Chac The Rain God

Chac the Rain God The Maya past and present

BUT FIRST • QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS ABOUT LAST WEEKS FILM? • DON’T FORGET THAT THE HOMEWORK AND BLOG QUESTIONS ARE PART OF YOUR GRADE!!!

Location The Maya civilization covered a vast region that today is southern Mexico [Chiapas, Yucatan], Guatemala, and Belize, along with the western area of Honduras and El Salvador.

Political organization Unlike the Aztecs, the Maya had no one king or emperor. The region was organized into as many as 20 different politically sovereign states, each with its own leader and noble class. These states were organized around ceremonial centers, which were surrounded by smaller cities and farm villages.

Origins Maya presence in Mesoamerica dates back to around 2600 BC [or BCE— Before the Common Era] in the region now known as the Yucatán. The civilization rose to prominence around 250 AD [CE]

Creation and religion As you read in the version of the Popol Vuh, the creation of the cosmos and the earth took place through numerous cycles of formation and destruction.

Hunab Ku was the creator of the cosmos, and the Old Woman Goddess [god of death and destruction] held the bowl from which the deluges that occasioned each cycle of destruction came. The Hero Twins [Hunapu and Xbalanque] entered Xibalba [the underworld] and then returned, having outsmarted the 9 lords of death. They were reborn as the sun and as Venus. From here stems the belief that the sun returns each morning from the underworld. From the Hero Twins too comes the belief that rebirth is only possible through sacrifice [they were burnt and decapitated], and the Mayas did practice human sacrifice.

http://www.mythweb.com/teachers/why/other/hero_twins.html

In the Chilam Balam de Chumayel, a book of sacred stories, Chaac, god of thunder and rain, was the first to make corn available for consumption to all mankind. According to these legends, in the beginning, all corn was white, but a lightening bolt which one of the gods hurled upon the rock to break it burned, smoked or singed some of the grains. That is why there are now black, yellow and red varieties of the grain. In addition, the Popol Vuh tells us that from a mixture of white and yellow grains the current human race was formed.

It is generally believed that the ancient Maya culture began around 300 CE as an offshoot of the Olmec civilization. There is evidence of contact and trading between the Mayas of this time period and the inhabitants of Teotihuacan.

Periods of Mayan History Mayan history is divided into three epochs or eras, each with distinct characteristics. The earliest is the Pre-Classic [2000 BCE - 250 CE] The city of Copán in Honduras was started [the photos is the 3rd of three cities built on the same spot; the other 2 are buried beneath]

Mayan languages spread throughout Mesoamerica: today there are 31 different languages, not dialects.

Agrarian villages sprung up, the rudiments of the writing system began.

Major pyramids were built at El Mirador, in Guatemala

The Classic period [250-900 CE] This was the Golden Age in terms of architecture, culture, trade and population.

Tikal, in Guatemala, was the first great Maya city, with 50,000 inhabitants.

The writing system became codified. With 800 pictographic and syllabic glyphs, the Maya chiseled into stone and wrote on bark pages their knowledge of medicine, astronomy, religion and history.

The Spaniards destroyed all but 4 of these texts because they were considered pagan.

Stellae

Mark historical events, especially the reign of one of the rulers.

The classic period saw the construction of the most elaborate Maya centers: Tikal, Chichén Itzá y Uxmál [Yucatán] Palenque [México].

But all was not well within the kingdoms Between 900-1200 AD, the large ceremonial cities were abandoned, leading to 100s of History and Discovery Channels programs on ....

THE MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF THE MAYANS!!!!!

There are a number of theories as to why the Maya left the cities--increased warfare between the kingdoms, severe drought, a damaged ecosystem due to overpopulation [8-10,000,000].

The physical demands placed on the people by the nobility and the priests would also have taken their toll. Human sacrifices did take place, although more prevalent were blood sacrifices by means of sharp instruments like stingray spines or self-inflicted mutilation. The demands by a new ruler for an entirely new city built upon the city ruled by a predecessor would have exhausted the inhabitants.

http://www.papacweb.org/k

Around 1000 CE the population increased in what is now Mexico, in the Yucatán and Chiapas regions.

