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In the 21st century 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 are of Maya origins, hold ancient Maya surnames, and do not speak Mayan languages as their first language.
The Maya made paper from the inner bark of a certain wild fig tree, Ficus cotinifolia. [1] [2] This sort of paper was generally known by the word huun in Mayan languages (the Aztec people far to the north used the word āmatl [ˈaːmat͡ɬ] for paper). The Maya developed their huun-paper around the 5th century. [3]
The Maya recorded their history and ritual knowledge in screenfold books, of which only three uncontested examples remain, the rest having been destroyed by the Spanish. In addition, a great many examples of Maya texts can be found on stelae and ceramics.
This is a list of deities playing a role in the Classic (200–1000 CE), Post-Classic (1000–1539 CE) and Contact Period (1511–1697) of Maya religion. The names are mainly taken from the books of Chilam Balam, Lacandon ethnography, the Madrid Codex , the work of Diego de Landa , and the Popol Vuh .
The [Book of the] Songs of Dzitbalché (Spanish: [El libro de] los cantares de Dzitbalché), originally titled The Book of the Dances of the Ancients, is a Mayan book containing poetry. It is the source of almost all the ancient Mayan lyric poems that have survived, and is closely connected to the Books of Chilam Balam which are sacred books of ...
The oldest surviving written account of Popol Vuh (ms c. 1701 by Francisco Ximénez, O.P.). Popol Vuh (also Popul Vuh or Pop Vuj) [1] [2] is a text recounting the mythology and history of the Kʼicheʼ people of Guatemala, one of the Maya peoples who also inhabit the Mexican states of Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo, as well as areas of Belize, Honduras and El Salvador.
The writings of 16th-century Bishop Diego de Landa, who had infamously burned a large number of Maya books, contain many details of Maya culture, including their beliefs and religious practices, calendar, aspects of their hieroglyphic writing, and oral history. [115]
Ancient Maya placed a high value on certain extreme body modifications, often undergoing tedious and painful procedures as a rite of passage, an homage to their gods, and as a permanently visible status symbol of their place in society that would last a lifetime, and into their afterlife. Therefore, there was aesthetic, religious, and social ...