting a chance to stand on its
own.
The World Heritage Center has
established 582 cultural and natural sites in the world. This is the result of the encouragement
they’ve given to many countries, such as Guatemala, to join the Convention and
nominate sites within their territory for World Heritage status. The nominating procedure can begin only if
the country has joined the World Heritage Convention and formed States parties. Then the World Heritage Center will verify
that the nomination is complete.
Within the Mayan Empire, UNESCO has named three sites to its World
Heritage list. The first, Antigua, is
the capital of the Captaincy-General of Guatemala. It was built in the sixteenth century on earthquake prone land
high above sea level. An earthquake in
1773 destroyed it, however many of its monumental structures remain today. The second protects the Archaeological Park
and Ruins of Quirigua which contains many Mayan carved stele and sculpted calanders
from the second century. A closer examination
of the final site, Tikal National Park, reveals the cultural and natural themes
UNESCO explores when assuming a site.
For this paper, it will be used as a case study of sorts to forther
understand the intentions of the World Heratige group.
Tikal National Park is in
north-eastern Guatemala and is accessable by bus from the nearest town of Santa
Elena. Surrounded mostly by jungle and
lush vegetation, it is an area that has not been inhabited since the tenth
century AD. For upto fourteen hundred
years prior to this it was a ceremonial center containing multiple temples,
palaces, and public squares. Some
dwellings have been uncovered around the surrounding countryside, but the main
source of cultural interest is its ceremonial structures. While it was declared a national park in
1955, it was not officially adopted onto the World Heratige list until
1979.
This process of adoption can be
attributed to The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO). This is the main
group behind the World Heritage list who signed an international treaty called
the “Convention” in 1972 to protect world heritage sites. Their stated mission is to “encourage the
identification protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage
around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity”. There is an important difference made
between sites of natural merit and sites of cultural merit. Tikal National Park is listed as a site of
both.
The types of things that will qualify
as a cultural heritage site include monuments, groups of buildings, or
sites. Monuments cover architectural
structures, sculpture, painting, archaeological objects, and things of general
outstanding value from an historical, art historical or scientific
perspective. Groups of buildings that
are homogenous in nature such as dwellings meet the criteria, as do man made
sites of aesthetic or ethnologic interest.
If the site falls under one of these three categories it must then be
determined that it represents a masterpiece of human creative genius, exhibits
an important interchange of human values, or bears a unique testimony to a
civilization which is living or has disappeared.
Tikal National Park meets these
criteria because it is a ruined city of the Maya Indians that reflects an
important cultural development. Its
land chronicles their evolution from a community of hunters and gatherers to a
sophisticated farming people. Samples
of cotton, tobacco, beans, pumpkins, peppers and a variety of fruits have been
recovered on the land. The park also
evidences the intense devotion to religion, the arts and science they pursued
until their demise in the ninth century.
There are an astounding 3,000 buildings, such as temples, homes, and
religious monuments that date back to as early as the seventh century BC. Of further cultural interest is the
hieroglyphic writing found on many monuments and tombs.
In addition to all of this Tikal
National Park qualifies as a site of natural heritage. For a site to fall under
this category it must have outstanding examples of either the major geological
stages of earth’s history or the development of ecological and biological
processes in earth’s history. If a site
does not meet these criteria it can qualify if it is deemed a place of
exceptional natural beauty or if it contains important natural habitats for
biological conservation. Tikal National
Park meets all of these due to the sheer amount of land in the park. In its nearly 60,000 acres one can find a
sedimentary basin with deposits from the Mesozoic and Tertiary periods and what
is considered to be the most extensive
wetland system in central America. One
can also find over 22,000 acres of rain forest that boast West Indian mahogony,
cedar, and palm trees and over 2,000 plant species. Present day Mayans exploit the strong woods from the forest for
their furniture and use many of the flowers and leaves for medicinal
purposes. An impressive fifty four
species of mammals live within the boundaries of the park as well as many
reptiles and amphibians.
Tikal National Park is contained by
the Maya Biosphere Reserve which is a natural conservation project to protect
and study land in the Mayan parts of Guatemala, Mexico, and Belize. The Reserve covers over one million acres in
these countries and was adopted under UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Program in
1990. This program is directed at
coastal and island countries to help them help their lush environments. In Guatemala, 10% of the country’s land is
part of the Maya Biosphere Reserve which works specifically towards interests
of an archaeological and bio/ecological nature. Therefore its interests correspond well with the cultural and
natural interests of the World Heritage sites.
UNESCO works with the Instituto de
Antropologia e Historia to oversee the management of Tikal National Park. There are a number of local and national
groups who take interest in the park which has encouraged the development of
smaller groups to mediate between these interests. One such group is the Comite Coordinador de la Reserva Maya which
coordinates between the administration of the reserve and other
authorities. The people who make up
this comittee come from UNESCO, the Instituto, the Centro de Estudios
Conservacionistas de la Universidad de San Carlos and the Guatemalan Army. Although there is no specific requirement
for the representation of native Mayan people on this comittee, it claims to
have frequent and good relations with the local Mayan communities.
Besides promoting conservation
standards for the natural environment, the reserve strives to promote local
participation in land use and management, regional planning and rural
development. The extent to which this
integration is achieved is still uncertain, however one cannot dispute the
activities and programs that the reserve organize to help the area and the
Mayan locals. They provide
environmental education and professional training for locals to work at the
site, they teach environmentally sound methods for agriculture and
fishing. This is done through
demonstration projects and group seminars taught to and by locals. However one should remember that the
alternative methods for farming and fishing are probably more difficult and
expensive and might not be received with as much enthusiasm as UNESCO and the
reserve claim them to be.
·
Henderson, John
S. The World of the Ancient Maya. Cornell University Press. Ithaca, New York, 1981.
·
LaFranchi,
Howard. “The Wonderful Seclusion of a
Mayan City.” The Christian Science Monitor. Dec 7, 1995:12.
·
Murphy-Larronde,
Suzanne. “Special Report: South of the
Border.” The Denver Post. Denver:
Feb 28, 1999, T-01.
·
Thompson, J. Eric
S. The Rise and Fall of Maya
Civilization. University of
Oklahoma Press. Norman, Oklahoma, 1966.
·
Guatemalan Culture.
February 9, 1999. http://www.lehigh.edu/~cld3/culture.html#mayan.
·
Guatemalan People.
February 9, 1999. http://www.travellog.com/guatemala/mayastoday.html.
·
Modern-day Maya.
February 9, 1999. http://www.yucatan.com.mx/mayas/ingles/fs10.htm
·
Our Mayan Legacy.
March 9, 1999. http://www.uair.edu/~degonzalez/antgua.html.
·
The Mayan Empire.
February 9, 1999. http://www.harve.com/mystic/lands/lands-mayan-empire-01.html.
·
World Heritage
Centre. March 3, 1999. http://www.unesco.org/whc/