ANT3145+Assignments

Hello all!
 * Assignment 3**: Introduction of Self

I am an Anthropology major with two minors in Asian and Latin American Area Studies. I plan on doing archaeology and ethnography in the future and have a particular interest in Maya civilization and Asian Culture. I will be doing my wiki on an interesting topic of Maya religious beliefs which will touch on both ancient and modern use.


 * Assignment 4**: Relevant website

This is a site which provides fast facts on the Maya religion. [] **Assignment 5**: Image Module 5 Image AssignmentThe image that I found is a replica of the San Bartolo Maya Mural. This Mural is one of the oldest Maya murals ever found, probably dating back to 100 A.D. This mural appears to depict Maya mythology with the gods and goddesses in some kind of ceremony. This image was taken from someone who visited the Peabody Museum at Harvard and took the photo. For more description on the image please visit the Harvard University Gazette Archives at: []



[] **Assignment 6**: History Tab

This link takes you to the edit history from a wiki page on Maya religion:

[] **Assignment 7**: Introduction of Topic The Maya are a native Mesoamerican people who developed one of the most sophisticated cultures in the Western Hemisphere before the arrival of the Spanish. My wiki will focus on the religious beliefs of the Maya people. It will do this by taking a look into the traditional aspects outlining their worship of nature gods, rituals practices such as human sacrifice, and religious symbolism. I will also take a look into some aspects of Maya religion that survive today among the Maya Indians of Mexico and Central America, who practice a combination of traditional religion and Roman Catholicism. **Assignment 8**: Using JSTOR database This is the first sentence of the article from the JSTOR database: Kerma: The Rise of an African Civilization: The floodplains along the Nile constitute an important but as yet little utilized series of laboratories for the comparative study of the origins and interaction of ancient civilizations.

The Meaning of Maya Myths Aleksandar Bošković
 * Assignment 9**: Finding good sources

Anthropos Bd. 84, H. 1./3. (1989), pp. 203-212 Published by: __ [|Anthropos Institute] __ Article Stable URL: []
 * Assignment 10/11 **: Coherent Section

**Maya Religious Practices**



**Blood Letting** The act of bloodletting is a process of ritualized self-cutting or piercing of an individual’s body to release blood. It was an ancient ritual used by many Mesoamerican societies, in particular the Maya, which served a number of ideological and cultural functions. Bloodletting was used as a tool to legitimize the ruling lineage’s sociopolitical position and it was also used as a way to communicate with the gods and royal ancestors. During bloodletting rituals the piercing of body parts involved the use of sharp objects such as stingray spines, obsidian blades, carved bones, perforators, and knotted ropes. Equipment also included bark paper and copal incense. Bark paper was used to collect the blood and then burnt with copal to provoke smoke. Blood was then collected in recepticals made out of ceramic or basketry.



This evidence of bloodletting rituals (above) comes from the Maya site of Yaxchilan, [|lintel 24] within structure 23.The scene depicts a royal woman, [|Lady Xoc], drawing a barbed rope through her tongue. In front of her, her husband and the ruler of Yaxchilan, [|Shield Jaguar], is shown holding a torch. This was done to provoke a serpent vision during the throne accession ceremony of her husband.

** Assignment 12 **: Google Earth File [] This link is a google earth file that allows us to see all the Maya sites in our Google Earth client. The file contains five layers of data, corresponding to five different sizes of Maya settlements, with 1 being the largest and 5 being the smallest.
 * Assignment 13 ** : Published article relevant to topic

Joralemon, David. (1974). Ritual blood-sacrifice among the Ancient Maya: Part I. Yale University. //Primera Mesa Redonda de Palenque////, 59//-75. Retrieved from [] The information in this article is about ritual blood sacrifice among the Ancient Maya. The offering of human blood to the gods and other supernatural beings was very important to the Maya in their religious life. This essay took particular attention on the ritual self mutilation side of sacrifice. The Maya practiced the ceremonial drawing of blood from the male genital organ but it didn’t end there. Self mutilation was not just through the puncturing of the genitals but ritual cutting of other body parts as well. When students study ancient Mexican religion, a lot of the references they have to draw upon come from the blood letting in Maya art. This art almost always depicts a stingray spine, which symbolizes the king’s role in securing the fertility of the earth and thus guarantees an abundance of crops. So ritual blood sacrifice among the Ancient Maya is something very sacred and through art gives researchers a step closer to understanding its true significance. ** Assignment 14 **: Published article relevant to topic

 (2003). Daily Life. AM Home. // Media.Wiley.Com, 7 // -16. Retrieved from []

The information in this article is about the daily life of the Maya. Topics discussed were on the construction of the Maya home, marriage arrangements, celebrations and festivals, religion, types of labor, and clothing. I focused more on celebrations and religion. For the ancient Maya, important events to celebrate included a birth to the throne, a new ruler taking the throne, a dedication of a temple, a change in season, and the start of a new moon. In the religion section it talked mostly of the different types of Maya gods, death and bloodletting rituals to ensure good fortune with the gods, and information on the sacred book of the Popol Vuh.