Maya peoples

Maya
Sololá market.jpg
Total population
7 million [1]
Regions with significant populations
Parts of modern-day countries of El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras
Languages

Mayan languages, Spanish, Kriol and English
Religion

Christianity (predominantly Roman Catholic), Maya religion

The Maya peoples constitute a diverse range of the Native American people of southern Mexico and northern Central America. 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.

There are an estimated 7 million Maya living in this area at the start of the 21st century.[1] Ethnic Maya of Guatemala, southern Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula, Belize, El Salvador, and western Honduras have managed to maintain substantial remnants of their ancient cultural heritage. Some are quite integrated into the modern cultures of the nations in which they reside, while others continue a more traditional culturally distinct life, often speaking one of the Mayan languages as a primary language.

The largest populations of contemporary Maya inhabit Guatemala, Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador, as well as large segments of population within the Mexican states of Yucatán, Campeche, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, and Chiapas.

Contents

Yucatán Peninsula

The largest group of modern Maya can be found on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. They commonly identify themselves simply as "Maya" with no further ethnic subdivision (unlike in the Highlands of Western Guatemala), and speak the language which anthropologists term "Yucatec Maya", but is identified by speakers and Yucatecos simply as "Maya". Among Maya speakers Spanish is commonly spoken as a second or first language.

The Yucatán's indigenous population was first exposed to Europeans after a party of Spanish shipwreck survivors came ashore in 1511. One of the sailors, Gonzalo Guerrero, is reported to have started a family and taken up a position of counsel among a local polity near present-day Chetumal. Later Spanish expeditions to the region (Córdoba in 1517, Grijalva in 1518 and Cortés in 1519). The failed attempts by Francisco Montejo were again repeated when Francisco de Montejo the Younger, who was desperately holding out at the Chichen Itza, lost 150 men in a single day.[2] European diseases, massive recruitments of native warriors from Campeche and Champoton, and internal hatred between the Xiu Maya and the lords of Cocom eventually turned the tide for Montejo the Younger and consequently resulted in the fall of the Chichen Itza by 1570.[2]

Historically, the population in the eastern half of the peninsula was less affected by and less integrated with Hispanic culture than those of the western half. Today in the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexican States of Campeche, Yucatán and Quintana Roo) between 750,000 and 1,200,000 people speak Mayan. However three times more than that do not speak their native language but are from Maya origins and hold ancient Maya last names, such as Ak, Can, Chan, Be, Cantun, Canche, Chi, Chuc, Coyoc, Dzib, Dzul, Ehuan, Hoil, Hau, May, Tamay, Ucan, Pool, Zapo, etc..

Matthew Restall, in his book The Maya Conquistador,[3] mentions a series of letters sent to the King of Spain in the 16th and 17th Centuries. The noble Maya Families at that time signed documents to the Spanish Royal Family; surnames mentioned in those letters are Pech, Camal, Xiu, Ucan, Canul, Cocom, and Tun, among others.

A large 19th century revolt by the native Maya people of Yucatán (Mexico), known as the Caste War of Yucatán, was one of the most successful modern Native American revolts[4]; results included the temporary existence of the Maya state of Chan Santa Cruz, recognized as an independent nation by the British Empire.

In Yucatan, Francisco Luna-Kan was elected governor of the state of Yucatán from 1976 to 1982. Luna-Kan was born in Mérida, Yucatán, and he was a Doctor of medicine, then a Professor of Medicine before his political offices, his first being overseer of the state's rural medical system. He was the first Governor of in the modern Yucatan Peninsula, from a full Maya background. Currently there are dozens of politicians from Deputies, Majors to Senators from a full or mix Maya heritage from the Yucatan Peninsula.

According to the National Institute of Geography and Informatics (Mexico’s INEGI) in Yucatan State there are 1.2 million of Mayan speakers on 2009, representing the 59.5% of the inhabitants[5]. Because of this, the cultural section of the government of Yucatan, began to give on-line classes for grammar and proper pronunciation of Mayan[6].

Mayan Peoples from Yucatan Peninsula living in the United States of America, have been organizing Mayan lessons and Mayan cooking classes since 2003 in California and other states, clubs of Yucatec Mayan[7] are registered in Dallas and Irving, Texas, Salt Lake City in Utah; Las Vegas, Nevada and California State with groups in San Francisco, San Rafael, Chino, Pasadena, Santa Ana, Garden Grove, Inglewood, Los Angeles, Thousand Oaks, Oxnard, San Fernando Valley and Whittier[7].

Chiapas

Mayan populations in Chiapas. The area officially assigned to the Lacandon Community is the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve, which partly overlaps with the Tzeltal, Tojolabal and Ch'ol areas

Chiapas was for many years one of the regions of Mexico that were least touched by the reforms of the Mexican Revolution. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation, which launched a rebellion against the Mexican state in Chiapas in January 1994, declared itself to be an indigenous movement and drew its strongest and earliest support from Chiapan Maya, a number of whom still support it today. (see also the EZLN and the Chiapas conflict)

Maya groups in Chiapas include the Tzotzil and Tzeltal, in the highlands of the state, the Tojolabales, concentrated in the lowlands around Las Margaritas, and the Ch'ol in the jungle. (see map)

The most traditional of Maya groups are the Lacandon, a small population avoiding contact with outsiders until the late 20th century by living in small groups in the Lacandon Jungle. These Lacandon Maya came from the Campeche/Petén area (north-east of Chiapas) and moved into the Lacandon rainforest at the end of the 18th century, 1000 years after the ancient (Pre-Columbian) Maya civilization had disappeared (around 850 A.D).

