THE MAYA OF CENTRAL AMERICA 19
evidence of some genuine urbanization in north-
ern Yucatán during the Postclassic period, pos-
sibly a result of Toltec infl uence and the tendency
to develop the city or town as a fortifi ed position.
Chichén Itzá, an old Classic ceremonial center, was
greatly enlarged under Toltec infl uence, whereas
Mayapan, which succeeded Chichén Itzá as a polit-
ical and military center, constituted a large urban
zone encircled by a great wall.
Awareness of the large size and density of Clas-
sic Maya populations, the intensive character of
much of their agriculture, and the strict social con-
trols that such complex conditions require has also
led to a reassessment of Maya social organization.
The older view that the ruling class was a small
theocratic elite who ruled over a dispersed peasant
population from basically empty ceremonial centers
has been abandoned. Increased ability to decipher
glyphs on the stelae (carved monuments) periodi-
cally erected at Classic Maya centers has contributed
to a better understanding of the Maya social order. It
was once believed that the content of these inscrip-
tions was exclusively religious and astronomical. In
recent decades, however, evidence has accumulated
that many of the glyphs carved on stelae, lintels,
and other monuments record accessions, wars, and
other milestones in the lives of secular rulers.
The new interpretation assumes a very com-
plex social order with a large distance between the
classes. At the apex of the social pyramid stood a
hereditary ruler who combined the political, mili-
tary, and religious leadership of the state. He was
surrounded by an aristocracy or nobility, from
which were drawn the administrative and execu-
tive bureaucracy. Intellectual specialists such as
architects, priests, and scribes may have formed
another social level. Below them were the nu-
merous artisans required for ceremonial and civil
construction: potters, sculptors, stoneworkers,
painters, and the like. At the bottom of the social
pyramid were the common laborers and peasant
farmers who supplied the labor and food that sup-
ported this massive superstructure. The weight of
their burdens must in time have become crushing,
and their discontent may have ignited revolts that
brought about the ultimate collapse of the lowland
Maya civilization.
Archaeological investigations have thrown
new light on Classic Maya family and settlement
patterns. The fact that the residential platforms on
which most Maya houses rested occur in groups of
three or more suggests that the Maya family was
extended rather than nuclear. It probably con-
sisted of two or more nuclear families spanning
two or more generations with a common ances-
tor. Male predominance is suggested by the richer
furnishings of male graves and the preeminence of
men in monumental art, leading to the conclusion
that descent was patrilineal—from father to son.
Maya dress and diet, like its housing, refl ected class
distinctions. Maya clothing was typically Meso-
american: cotton loincloths, leather sandals, and
sometimes a mantle knotted about the shoulder for
men and wraparound skirts of cotton and blouses
with holes for the head and arms for women. The
upper classes wore the same articles of clothing,
only much more ornately decorated.MAYA RELIGION AND LEARNING
The great object of Maya religion, as the Spanish
bishop Diego de Landa concisely put it, was “that
they [the gods] should give them health, life, and
sustenance.” The principal Maya divinities repre-
sented those natural forces and objects that most
directly affected the material welfare of the people.
The supreme god in the Maya pantheon was Itzam
Na, a creator god who incorporated in himself the
aspects of many other gods. He was responsible
not only for creation but for fi re, rain, crops, and
earth, as well. Other important divinities were the
sun god, the moon goddess, the rain god, the maize
god, and the much-feared god of death. The Maya
believed that a number of worlds had successively
appeared and been destroyed and that this world,
too, would end in catastrophe.
The Maya believed in an afterlife: an Upper
World that consisted of thirteen layers and an Un-
der World with nine. A certain god presided over
each layer, with the god of death, Ah Puch, reign-
ing over the lowest layer of the Under World. Like
the Aztecs and other peoples of Middle America,
the Maya worshiped and placated the gods with
a variety of ritual practices that included fasting,