Religious+Practices+and+Change

Religious practices including changes over time Religious practices during the peak of Mayan civilization: **Ancestor Worship: ** During the peak of their civilization, the Mayans believed that there were spiritual forces present in everything. They practiced ancestor worship, with these ancestors seen as the mediators between the supernatural and their living descendents. Families would have shrines dedicated to a prominent deceased male of the family where they could offer sacrifices, usually of blood, to that individual. These ancestors could assist their descendants in predicting the future. **Shaman Rulers: ** These shrines were echoed in a larger scale by the temples in Mayan cities where the rulers would partake in public rituals to communicate with supernatural beings. Rulers would offer autosacrifice of blood, animals, and other human beings. The ruler would do this for his people in his role as a shaman, or the spiritual leader of his people. In fact, many anthropologists believe that Mayan rulership developed from shamanism.[1] These shamans would rule over their citizens, conducting similar rituals as the ones that the ordinary citizen did at his family shrine. The sacrifices that the shamans and citizens made were for divining the future, something the Mayans were fond of doing, in addition to appease the gods and seek favors from them. These sacrifices would be used to contact various beings, ranging from the numerous gods in Mayan culture or ancestors.

**Mayan Legends: ** The Mayans were a very spiritual people as they saw the divine in every aspect of their lives. Some of their major deities included Itzamnaaj, their creator deity and sun god, and the Chaaks, their rain deities.[2] The position of the sun in the sky was crucial to the Mayans, who kept track of where its relative position would be throughout the year, would use their calendar to hold the appropriate rituals at the right times to appease the gods of the sun and the rain. The movements of the sun, moon and Venus were incorporated in Mayan myth, the most well known of which is the Popol Vuh.[3] Parallels are drawn between the Hero Twins in this myth and the sun and Venus, as the twins descended to the underworld, perished, and were reborn, similar to the sun and Venus “who daily appear in the sky, disappear in the full night, and reappear in the morning.”[4]

Conquest and Beyond: **Mayans and Catholicism: ** With the arrival of the Spanish and the conquest of the Mayan people, Catholicism was introduced into Mayan society. The Mayans adopted Catholicism and practiced it alongside their traditional beliefs. After the conquest, the Mayan elite, still around even after the fall of the Mayan civilization, persisted and were part of the reason that Mayan religious traditions still exist today.[5] The Mayans have mixed the Catholicism that the Spanish brought with them with their traditional beliefs. This created a peculiar religious mixture, for example, Mayans combined their rain spirits with Catholics saints, giving these saints offerings in the hope of better farming conditions.[6] The Mayans continued to practice their traditional beliefs in private while they practiced Catholicism in the churches. Catholic priests accepted this as they passed this off as superstition and nothing more. The Spanish would organize the Mayans under their control into parishes and herd them into towns. In these towns, the Spanish constructed churches and friaries in an attempt to convert the local Mayans to Christianity.[7] This attempt failed as the Mayans continued practicing their religious traditions. That Mayans were still practicing their traditional practices is apparent as there were well-documented trials in 1562 with charges of idolatry. These charges were mainly against those who had not taken Christianity to heart such as the Mayan elite, mostly shamans. However, as the friars discovered in their investigation, those Mayans who had supposedly accepted Christianity had been practicing their traditional religious sacrifices.[8] **Talking Saints: ** Images and statues of saints were used in churches to attract the Mayans, as saints were commonly associated with animal spirits, as long as the saint’s image included an animal.[9] There were objects that were considered talking saints as the Mayans would ask these objects questions and a hidden person, posing as the saint, would answer them. This practice comes from the talking oracles of the Mayan’s past.[10]

[1] Arthur Demarest, //Ancient Maya: The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization// (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 183.

[2] __Ibid __., 179.

[3] __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Ibid __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">., 181.

[4] __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Ibid __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">., 182.

[5] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Murdo J. MacLeod and Robert Wasserstrom, ed., //Spaniards and Indians in Southeastern Mesoamerica: Essays on the History of Ethnic Relations// (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983), 25-34.

[6] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Nancy M. Farriss, //Maya Society Under Colonial Rule: The Collective Enterprise of Survival// (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), 288.

[7] __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Ibid __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">., 304.

[8] __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Ibid __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">., 291.

[9] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">John D. Early, //The Maya and Catholicism: An Encounter of Worldviews// (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2006), 202.

[10] __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Ibid __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">., 239.