Maya: The Blood of Kings
The Mayan civilization had a very startling way of portraying the Mayans to us. They start off by showing how advanced their culture was and how the Mayan society was a utopia. Then in 1947, Giles Healy discovered the Mayan temple with pictures on the walls that depicted the Mayans as blood thirsty savages. This discovery radically changed the image of the already mysterious Mayan civilization. This drastic change in the Mayans was almost necessary to fully show how important uncovering the temple was. It was almost inconceivable for the public to accept this new, not-so-civilized Mayan culture that had astonished scholars, for being so brilliant for their time. Since there are only 4 books in existence left of the Mayan writing, it is hard for us to really know what went on during the flourishing time of 300 - 900 AD. Scholars speculate that the Mayans may have derived from the Greeks, Egyptians, or even the lost city of Atlantis. But what is more puzzling is not the rise of the Mayans, but the fall. According to the film they did not fall to famine or war, they merely deserted the cities. The great dynasties and achievements of the Mayans were built upon the faith of the people. When the crops failed, the people stopped belie
The movie stays on the topic of the historical findings, achievements, and the people as a whole. Then you go back to the movie and it goes into utmost detail of the types of daily sacrifices the people made, and how the god of decapitation rained with arrogance and disdain. The book talks briefly of the sacrifices the Mayans made, but only that they sacrificed prisoners of war. Longman states, "The Maya were invaded by the Toltec's, and Conners 2Mayan culture merged with the more warlike and aggressive Toltec culture. This change caused the Mayan civilization to collapse. The book tells us about how the Mayans sometimes pierced their nose or lip for decoration. Through out the movie we learn of important discoveries archeologists made over the years. They showed great emphasis on the more general topics like the types of cotton clothing the men and women wore, the pole and thatch houses they built on platforms for shelter, the corn, beans, and squash they grew to feed a population of around 2 million people. Then they start to branch off into very different peoples. The information given in the film is important to our knowledge of their views and beliefs, while the information in the book lets us know how they actually lived their lives. The book however has a different opinion of what happened to the Mayans. Both go into detail of the importance of the Mayan writing; the most advanced hieroglyphic writing in the Americas, the obsession with numbers and the stars, and the mathematical genius behind their calendar and pyramids. The Mayan civilization provided a structure for later cultures that would derive from Middle America. By the end of the movie you get a very eerie feeling about the Mayans. All the talk of the blood, gore, mutilation and sacrifice gives you a totally different view of the Mayans, than the original depiction of the Mayans you had at the beginning.
Common topics in this essay:
Toltec's Conners,
Giles Healy,
Greeks Egyptians,
,
mayan civilization,
AD Scholars,
Longman Maya,
Middle America,
mayan writing,
movie goes,
mayan culture,
human venture,
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