DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.67683#0571
EARLIEST TIMES TO SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 389
This tribe occupied the lowlands of Central America, chiefly
what is now Yucatan and Guatemala. In the early centuries of
the Christian era the Maya were there, a primitive people at a
stage of civilization that presupposes a development of centuries.
Their first great climax came between 300 and 600 a.d. at such
centers as Copan, Palenque, and Quirigua. After a period of civil
war, of decadence, and shift of habitation to northern Yucatan,
a second climax was reached between about 1000 and 12.00 a.d.,
with Chichen Itza and Uxmal as influential centers. Though
the Maya were an agricultural people, all the activities of life
were dominated by religion. The government was in fact a
theocracy and the cities were great centers where gorgeous cere-
Fig. 108. Mayan Gods. From a manuscript in Dresden. The Long-Nosed
God of Rain, the Death God, and the Sun God. (Spinden)
monies and the display of magic power overawed the people.
The gods such as the sun god, the wind god, the maize god, and
the death god (Fig. 108), personified the processes of nature.
Some of these gods represented the powers of evil and some the
powers of good. They were constantly at war with each other,
and the power of good, at times, unless supported by other powers
of good, might fall a victim to some evil power like that of
death. In form these gods combined human, bird, and animal
features. A very important deity, Kukulkan, for example, called
Quetzalcoatl by the Aztecs, was a combination of the quetzal,
a plumed bird, with the serpent, the coati. In his bird mani-
festation he appeared to typify the winds and thus had to do
with the sky and the four directions; while in his serpent mani-
festation he was connected with water and rain. Sometimes he
This tribe occupied the lowlands of Central America, chiefly
what is now Yucatan and Guatemala. In the early centuries of
the Christian era the Maya were there, a primitive people at a
stage of civilization that presupposes a development of centuries.
Their first great climax came between 300 and 600 a.d. at such
centers as Copan, Palenque, and Quirigua. After a period of civil
war, of decadence, and shift of habitation to northern Yucatan,
a second climax was reached between about 1000 and 12.00 a.d.,
with Chichen Itza and Uxmal as influential centers. Though
the Maya were an agricultural people, all the activities of life
were dominated by religion. The government was in fact a
theocracy and the cities were great centers where gorgeous cere-
Fig. 108. Mayan Gods. From a manuscript in Dresden. The Long-Nosed
God of Rain, the Death God, and the Sun God. (Spinden)
monies and the display of magic power overawed the people.
The gods such as the sun god, the wind god, the maize god, and
the death god (Fig. 108), personified the processes of nature.
Some of these gods represented the powers of evil and some the
powers of good. They were constantly at war with each other,
and the power of good, at times, unless supported by other powers
of good, might fall a victim to some evil power like that of
death. In form these gods combined human, bird, and animal
features. A very important deity, Kukulkan, for example, called
Quetzalcoatl by the Aztecs, was a combination of the quetzal,
a plumed bird, with the serpent, the coati. In his bird mani-
festation he appeared to typify the winds and thus had to do
with the sky and the four directions; while in his serpent mani-
festation he was connected with water and rain. Sometimes he