Scientific achievements

By the late Preclassic period, the Maya had developed an extremely complex mathematical system.

They were the first to develop a concept of the zero.

Their advanced mathematical knowledge enabled them to develop a complex calendar system. They actually had 3 separate calendars: a 365-day solar year calendar [haab]--18 months of 20 days, plus 5 unlucky days a 260-day ritual year calendar [tzolkin]--this was a long cycle of days and guided religious practices a world-time calendar of 5128 years, known as the Long Count. This fixed the point in time when the world began [3114 BCE] along with the point in time when it would end:

21 December, 2012. Despite what you may have heard, this is NOT the end of the world, however, but rather the end of a cycle.

A typical Mayan date looks like this: 12.18.16.2.6, 3 Cimi 4 Zotz. 12.18.16.2.6 is the Long Count date. 3 Cimi is the Tzolk'in date. 4 Zotz is the Haab date.

CHAC Is the god of rain and lightening, and was one of the more benevolent gods in the pantheon [all gods were seen to have a positive and negative side]

He is said to be the oldest continuously worshiped god in Mesoamerica; prayers are still offered to him today in times of drought.

Chac had 4 manifestations which corresponded to the 4 cardinal directions, a major aspect of the Maya belief system.

Every direction had a corresponding color associated with it.

The 4 directions, plus a 5th representing the center were: north/white, south/yellow, east/red, west/black, and center which was associated with the tree of life, symbolized by a great ceiba tree that was the center of the cosmos

The contemporary, or “living” Maya:

There are more than 10,000,000 people today in Mesoamerica who are direct descendents of the Maya, and who continue to speak the languages and practice many of the customs of their ancestors.

Neither past nor present Maya can be considered one culture nor one linguistic group. The differences between the languages can be enormous, and the groups may be unable to understand one another.

Tonight’s film is primarily in Tzotzil, which is spoken in Chiapas According to a 2005 census, there are 329,937 speakers of Tzotzil in Mexico, making it the 6th most spoken indigenous

Clothing styles and colors, along with hair styles and headwear, establish origins amongst the Maya, along with civil status and social positions.

The women have maintained the traditional style of dress more than the men have, although many of them still dress as their ancestors did.

Lacandones

The Lacandones are a unique group of Maya.

They are one of the most isolated and culturally conservative groups in Mexico, living in Chiapas near the Guatemalan border. They number around 1000 people[ in Mexico], after nearly disappearing in the 1940s.

These are agricultural communities, and corn is a staple.

Synchretic religious practices: most of these communities were Christianized years ago by Catholic priests and missionaries. Fundamentalist Protestant missionaries gained inroads among many Maya communities.

Yet some indigenous beliefs and practices remain.

Cemetery structures and colors are set in accordance to the cardinal directions and their corresponding colors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GgYyO8JM7I

Housing and clothing Many aspects of life remain much as they did—simple wooden homes made of small logs with a thatched roof, no electricity or running water. Everything was handmade. Times are changing and modernity has encroached. Many Maya now live in concrete homes with electricity, running water, etc.

About tonight’s film: Made in 1973 in the village of Tenejapa Very low budget [the director apologizes for the quality of the comet] [as well he should! He ran out of money….] Non-professional actors—they’d never SEEN a movie, let alone acted before! Despite great critical acclaim, the film never got a distributor and was set aside for about 30 years before being digitized and redistributed. The shaman in the film is the real shaman of the village. The glyphs that introduce each of the 9 days represent the 9 lords of the underworld defeated by the Twins

What to watch for: The boy vs. the men in the village; the boy in relationship to the diviner indications as to the film’s time setting the roles of men, women and children in the village what do the roles of the shaman, the diviner and the boy indicate about the Maya and their future?