Mr. Dorrough’s History Class

How do we know about the Maya, Aztec, and Inca?

We know what we do because of the careful work of anthropologists and archaeologists.  The best known archaeologist is Indiana Jones, but he is not a real person nor does he practice archeology the way modern archaeologists do.

An anthropologist studies people and their culture.  They observe people and how they live by watching them through their daily routines.  If they are studying the  past they put the pieces of evidence that they can find together to determine how they lived.  Basically, they use everything around them to study a group people.  They do not always work in the field.  They can and often do most of their work in libraries and museums.

An archaeologist is a specific type of anthropologist.  Thy studys the past through  carefully excavation and examination of the physical remains of a society.  They study both buildings and bodies.  They have carefully established rules on how to dig up old cities and grave sites.  They use scientific equipment and simple brushes to get what they want.

As with most people, religion was very important to the Maya. They believed in a pantheon of gods, but the three most important gods were the god of rain, the god of corn, and the god of death.  The jaguar (the can, not the car) played an important role in their religion as well.

The Maya used the “Sacred Round” as a calander to determin what days to  plant, have religious ceremonies, and to go to war.

The Maya did not have an alphabet.  they uses hieroglyphs to write down important information.  These were usually carved in stone and painted.  Here are some of the ‘glyphs  that they used.

 Some of you have asked for the notes that we went over in class. Here is the PowerPoint presentation that I used in class.  you do not have to copy each slide word for word.  You may paraphrase or summarize the information.  Be sure to use the graphic orgonizers that are in the reading notes handout for chapter  23.

PowerPoint presentation for Chapter 23.

[slideshare id=324271&doc=reading-notes-chapter-23-1206643708376372-3&w=425]

If the slide show has trouble loading then go to Slideshare.

Today when people get married it is because they are “in love.” This is a fairly modern idea. Through out most of history marriages were arranged. When a marriage is arranged the parents of a prospective bride or groom would seek out the help of a matchmaker.

The Maya used matchmakers, called atanzahabs, to set up young men and women. Marriage was not about being attracted to each other. It was about how good a man was for his prospective bride, and how good a woman was for her prospective husband. Things that were considered during the match making process were health, work ethic, hunting and farming abilities, artisan skills, and wealth.

Parents payed the matchmaker to find the right person, but the parents had the final say. The bride and groom were able to meet, but they had no say in the matter.

In class today we read 23.4 and 23.5 for a warm up.

During class we played a game about The Maya matchmakers and took some notes.

For homework I assigned essential question #1.

First and Fifth periods were assigned essential questions 3 and 5.

Check the previous post for more information about what I will be collecting tomorrow.

Mayan civilization was divided into several social classes. These social “classes” were not like our school classes. They were groups of people were grouped together by the role they played in society. The Maya had five distinct social classes:

• First, there was the ruler. Today we might call him a king or a chief, but the Maya called him the “True Man.” He made all of the decisions about warfare, and he presided over some religious ceremonies.
• The second social class was comprised of nobles and priests. Nobles are people who have a lot of wealth and power. Priests were the people who were in charge of daily religious life. This was the only group of people who knew how to read and write. They were in charge of gathering taxes and supplies for the rest of the empire.
• The third social class was comprised of merchants and artisans. These were the “doers” of the empire. They built things, made things, bought and sold things, and,generally speaking, kept an economy going through out the empire. Merchants traveled extensively bringing products from all over the empire to various cities.
• The fourth social class in Mayan society was the peasantry. This group was made up of average ordinary people. They usually worked in the fields growing the food that was necessary for the empire. They build temples, pyramids, and they fought as soldiers.
• The bottom level of the social class system in the Mayan empire were the slaves. Slaves did the hard labor within the empire. A person could become a slave for several reasons. their parents could sell them into slavery. They could be captured during a war and then put into slavery. People who committed serious crimes could pe put into slavery as punishment for that crime.

In class today we read 23.3 as a warm up.

In first and fifth periods we did a geography challenge and took some notes in class.

We had essential question #1 as homework.
Name the present day countries in the area where the Mayan culture flourished. Describe the landscape of this region.

In second, third, and sixth periods we did the social pyramid expireintal and took some notes.

All classes has essential question # 4 as homework.
Explain the five levels of the Mayan social pyramid. What was daily life like for most Maya?