Communicate Co.

Who are the Maya?

We already have a problem.

For starters, there was no Maya country, empire or nation.

The word ‘Maya’ is a generalisation used by archaeologists, anthropologists and historians to refer to various peoples with similar characteristics.

However, we can also talk about Tzotzil Maya, Tzetzal Maya, Quiche Maya, Yucatec Maya, Putun Maya, Itza Maya and their respective modern-day descendants.

In conclusion, we can either generalise by saying the “Maya” or be specific, by saying “the Putun Maya”, depending on whom we are talking about.

The term “Maya” is anthropological. To simplify their research, which they begin with very little information, anthropologists always look for characteristics in human groups. Let us imagine that we are archaeologists and/or anthropologists: we have found human remains buried in various parts of the jungle and we want to study them. Our investigation will include registering traces of: dark hair, mutilated teeth, deformed skulls, cotton clothing, skins/leathers and pottery (with writing and pictures of people). All the remains found previously have similar characteristics but came from distant places hundreds of kilometers away and from a different era, more than a thousand years apart.

So this leads us to conclude that all were Maya (by their physical characteristics and their writing) and they lived in different areas and different eras.

Although many pieces of the jigsaw puzzle are still missing, we quite simply call them “Mayas”. Due to the great distances involved, the Maya and the

Incas are not culturally related. It is thought that both cultures originated in Asia 40,000 years ago. However, the Maya shared certain characteristics with contemporary or later civilizations such as the Aztecs and Toltecs that inhabited the same cultural area. Archaeologists decided to “draw” a map of the imaginary area called Mesoamerica. They divided it into five regions, one of which was the Maya Zone.