Chiapas Maya Culture in Mexico - Essay Example

144429 "We are not myths of the past, ruins in the jungle or zoos. We are people and we want to be respected, not to be victims of intolerance andracism." --Rigoberta Mench'u Tum, winner of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize. http://www.jaguar-sun.com/mayanow.html Living in their jungle-choked stone cities, Chiapas Maya in Mexico created a powerful civilization that could be seen from murals and ruins in the rain forest today. Maya, neither a lost society nor a lost culture, was the largest homogenous group of Indians to north of Peru, existed between 1500 BC and 900 AD, appreciated as the most brilliant of them all, mostly lived close to cenotes and cultivated cash crops. The clan was highly intellectual, practiced hieroglyphic writing, familiar with astronomy, and the remnants of their marvelously constructed cities like in Tikal, Palenque, Uxmal, Kabah, Sayil, Labna, Yaxchilan, Tulum, etc. surprise modern civilization. They were independent city states and never came under a single dominant rule. Maya were never ambitious empire builders, but peaceful people who lived in harmony with nature. Roma are nomads originally lived in North West India, migrated to Persia, Middle East, and then to Constantinople to end in Western Europe and tiny population to US and Canada the last caused by World War II and Communism. Domari, Lomarvren and Romani like clans belong to this origin. This tribe was persecuted by Christians, Germans, were killed as witches, sometimes with legal and royal sanctions, were enslaved in Europe and if ever there was a population which was relentlessly hunted, tortured, systematically exterminated, they were the unfortunate Roma. Hitler went for 'getting rid of Gypsy plague' and Roma were part of holocaust and survivors did not get any support from Allies. They were the common targets of all, and should be appreciated for managing to survive, despite the murderous setbacks. They are still targeted by groups of insanity and governments have not done enough for them in any country. Maya's royalties cemented the kinship and the divine lineage by marrying ruling class members of other cities. Roma married young; courtships were allowed to some extent, but not more. Arranged, practical and sometimes love marriages were practiced, and marriages were a gala three day affair, after which, they lived with groom's parents, and only after they had children, they might be allowed to live a semi-detached life. Daughter in law is kept strictly under control and have to perform all her duties without anything in return. "The daughter-in-law must prove herself to her new family and is expected to perform services with little in return. She is expected to care for her in-laws and produce grandchildren. With the birth of her first child the daughter-in-law moves from the child or bori status to mother-of-the-child status" http://www3.baylor.edu/Charles_Kemp/gypsy_health.htm Maya did not have such rigidities, and marriages did not endanger women folk into slavery. Maya men were responsible for all outside work, earning and decision making. Women were home-bound, but not obsessively so, and took all decisions of home life and maintained a healthy economy. Aged people lived a good and sheltered life in family, because the elders were respected and cherished and here, they are close to Roma, where the house elders only could speak to outsiders and were never interrupted or advised or overruled. Both clans had gender regulated rules where women had to look after home and hearth and men, earning and external responsibilities. But Maya women definitely were more independent than Roma. Maya had rigid class system, but Roma did not have much of it, as all are equal and they were never ruled by kings, but only by a clan headman. Roma consider pregnancy and child birth unclean and keep the event out of familia home. Child is mainly mother's responsibility and mother should maintain state of wuzho and there are varied ceremonies for the father to accept the child as his own. Children are the main focus of Roma family and are cared by extended family members, and community and tribe. Young children live protected and secure life. Maya children were looked after by parents and family, but were not given excessive importance. They simply were part of the family. Maya were city builders, who ferociously defended their cities and were firmly rooted to their space, jungle and tiny kingdoms. Roma were nomadic tribes, very colorful, playful, had many skills like magic, gymnastic; were artistic and wore highly visible dresses that made their distinctively beautiful women very attractive and they were nomads and no place to be called their own. Perhaps their problems arose from the fact that they were nomads and were fascinatingly so, even to this day, as this created a kind of mystique around them, making them untrustworthy. Today, Maya are appreciated, but Roma are still to a large extent, discriminated. Roma families consist of three generations with at least 10 to 15 members living in the same household or familia. Even if they happen to live separately, they reunite during