Agriculture




Guatemala and its neighboring areas, are the habitat of the Euchlæna luxurians, the wild grass, hybridized with Tripsacum spp from which, the Maize Zea Luxurians, found only in Guatemala and Nicaragua (formerly Zea Guatemala) is derived. It is named "Teosinte" a name that came with the first Guatemalan accession and seems not to have been used in ancient Mexico, the Zea Mays is the variety developed by cultivation. Zea mays ssp. huehuetenangensis is the only teosinte polen, with the same size of the modern Maize. No teosinte has been found in the Caribbean watershed of lowland Mesoamerica, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and the Yucatan Peninsula. Irene Holst et al,PNAS | November 6, 2007 | 

RELIGION

The traditional Maya religion of western Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico (Chiapas and Yucatán) is a southeastern variant of mesoamerican religion. As is the case with many other contemporary Mesoamerican religions, it results from centuries of symbiosis with Roman catholism. When its pre-Spanish antecedents are taken into account, however, traditional Maya religion already exists for more than two millennia as a recognizably distinct phenomenon. Before the advent of Christianity, it was spread over many indigenous kingdoms, all with their own local traditions. Today, it coexists and interacts with pan-Mayan syncretism, the 're-invention of tradition' by the Maya Movement, and Christianity in its various denominations.

MAYA CIVILIZATION

The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully-developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period (c. 2000 BC to AD 250), according to the Mesoamerican chronology, many Maya cities reached their highest state of development during the Classic period (c. AD 250 to 900), and continued throughout the Post-Classic period until the arrival of the Spanish.

The Maya civilization shares many features with other Mesoamerican civilizations due to the high degree of interaction and cultural diffusion that characterized the region. Advances such as writing, epigraphy, and the calendar did not originate with the Maya; however, their civilization fully developed them. Maya influence can be detected from Honduras, Guatemala, and western El Salvador to as far away as central Mexico, more than 1,000 km (620 mi) from the Maya area. Many outside influences are found in Maya art and architecture, which are thought to result from trade and cultural exchange rather than direct external conquest.

The Maya peoples never disappeared, neither at the time of the Classic period decline nor with the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores and the subsequent Spanish colonization of the Americas. Today, the Maya and their descendants form sizable populations throughout the Maya area and maintain a distinctive set of traditions and beliefs that are the result of the merger of pre-Columbian and post-Conquest ideas and cultures. Millions of people speak Mayan languages today; the Rabinal Achí, a play written in the Achi language, was declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2005.

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TESE IS THE TRONO DE PIEDRAS NEGRAS OF MAYAN CIVILIZATION: