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The Maya had a great history of body modification and arguably so did the Olmec and other major groups. [1] Indeed, ritual practices that included many forms of body modification is key in the list of tenets that are cultural traits shared that make Mesoamerica a "culture area", an idea proposed by anthropologist Paul Kirchhoff. [2]
To the ancient Maya, body modification was a reflection of a cultural, and individual identity. [11] Through different modifications, the body could be experienced individually, used as a symbol, or as a political statement. Beauty was also used to outwardly show and perform social and moral values. [12]
Artificial cranial deformation or modification, head flattening, or head binding is a form of body alteration in which the skull of a human being is deformed intentionally. It is done by distorting the normal growth of a child's skull by applying pressure.
Bloodletting was the ritualized practice of self-cutting or piercing of an individual's body that served a number of ideological and cultural functions within ancient Mesoamerican societies, in particular the Maya. When performed by ruling elites, the act of bloodletting was crucial to the maintenance of sociocultural and political structure.
An American student analysing publicly available data found a sprawling Mayan city with thousands of undiscovered structures, including pyramids, under a Mexican forest.. The data came from laser ...
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The Mayan calendar’s 819-day cycle has confounded scholars for decades, but recent research shows how it matches up to planetary cycles over a 45-year span. That’s a much broader view of the ...
Maya medicine concerns health and medicine among the ancient Maya civilization. It was a complex blend of mind , body, religion , ritual and science . Important to all, medicine was practiced only by a select few, who generally inherited their positions and received extensive education .