In the course of the 20th century, and increasingly in the 1950s and 1960s, other people (mainly Mayan Indians and subsistence peasants from the highlands), also entered into the Lacandon region; initially encouraged by the government. This immigration led to land-related conflicts and an increasing pressure on the rainforest. To halt the migration the government decided in 1971 to declare a large part of the forest (614,000 hectares, or 6140 km2) a protected area: the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve. They appointed only one small population group (the 66 Lacandon Indian families) as tenants (thus creating the Lacandon Community), thereby displacing 2000 Tzeltal and Ch'ol families from 26 communities, and leaving non-Lacandon communities dependent on the government for granting their rights to land. In the decades that followed the government carried out numerous programs to keep the problems in the region under control, using land distribution as a political tool; as a way of ensuring loyalty from different campesino groups. This strategy of divide and rule led to great disaffection and tensions among population groups in the region.
(see also the Chiapas conflict and the Lacandon Jungle).

Belize

Section of stucco frieze with a prominent human face in the centre, surrounded by elaborate decoration.
Maya civilization
People · Languages · Society
Religion · Mythology · Sacrifice
Architecture · Calendar
Stelae · Textiles · Trade
Pre-Columbian Music · Writing
History
Classic Maya collapse
Spanish conquest of Yucatán

The Maya population in Belize is concentrated in the Cayo, Toledo districts and Orange Walk district, but they are scattered throughout the country. They are divided into the Yucatec, Kekchi, and Mopan.

Tabasco

The Mexican state of Tabasco is home to the Chontal Maya.

Guatemala

In Guatemala, the largest and most traditional Maya populations are in the western highlands. The departments of Baja Verapaz, Quiché, Totonicapan, Huehuetenango, Quetzaltenango, and San Marcos are majority Maya.[8]

In Guatemala the Spanish colonial pattern of keeping the native population legally separate and subservient continued well into the 20th century. This resulted in many traditional customs being retained, as the only other option than traditional Maya life open to most Maya was entering the Hispanic culture at the very bottom rung.

Considerable identification with local and linguistic affinities, often corresponding to pre-Columbian nation states, continues, and many people wear traditional clothing that displays their specific local identity. Clothing of women tends to be more traditional than that of the men, as the men have more interaction with the Hispanic commerce and culture.

Maya peoples of the Guatemala highlands include the Achi, Akatek, Chuj, Ixil, Jakaltek, Kaqchikel, K'iche', Mam, Poqomam, Poqomchi', Q'anjob'al, Q'eqchi', Tz'utujil and Uspantek.

The southeastern region of Guatemala (bordering with Honduras) includes groups such as the Ch'orti'. The northern lowland Petén region includes the Itza.

List of Leaders and Notable Mayan Peoples

Quotes

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 http://www.friendsofmayainc.org/english/neworganization.html
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Clendinnen, Inga; Ambivalent Conquests: Maya and Spaniard in Yucatán, 1517-1570. (pg 34) ISBN 0521379814
  3. ↑ Matthew Restall. Maya Conquistador. Boston, Mass.: Beacon. 1998. Pp. xvi, 254.
  4. ↑ The Caste War of Yucatan: Revised Edition, By Nelson Reed, Published by Stanford University Press, 2002 ISBN 0804740011, 9780804740012, 448 pages
  5. ↑ http://www.el-universal.com.mx/articulos/52903.html
  6. ↑ http://www.indemaya.gob.mx/
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 http://www.yucatecos.org/home.html
  8. ↑ http://www.inforpressca.com/municipal/mapas_web/guatemala.php
  9. ↑ Quote taken from an interview with her by a representative of a Central American human rights organization (Riis-Hansen 1992). Menchú gave this interview shortly before she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

References

Chiappari, Christopher L. (2002). "Toward a Maya Theology of Liberation: The Reformulation of a "Traditional" Religion in the Global Context". Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 41 (1): 47–67. doi:10.1111/1468-5906.00099. 
Grube, Nikolai (2006). "Maya Today - From Indios Deprived of Rights to the Maya Movement". In Nikolai Grube (Ed.). Maya: Divine Kings of the Rain Forest. Eva Eggebrecht and Matthias Seidel (assistant Eds.). Cologne: Könemann Press. pp. 417–425. ISBN 3-8331-1957-8. OCLC 71165439. 
Mooney, James  "Maya Indians". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. 
Restall, Matthew (1997). The Maya World. Yucatecan Culture and Society, 1550-1850. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804736589.
Riis-Hansen, Anders (1992). "Interview with Rigoberta Menchu Tum". Commission for the Defense of Human Rights in Central America (CODEHUCA). http://www.indigenouspeople.net/menchu2.htm. Retrieved 2006-07-03. 
Warren, Kay B. (1998). Indigenous Movements and Their Critics: Pan-Maya Activism in Guatemala. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-05882-5. 

External links