Maya

Culture

Beliefs/Traditions

“The overarching term ‘Maya’ is a convenient collective designation to include the peoples of the region who share some degree of cultural and linguistic heritage; however, the term embraces many distinct populations, societies, and ethnic groups, who each have their own particular traditions, cultures, and historical identity.” It is important to know that while there is a shared identity among the Mayan sub-groups and language families, the majority of Mayan people identify with a particular ethnic group above anything else. As such, when working with a Maya family, find out more about their particular ethnic group from both their perspective and any outside research you are able to do.

Learn more about the Maya

The Maya have preserved many aspects of their ancient culture, including their traditional clothing, folklore, agricultural techniques, family structure, language, and dance. Many elements of their ancient religions have also survived for centuries under the guise of Catholic religious observances. With that said, daily life in Maya regions varies by groups and individuals, with some Maya living a more modern way of life, and some living a more traditional, “culturally distinct” way of life. For the latter especially, the Mayan language still remains the primary one spoken. Those that do remain true to the traditional Maya lifestyle typically reside in mud-brick and adobe homes and participate in the some of the same agricultural activities as their ancestors. Education is steeped in the history of the Maya people and the language. Traditional ceremonies are also still performed, such as Day of the Dead.

Family Life

“In the Maya culture, couples generally marry in their late teens or early twenties. Traditionally, all marriages were arranged, but since the 1950s it has become increasingly common among some groups for young people to choose their own mates. In arranged marriages, contact may be initiated by the couple, followed by negotiation between the two families. Gifts are generally exchanged, and in some cases the bride's parents receive a payment to compensate them for having raised her. Couples often have both civil and religious ceremonies, and they may live with the groom's parents until their first child is born”.

Social Problems

“The Maya of Yucatán, like many other Mexicans, suffer from overpopulation, unemployment, and periods of political unrest. In Guatemala, Mayan farmers have been crowded onto mountainous areas with poor land, and laborers must work for extremely low wages. The most serious problem for the Maya in that country has been over two decades of violent political repression by the military and right-and left-wing death squads. Thousands have been murdered or “disappeared,” and many have fled the country for Mexico or the United States”.

“The health of the Tzotzil and Tzeltal Maya of Chiapas has been compromised by their inadequate diet, which consists of fewer than 500 calories a day—one-fifth of the minimum standard set by the United Nations. Life expectancy is only forty-four years, and the infant mortality rate is 150 deaths per 1,000 live births”.

Religion

While traditional Maya religion centered around calendric and temple ritual practices, current Maya religion is mostly governed by Roman Catholicism, although some aspects of the traditional religion has survived. For example, nature and spirits still play a large role in religious events, and main players in the Catholic religion, such as the Trinity and Mary, have “merged with traditional deities and ancestral heroes.”

“In line with this, most holidays currently observed by the Maya are the holy days of the Christian calendar. Many of their observances, however, still have characteristics of the traditional nature worship of their ancestors. The most important celebrations are generally Holy Week (the week leading up to Easter in late March or early April) and Christmas (December 25). The Maya living in the Chamula region of Chiapas are known for their five-day Carnival celebration, called Crazy February, whose Christian significance (the period preceding Lent) coincides with the older observance of the five “Lost Days” at the end of the Maya solar calendar. Religious societies called cargos sponsor the festivities, which include ceremonial dances, feasting, processions, and ritual reenactments of both religious and historic events”.

“With all that said, since the 1960s, evangelical Christianity, mostly promoted by churches in the southern United States, has been adopted by large segments of the Mayan population. Entire towns have embraced conservative forms of Protestantism, which have not proven as amenable as Catholicism to the retention of customs related to traditional folk religions, such as the use of alcohol in association with religious rituals or the retention of the sacred brotherhoods—known as cofradias in Guatemala and as cargos in Chiapas—which traditionally oversee village festivals and other aspects of civic life”.

Despite this, many traditional rituals are still celebrated today. Some typical rituals include:

• Celebrating the 365-day year, especially the “so-called 'Year Bearers,’” 4 days of the year that allow for new year’s celebrations

• Stage of life/life cycle (rites of passage)

• Curing rituals (shamanistic)

• Agricultural rites

• Daykeepers (divinatory priests) may pray to the former 260 day Maya calendar, which corresponded with the typically length of human gestation and still today provides guidance for life, including baby names, wedding dates, etc.

In traditional Maya mythology common themes include:

• World Creation

• Creation of Mankind

• Actions of Heroes

• Marriage with the earth (humans interaction with nature)

• Origin of Sun and Moon

• Origin of many natural and cultural phenomena

Health/Wellbeing

Traditional Maya believe that each person has various souls, often described as “'shadow', 'breath', 'blood', and 'bone’.” Loss of a soul leads to disease, called “soul loss” or “susto”. In addition, traditional Maya believe in 'co-essences,’ which are animals or other natural phenomena (comets, lightnings) linked to the individual and protection of the individual.

Maya folk medicine also includes the ministrations of ritual healers called curanderos and female herbalists who may double as midwives. Common cures include prayers, offerings, herbal remedies, and sweat-baths.

Math/Science

The Maya culture has typically centered around arithmetic and calendric cycles, and often has integrated these two things with religion.

• With regards to mathematics, the Maya people used a base 20 system (in the US we use a base 10), and simplified math by developing the abstract idea of zero.

• The Maya are known for astronomical/astrological findings, and were far ahead of counterparts in Europe in terms of developing an highly accurate calendar based on a 365-day year. Unfortunately, the focus on astronomy/astrology has diminished over the years, and typically only names of stars and constellations are all that have survived.

