PP Notes Maya and Mexica (Aztec)

Mesoamerica

Mesoamerica stretches from Mexico’s central plain to Costa Rica
Beginnings of civilization around 12000 BCE (300-400 yrs. after Shang)
Depended on corn, beans and wild turkey –used only digging sticks



Mesoamerican region
Lived in a tropical rain forest in Guatemala and Belize
Agricultural community: beans, maize, chili peppers and squash
Made clay, cloth, rope, nets, string
Around 900 BCE migrated into Yucatan Peninsula

By first century, traded with Teotihuacan
Complex family units, cities, temples: class division, private property
Built with limestone, coral, and plaster
Had writing and numbering system (including zero)

Religion

Trances/Visions: dancing, blood letting, hallucinogenic enemas, used the mushroom: psilocybim, flowers, toads, etc.
Sacred written texts
Popol Vuh was sacred mythology
Xibalba was the under world





Hunaphu and Ixbalanque – hero twins – played ball game in Xibalba and won. Most important thing you can be is a trickster, could outwit the gods. Really appreciated witty individuals. (Moon has a trickster)

All movements in the story of the twins represents solar movement, i.e. descending into Xibalba represents retrograde motion of Venus (disappears), mnemonic devices to plot movements of the universe
“Popol Vuh” – people of the mat.
Michael Coe wrote “Breaking the Maya Code” – took a Russian, Uri Knorosov, during the cold war, with outdated equipment (there was no Rosetta Stone until De Landa’s letters regarding Chi’s )



Aztecs 1345 – 1521 CE
The Aztec Calendar

In the Mesoamerican region
Came to Mexico from a Southwestern region in the United States
Capital was called Tenochtitlan (no comparison in 16th century Europe, when Cortes landed). 8 to 25 million people

The plaza on the island represented the Mesoamerican universe. Pyramids, large buildings, temples and homes.
Transportation was mainly canoes, much like in Venice.



Played a sacred ball game for 3000 years: Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras.
More than 1560 courts have been discovered. Use of a heavy rubber ball, and a ring. Teams of two to seven, wore yokes, shoulder pads, hip covers and helmets – losers were sacrificed. Ball represents trajectory of a planet and set in ground – near underworld, supernatural.
Wagering was an important part of the games.

Religion
Human sacrifice
Gods: blood eaters
Complex calendaring
Polytheism
Human sacrifice