festivals, marriages, social functions etc. so that the thread of relationship never gets snapped. After going through centuries of persecution, Roma maintain social isolation through self effort. They have a rigid social and cultural bond to retain their ways of life. Loyalty to family is of prime importance and culture is considered to be greater than all modern educations and a person who cannot read Gadge documents is not respected. Unlike Maya, Roma have a long, unbroken history of immigration. Maya are children of the soil, while Roma were free souls. Roma language is mainly derived out of Sanskrit with strong influences of Persian, Greek and Slavic languages, and is solely a spoken language. Women are not permitted to be free and dominant. There exists a complicated social culture, with a clan leader. Families are male dominated, women being subordinates. They are ethnocentric, that excludes outsiders and outside links are maintained only for economic and cultural needs. Women consider upper part of the body as clean and lower as unclean and this is part of the everyday ritual. This is different from Maya, where women had freedom, were cherished and today, they are mixing freely with other communities while maintaining their own culture. They too had difficult times, due to which their culture almost got wiped out, but they have come out of it triumphantly. Maya class system was distinctive. There was a clear class system that separated the ruling class from ordinary laborers and in between existed an 'educated nobility' who were architects, engineers, artists or writers and their skills are still evident in the monuments, palaces, cities, jade, stone and bone carvings, flint and obsidian. Strangely Maya does not bear any evidence of an exalted priesthood and perhaps the main rituals were performed by the ruler and the lesser, by the family head. Maya worshipped gods belonging to underworld and nature. Maya cosmology was prehispanic, multi-layered. They had simple and informal religious rites, usually have a God house, the yatoch K'un, a meeting place of gods and humans, where balche is brewed and offerings are made through lak-il k'uh, the god pots. "Incense becomes tortillas and tamales human flesh. Rubber humanoid dolls are given life and then turned as sacrifices to the gods. Even human speech is transfigured in the god house, becoming the nasalized melodic prayer voice used when speaking to the gods" http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/3134/lacsacre.html In addition, there are cave temples, where the community collects on a ritual day. Each ruler of the city kingdoms was considered to be the descendent of one god or other and was respected so. Their blood was ideal for sacrifice and this means, when caught, they were never spared. Maya vision of universe was mainly limited to four directions and there was a life after death. "After death, the soul was believed to go to the Underworld, Xibalba (shee bal bah), a place of fright where sinister gods tested and tricked their unfortunate visitors" http://www.jaguar-sun.com/maya.html They continue to live their unique ways of life, follow their 260 day-calender, wear distinctive patterned, highly colourful attire. ROMA are worshippers of Kali a main Hindu deity and here they differ from Maya that had a plethora of gods and goddesses. Maya continues to celebrate their culture, whereas Roma do not have a single culture of their own. The approximately 12 million scattered populations would rather hide their true identity for fear of being discriminated, than celebrating their long forgotten culture. Roma have adopted religions of the countries they happened to be in, but persist with the Hindu religion of saints and goddesses and spiritual cleansing. Unlike Maya, they do not have a religion of their own. They do not believe in fortune telling, but use it as one of the forms of earning livelihood. "Although the Roma adopt the religious practices of those around them, they also maintain several strong faith practices and beliefs in the supernatural, omens and curses. They believe in charms, amulets and talismans which they will carry in their pockets for safety, good luck and to prevent illness. They also have female healers, called drabarni or drabenhgi, who prescribe traditional healing rituals and cures" http://www3.baylor.edu/Charles_Kemp/gypsy_health.htm Maya saw great days when their power was at its zenith and lived a fully appreciated civilized life. Roma were peaceful, civilized, but went unappreciated and were relegated into the background. Actually, Roma are the free spirit of this world, a clan which really lived a beautiful life that was unfortunately unacceptable to the world. ONLINE SOURCES: 1. http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/3134/lacsacre.html 2. http://www.jaguar-sun.com/maya.html 3. http://www3.baylor.edu/Charles_Kemp/gypsy_health.htm 4. http://www.kstrom.net/isk/maya/maya.html 5. http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/travel/ldumois/maya/mayanindex.htm 6. http://www.religioustolerance.org/roma.htm 7. http://www.answers.com/topic/roma-people 8. http://www3.baylor.edu/Charles_Kemp/gypsy_health.htm Read More