1. Political Organization
Maya Social and
Political Organization
Government

4. Lord was considered a god-king Responsible for political leadership
Lords mostly men, but women had great influence on political decisions

5. King and Queen expected to sacrifice blood

6. Nobles Lived near ceremonial centers and helped lords run cities
Gathered taxes, supplies, and labor for construction projects
Served as war captains who led peasant armies during war

7. Priests
Were powerful because they maintained favor with the gods

8. Led religious rituals, calculated positions of stars, and treated the sick

9. Practiced human sacrifice on a limited scale

11. Mayan priests at temple

12. Merchants/Artisans
Merchants traded salt, cotton, fish, and animal skins for obsidian, jade, quetzal feathers, copal, and cocoa beans over long distances

13. Artisans produced sculptures, codices, and murals to pay tribute to gods

17. Peasants Men worked in fields; women manged household
Rewarded for their loyalty by being allowed to attend royal marriages and important religious ceremonies

18. Slaves Recruited from surplus children, war prisoners, and criminals
Required to do difficult or undesirable tasks like grinding maize
Not badly treated, but sometimes were killed and buried with master

19. Economics

20. Specialization of labor
Jade craftsmen
Development of forms of economic exchange
Imported jade and obsidian
exported small jade, basalt, and ceramic works of art

21. Specialization Astronomers Mathematicians Warriors
Architects and sculptors
Potters
Tool manufacturers
Textile makers

22. Mayan symbol for movement
Economic Exchange
Mayan symbol for movement

23. Economic Exchange
Traveling merchants served not just as traders but also as ambassadors to neighboring lands and allied people
Traded mainly in exotic and luxury goods such as rare animal skins, cacao beans, and finely crafted works of art which rulers coveted as signs of special status
Cacao used as money

24. Map of Mayan Trade

25. History

26. Earliest known ceremonial centers around 1200 B.C.
Olmec” was not what the people called themselves
It means “rubber people” and comes from the rubber trees that flourish in the region

27. Olmec Head at La Venta

28. By about 400 B.C., Olmec society had fallen on hard times and other societies soon took over

29. Mayans Began to develop around 300 A.D.
Known as “The People of the Jaguar”
Lived in what is now southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador

30. Olmec Influence on the Mayans
Maize
Ceremonial centers with temple pyramids
Calendar based on the Olmec one
Ball games
Rituals involving human sacrifice

31. Cities: Tikal
From about 300 to 900, the Maya built more than eight large ceremonial centers
All had pyramids, palaces, and temples
Some of the larger ones attracted dense populations and evolved into genuine cities
The most important was Tikal
Small city-kingdoms served as the means of Mayan political organization

32. Cities: Tikal
Tikal was the most important Mayan political center between the 4th and 9th Centuries ( AD)
Reached its peak between 600 and 800 with a population of nearly 40,000
The Temple of the Jaguar dominated the skyline and represented Tikal’s control over the surrounding region which had a population of about 500,000

33. Tikal: Temple of the Jaguar
154 feet high
Served as funerary pyramid for Lord Cacao, Maya ruler of the late 6th and early 7th centuries