How life arose according to the Mayans

When talking about more interesting mythologies of history we always tend to approach the Mayan, being an example of how versatile myths can be with respect to others close to them. The large number of existing theories about the Mayans also makes it very interesting to know this religion, due to its relationship with the possible end of the world. To know part of this mythology in this lesson from a PROFESSOR we are going to talk about how life arose according to the mayans.

Before talking about this very relevant myth or about our own religion, we must talk a little about our own Mayan culture, in order to understand the great relevance that this great civilization.

The Mayan culture It is one of the strangest in all of history, being able to go ahead in many aspects of Western and pre-Columbian cultures. Their advanced society has led to many theories about them, but the reality is that they were not so different from Asian societies.

The exact location of the Mayans is difficult to locate, since their great influence makes it difficult to fix a specific position, although without a doubt they were in

the Mesoamerican zone, and more specifically, they must have looked at the Yucatan peninsula.

His great influence It has turned its characteristics into those typical of Mesoamerican cultures, the following being clear examples:

• The monarchy was theocratic, so the king was chosen by the gods.
• Society was hierarchical, being divided between the upper classes made up of religious and nobles and the lower class made up of peasants.
• Its main economic source was Corn crops, being the base of their society, and working it with very advanced machines for the time.
• The class society it was controlled by military force and the religious spirit.
• The Maya were responsible for some of the greatest architectural works of the time, being generally created for the gods.
• They created a complex system of writing and math.
• They did not have a single language, being used in each zone a different one.

We can know how life arose according to the Mayans thanks to different sources such as the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the Mayans.

The birth of life for the Mayans is linked to three of their main gods, these being Kukulkan, Huracán and Tepeu:

• The first of them is the god of wind and water, the latter being one of the most important elements of the Mayans, being where life is supposed to be born.
• Hurricane was the Mayan god of fire, being who, thanks to his powers, could shape life and end it in the life cycle.
• Tepeu on the other hand was the god of the sky, and it is said that he was the one who had the idea of ​​creating human beings.

In the beginning the whole world was waterThere is neither the earth nor the beings that inhabit them and the planet was very sad about it. Later the gods Kukulkan and Tepeu decided that it was best to create life on earth, creating animals and plants, and the earth to inhabit its surface.

Even with this, the gods were still sad, since neither plants nor animals were capable of worshiping the gods, so together with Hurricane decided to combine their powers to create human beings from the mud, being destroyed by their delicacy by the storms American. Later the gods created human beings from wood, but these were incapable of worshiping the gods, so the divinities decided to end them by not being useful to them.

Finally, and mthrough the use of wood and corn, the gods created the current human beings, being much more perfect since they were able to work, reproduce and worship the gods.

To continue with this lesson on how life arose according to the Mayans, we must talk about the Mayan religion, in order to understand the main sources from which this myth of so much relevance.

The mayan mythology It is one of the richest and with more details, so it is very interesting to know it, and therefore we are going to comment on some of its peculiarities. Therefore, the main characteristics of the Mayan religion are the following:

• The shamans and priests They were essential people in the life of Mayan society, all of them being very important characters due to their great relationship with religion.
• Religion was evidently polytheistic, being many the gods that make up the Mayan pantheon, both original and inherited from other Mesoamerican religions.
• There was a great relationship between Mayans and nature, so many gods were a kind of representations of the most common sections of the Mayan natural world.
• Sacrifices were common, in which the Mayans killed people and animals in the name of the gods so that they would help the population in different ways.
• Like the rest of Mesoamerican cultures made artistic creations for worship the godsThe best known being the pyramids that still surprise us today.
• The Mesoamerican ball It was also used in the Mayan culture, since it was used as a way of offering a good show to the gods.
• They were one of the cultures that gave the greatest importance to funeral rites, being common that the dead received great ceremonies after their death.