Mayan Society and Environment

Life in Mayan Society

• Lower class= farmers and slaves• Farm corn and listen to the nobility

• Nobility- priests, king and family, nobles• Make policy, rule the city, check food supply

• Priests (well educated)• Interpret stars, will of the Gods, perform

sacrifices and rituals to satisfy the Gods, tell people when to plant crops

Purpose of Priests

• Communicate and Please the Gods• If the Gods are happy- crop yields increase• Wars are won

• Actions include (Sympathetic Magic)• Donations/offerings• Dances• Visions• Statues and temples • Blood letting• Human sacrifice

Burden on the People

• In order to build a statue/give an offering you need material and money.

• Priests need humans to sacrifice to the Gods. (Orphans and prisoners)

• Priests often bled themselves for blood offerings.

Problems

• People are used and lied to. (Weather is unrelated to human sacrifice.)

• If conditions get worse the solution = give more.

• If conditions get better solution = keep the Gods happy and keep giving.

• Does anyone see a problem here?

When the drought occurs…• Had years of growth, very high

population, lots of priests with temples asking for a lot

• Rain slows, valley soil becomes more acidic, swamps used up…crop yields decrease

• Priests say: More donations! • People say: Good idea!

Drought gets worse…

• People become increasingly angry with priests, but they keep giving

• Now the people are even poorer and more hungry

• People snap and start revolting • People snap when they can’t feed

themselves or their children • Target= Priests and nobility and

eventually anyone with food

Priests Evacuate

• Nobility heads to Cancuen (now Cancun)

• Poor people raid cities looking for food, burn temples, killing fellow Mayans

• People run out of stealing food, attack nobles at Cancuen

• Society collapses and those that are healthy enough evacuate to the jungle and other Mayan cities.