UbiComp / ISWC 2023
Mayan People, Culture, Traditions
For millennia, the Yucatán Peninsula in southeastern Mexico has been home to the Maya, indigenous people whose magnificent civilization thrived centuries before the arrival of the Spaniards.
Cancún, the center point of what we know as the Riviera Maya, is the main tourism draw. But the interior of the peninsula offers plentiful opportunities to go deeper, and experience the vibrant life — ancient and modern — of the Maya, who still live in Yucatán, speak the language of their ancestors and maintain many of the old ways.
The Mayan culture is known for its great contributions, for its comprehensive worldview of life. But beyond that, the deep knowledge about man’s spirituality with the cosmos cannot be ignored through the great variety of rituals and sacred ceremonies that took place in cenotes, pyramids or in the middle of the jungle.
People
The present-day Mayan peoples can be divided on linguistic and geographic grounds into the following groups: the Yucatec Maya, inhabiting Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula and extending into northern Belize and northeastern Guatemala; the Lacandón, very few in number, occupying a territory in southern Mexico between the Usumacinta River and the Guatemalan border, with small numbers in Guatemala and Belize; the K’ichean-speaking peoples of the eastern and central highlands of Guatemala (Q’eqchi’, Poqomchi’, Poqomam, Uspanteko, K’iche’, Kaqchikel, Tz’utujil, Sakapulteko [Sacapultec], and Sipacapa [Sipacapeño]); the Mamean peoples of the western Guatemalan highlands (Mam, Teco [Tektiteko], Awakateko, and Ixil); the Q’anjobalan peoples of Huehuetenango and adjacent parts of Mexico (Motocintlec [Mocho’], Tuzantec, Jakalteko, Akateko, Tojolabal, and Chuj); the Tzotzil and Tzeltal peoples of Chiapas in southern Mexico; the Cholan peoples, including the Chontal and Chol speakers in northern Chiapas and Tabasco and the linguistically related Chortí of the extreme eastern part of Guatemala; and the Huastec of northern Veracruz and adjoining San Luís Potosí in east-central Mexico. The chief division in Mayan cultural types is between highland and lowland cultures. Yucatec, Lacandón, and Chontal-Chol are lowland groups. The Huastec, a linguistically and geographically separated group living in Veracruz and San Luis Potosí, who never were Mayan culturally, and the other Mayan peoples live in highlands across Guatemala.
Culture and Symbols
Mayan symbols are a rich source of material culture for the Central American civilization and are among the most important archeological finds that have helped piece together their economics, farming methods, politics, and social practices.
Symbols carry the heart of every culture, and every culture’s symbols represent its inner reality to the people of that culture. Symbols can be anything, a gesture, a song, a phrase or an image. They often carry many layers of meaning that everyone in the culture understands intuitively.
Hundreds of Mayan symbols can be found carved on stone, which allows archeologists and other researchers to gain an understanding of their culture. In fact, Mayan writing consists of symbols called glyphs. Of the hundreds of Mayan symbols, some appear more often on the carved stelae and temple walls in Mayan cities, revealing their importance to the culture. Glyphs of animals were powerful symbols to the Mayans, especially the jaguar and the eagle. The following shortlist describes a few important Mayan symbols.
Kukulkan
The Mayan feathered serpent deity Kukulkan was known to other Mesoamerican cultures like the Aztecs and Olmecs who worshipped the god under different names. The myth surrounding this deity mentions the god as a creator of the cosmos in the Popul Vuh, the Kiche Maya sacred book. The serpent god is also called the Vision Serpent. Feathers represent the god’s ability to soar in the heavens while as a serpent the god can also travel the earth. Kukulkan cult temples during the Post-Classical era can be found in Chichen Itza, Uxmal and Mayapan. The serpent cult emphasized peaceful trade and good communication among the cultures. Since a snake can shed its skin, it symbolizes renewal and rebirth.
Jaguar
The jaguar, to the Mayans, was a powerful symbol of ferocity, strength, and valor. Since the big cats can see well at night, it symbolizes perception and foresight. As a god of the Mayan underworld, the jaguar ruled the celestial forces of night and day. As such, it represents control, confidence, and leadership. Mayan warriors wore jaguar skins into battle as a sign of honor and courage. The Mayans held the jaguar second only to Kukulkan in religious importance.
