Maya: Everyday Life
This was the name of the ball game played by the ancient Maya, considered a religious practice in which a rubber ball that players had to get through a stone hoop using only their hips, elbows, or knees.
What is Pok-a-Tok
These were the 5 modern day countries where the Maya civilization was located
What is Belize, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala?
What came first? The Maya or the Inca?
What is the Maya?
This is the name of the caste in which a person is of mixed Spanish and indiginous origin.
What is a Mestizo?
This was role did Spanish missionaries play in the destruction of Maya culture and heritage during colonization?
What is Spanish missionaries played a key role in destroying Maya culture by burning their sacred books, replacing their religious practices with Christianity, and forcing them to abandon their traditional ways of life.
This was the purpose of a temazcal.
What is a steam bath that Mayas used everyday as part of their personal hygiene care.
This was the name of the peninsula where most of the Mayan cities were located.
What is the Yucatán Peninsula.
Unlike the Incan Empire, which were ruled by a single ruler or Sappa Inca, the Maya city states were ruled by this king (need the Maya title)
What is a halach uinic?
This was another name for the Guatemalan Civil War (1960-1996) that saw the mass genocide of indigenous Mayas living in Guatemala.
What is the Silent Holocaust.
What was the 1932 uprising in El Salvador, and how was it connected to indigenous people?
This event in 1932 saw a large indigenous and peasant uprising in El Salvador, sparked by economic struggles and demands for land, which was met with a brutal military response, resulting in the massacre of thousands of indigenous people.
This was the clothes Mayan men and women wore (think commoners).
This was the way Mayans in the dry forests of the northern lowlands received water.
What is the Mayans utilized cenotes, a natural sinkhole or deep water-filled hole formed when the roof of an underground cave collapses, creating a pool of fresh water.
Similar to the Inca, the Maya had this type of government, in which the rulers were both the political and religious leaders.
What is a theocratic monarchy?
These were the two reasons it was so difficult for the Spanish to conquer the Maya Empire.
What is decentralized leadership (100 city-states = 100 kings) that prevented the Spanish from leveraging captured kings. Also the Maya used a new form of warfare the Spanish had never been exposed to, using hit-and-run tactics
What tools and methods did the Maya astronomers use to observe and track celestial events?
What is the Maya employed observation tubes (early telescopes), observatories, shadow-casting devices, and aligned ceremonial buildings to track celestial bodies and events like the movement of Venus and solar eclipses.
This was the technique that the Mayas used to clear new farmland to grow maize.
What is the slash-and-burn technique.
This is the difference between the Dry Forest and Moist Forest in the Yucatan.
What is the Yucatán's Dry Forest has a long dry season with intense rain over a short period, while the Moist Forest gets rain all year, is much wetter, and has taller, denser trees.
This is the term for the worship of many gods. Both the Inca and the Maya worshiped many gods.
What is polytheism.
How did the Mayas continue to resist even today?
What is by fighting to maintain their language, culture, and customs despite the Spanish and oppressive national governments trying to erase their legacy.
By how much were the Maya's calculations of the lunar month off from the modern value?
What is 40 seconds
This was the name of the Maya king of Palenque who ruled for 68 years.
Who is King Pakal
This is the name of the soft, porous rock of the Yucatan that makes it difficult to grow crops. Also the type of rock Mayas used to build their roads and houses.
What is limestone?
The Inca used quipu to communicate but the Mayans used this system of communication.
What is the Maya used hieroglyphics.
This was the name of the war (1847-1901) in the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, where Maya people revolted against the Hispanic Yucatecos, driven by grievances over land, taxes, and cultural dominance, resulting in a long and bloody war.
What is Caste War of Yucatán.
What was the purpose of aligning the Temple of Pacal in Palenque with the sun’s path during the winter solstice?
The Maya used the alignment of buildings, like the Temple of Pacal, to connect the king to the gods by aligning the temple with the sun's path, making it appear as though sunlight descended into the king's tomb during the winter solstice.