Art and Architecture

The Mayan civilization has a long-standing place in the art and architecture worlds, with many ruins and artifacts remaining as examples of the Maya culture, in particular religion, politics, and rituals.

Art

Maya art is known for its ceramics, sculpture and painting, although more is known about the first two as they have survived climate, turmoil and change much better than traditional paintings.

• Ceramics: Typically, ceramics were seen as a “social currency” for the Maya people, and were given as gifts during ceremonial events. Ceramics were generally done with a fresco technique and depicted a wide range of realistic-looking scenes ranging from politics and religion, to daily life.

• Sculpture: One of the most common sculpture forms from the Maya culture was called stelae, which were essentially stone slabs that depicting rulers of a particular city via carvings and hieroglyphic texts. Lintels, which are stone carvings set in doorways and walls of buildings, and alters were also common forms of sculpture. Jade was a popular material for many Maya art forms.

• Other: “Traditional art forms have mainly survived in weaving and the design of peasant houses.”

Architecture

Nature played an important role in Maya architecture, including developing cities around astrological landmarks. A typical city layout consisted of government and religious buildings at the center and secondary buildings on the outskirts. Pyramids, which were created as a tribute to deities, are a common form of Maya architecture that still remain today. Today, researchers use the pyramid ruins to better understand the evolution of Maya civilization.

Agriculture

Many forms of traditional agriculture are still practiced in contemporary Maya civilization, although they are “dynamic systems” and continue to evolve based on societal changes, such as population, economy, climate, and availability of more sophisticated agricultural materials.

Sports

Historically, the Maya people played a sport similar to racquetball or volleyball, and kept the ball in play by using their hips. Today, a similar game called ulama is still played by some indigenous Maya people using a rubber ball, which leaves “perpetual” bruises. In many regions though, the game was lost when Catholicism made an appearance in the 1500’s due to its history with traditional religion and ritual aspects, including human sacrifice. As with many other aspects of traditional Maya culture, the cosmic order of the universe played a major role in the original game with the ball representing the sun, and the game representing a battle between day/night or life/underworld. Fertility was also a theme, and the game’s many facets represented different aspects of life.

Education

Note: Accessibility to formal education varies according to which country a person resides in. For country specific information, please refer to the country page, or www.wikipedia.org

Accessibility to formal education varies according to which country a person resides in. In the Mayan families, oral tradition is a primary form of non-formal education that passes down the values and history of the Mayan community. Emphasis is placed upon familial education, socialization, and non-formal education, with productivity, discipline and determination ranked as highly important. Working skills are one of the most valuable abilities a child must learn. These skills vary depending on the child’s gender, with females learning household tasks, bringing up children, tending to the animals, and craftwork. Males are taught to work the land, paid employment, and some child rearing tasks. By the age of 15, it is expected that the children carry out their expected tasks independently.

When families were asked about their expectations of school for their children, they do not make strong demands. Families believe the advantage of formal education is that their children will learn to speak, read and write in Spanish, as well as other skills such as math. Parents may be reluctant to send their children to school, as they may waste time playing with other children, and being exposed to poor influences, rather than spending all of their time in school learning.

Perceptions of Disabilities

Disability is viewed as a punishment from God for many Mayan people. People with disabilities often do not have access to services, have few human rights, and may face a great deal of discrimination. Families often hide their family members with disabilities, or overprotect them for fear of what other people will say about their disabled family member. Because of this, there is little information on the number of people with disabilities in Mayan culture.

US Based Mayan Population

Unfortunately, there is very little information on Maya language speakers in Oregon. However, there are some details on the prevalence of this population in the United States:

• “Between 1989 and 2000, there was a significant migration of Mayans to the US. According to a study conducted in 2004 by the Guatemala Office of the International Organization of Migration (IOM), there are 139,702 Mayan-speaking immigrants in the US.” (Dardon, 2005).33)

• “There are especially large and cohesive Guatemalan Maya groups residing in various communities in Florida, Texas, Rhode Island, and California, and dispersed throughout the 50 states and Canada.”

• "In some areas of the United States, Maya do not emphasize their indigenous identity as strongly as they do their Guatemalan nationality…Maya elders in Guatemalan home communities worry that migration to the United States has made the Maya forget who they are…Though some argue that the Maya are losing their culture by adopting non-indigenous ways, others point out that the Maya are adaptive and resilient and have centuries of experience reworking Maya identities in light of dominating and intrusive cultures."

Implications for the SLP

• This has provided a general outline about the language structure and cultural aspects of the Mayan language. It is important to know that while there is a shared identity among the Mayan sub-groups and language families, the majority of Mayan people identify with a particular ethnic group above anything else. As such, when working with a Maya family, find out more about their particular ethnic group from both their perspective and any outside research you are able to do.

• Topics such as healthcare and education vary more by country of origin versus specific Mayan language. As such, it is recommended that you visit the web page on this site for a family's home country to learn more about these areas.

• It is important to be mindful when approaching a Maya family about the topic of disability as it differs quite significantly from US culture. Because disability is thought of as loss of the soul and/or punishment by the Maya gods, families may not be as willing or forthcoming when speaking about it with you.

• Many Maya families from Guatemala moved to the area due to political unrest. Keep in mind that this may be a difficult topic of discussion.

• Oral tradition is a primary form of non-formal education for Maya families, with emphasis placed on familial education. Parents may be reluctant to send their children to school, as they may waste time playing with other children, and being exposed to poor influences, rather than spending all of their time in school learning.