Hunab Ku
In the Yucatec Mayan language, Hunab Ku means one god or the only god. The term appears in the 16th-century texts such as the Book of Chilam Balam, written after the Spanish had conquered the Mayans. Hunab Ku is associated with Itzama, the Mayan creator god. Mayan scholars believe the concept of a supreme god over all the others was a belief that Spanish friars used to convert the polytheistic Mayans to Christianity. Hunab Ku was popularized by a modern Maya day-keeper, Hunbatz Men, who considered it a powerful symbol associated with the number zero and the Milky Way. He calls it the sole giver of movement and measurement. Scholars of the Maya say there is no pre-colonial representation of Hunab Ku, but New Age Mayans have adopted the symbol to represent universal consciousness. As such it is a popular design used for modern Mayan tattoos.
Traditional Dances and Rituals
Dance from pre-Columbian Maya culture still exists in various altered forms today. However, dancing in the ancient world carried a much deeper significance in their sophisticated culture. Records of these dances have come to light through various murals, codices, and especially the Spaniards who first recorded their observations. The dancers in Mayan culture were known as Humul dancers. In Mayan culture dancer’s have a purpose which is to tell stories. A story is told by the movement of the dances they perform. The dancers may go on for hours depending on the length of the story. The racks worn on the back of the dancers are made of lightweight materials like feathers and bamboo. Most of the forms found on the backrack are symbols acquired over the years
The Mayans maintained complete connection through the celebration of rituals and ceremonies with all forms of life and objects that surrounded their communities, the role of the shaman X’men (witch, herbalist or healer) was substantial to carry them out, since they were the direct connection between gods and men, they had the wisdom to advise rulers or perform healing work. The shamans passed their knowledge from generation to generation through disciples, who were taught to see beyond just the material plane, for this, they had to participate in an initiation ritual whose purpose was to “separate the body and the spirit.” , through the consumption of certain plants that generated a hallucinogenic effect with which they could give rise to hallucinations and visions of “other planes” beyond the earthly.
Mayan ceremonies and rituals have transcended over the centuries, today it has regained great relevance for nationals and tourists, its celebration is planned from a personal, family and community life aspect. Spirits of the super-natural world and their relationship with Maya culture played an important role in ritual dance. Just as well, beasts were usually mimicked in ceremonial dance. The attire worn to some dances as depicted in murals show the links Maya dancers make to the natural world and to their worshipped gods who often took the form of animals. This is evident especially in the frescoes of Bonampak.
Maya dance rituals often included sacrifice. For instance, the Tun-teleche¬ dance included victims whose hearts were removed before they died as a gift to underworld demons. On the other hand, some public ritual dances were even erotic in nature. Common throughout most all dances though was the importance of deities and the relationship between man and god.
Dance in Maya culture has also acted as a bridge between the ancient and post-Columbian eras. Spanish missionaries and lords as late as the 18th century were trying to eliminate the practice of ancient dance; however, natives maintained roots with their ancestors by practicing in secret. Even after the relatively complete conversion to Catholicism after the Spanish influence arrived, Maya people still respect their ancient deities through ceremonial dance, which has persisted through the generations since the golden age of ancient Maya.
The Ajaw
According to the beliefs and ideologies of the Mayan culture, the ceremony represents the interaction, communication and approach with the Ajawel creator of everything, the owner, the universe and life itself, who is pre-existing to everything created and in whom the masculine principles are united and feminine, consequently we belong to the Ajaw, which manifests itself in all the elements that give us life, therefore it is he who provides us with the wisdom and knowledge that come from the air, the cold and the clouds.
Under the Mayan worldview, everything is the work of the Ajaw, who created the universe, the sky, the air, fire, earth, water, rivers, sea, clouds, plants, animals, people, that is, the totality of creation belongs to him, for that motive expects recognition, respect, gratitude and veneration for the creation that is sacred. “The Ajaw” is in the essence of everything, and it is the most sacred thing that exists in his worldview, he is a dual being that does not have sex and who gave life to everything that exists. For the Mayan grandparents and shamans, the ajaw is the mother and father of the formation and creator.
The ceremonies represented par excellence the liturgical celebration of spirituality, they are celebrated between nature, jungle, cenotes, underground rivers, sea and ancient Mayan cities and altars are prepared with necessary elements such as water, copal, fire, honey, fruit, sugar, incense, rosemary, bread, cocoa, flowers and other special elements for the type of ceremony and its purpose and thus achieve the connection with the Ajaw. All the sacred energies are concentrated on the altar and it is the central point where it is possible to influence the cosmos, it is done thinking about the 4 directions of the world and towards the 13 Mayan skies, it is the way in which the shamans connect with Ajaw.
