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Bloodletting was the ritualized practice of self-cutting or piercing of an individual's body that served a number of ideological and cultural functions within ancient Mesoamerican societies, in particular the Maya. When performed by ruling elites, the act of bloodletting was crucial to the maintenance of sociocultural and political structure.
The importance of sacrifice in Classic Maya culture can be seen in Structure O-13 at Piedras Negras where vessels of obsidian blades, stingray spines, and other bloodletting utensils lined the pathway along the structure. [3] These materials increased in count along the pathway, leading to a main room in which sacrifice rituals took place. [3]
Sacrifice was a religious activity in Maya culture, involving the killing of humans or animals, or bloodletting by members of the community, in rituals superintended by priests. Sacrifice has been a feature of almost all pre-modern societies at some stage of their development and for broadly the same reason: to propitiate or fulfill a perceived ...
Important rituals such as the dedication of major building projects or the enthronement of a new ruler required a human sacrificial offering. The sacrifice of an enemy king was the most prized offering, and such a sacrifice involved the decapitation of the captive ruler in a ritual reenactment of the decapitation of the Maya maize god by the Maya death gods. [1]
The Maya had a great history of body modification and arguably so did the Olmec and other major groups. [1] Indeed, ritual practices that included many forms of body modification is key in the list of tenets that are cultural traits shared that make Mesoamerica a "culture area", an idea proposed by anthropologist Paul Kirchhoff. [2]
Bloodletting rituals in Maya culture. Add languages. ... Download as PDF; Printable version; ... the free encyclopedia ...
It is during this nine-day period that the Maya believed they could die by the soul who has returned home. [5] The Maya associated the color red with death and rebirth and often covered graves and skeletal remains with cinnabar. The bodies of the dead were wrapped in cotton mantles before being buried. Burial sites were oriented to provide ...
This is a list of deities playing a role in the Classic (200–1000 CE), Post-Classic (1000–1539 CE) and Contact Period (1511–1697) of Maya religion. The names are mainly taken from the books of Chilam Balam, Lacandon ethnography, the Madrid Codex , the work of Diego de Landa , and the Popol Vuh .