Maya Religion
Maya Temple
Maya people believed that the world was created by One Deer. One Deer created the mother and father of the gods (like Brahma and Gayatri or Gaia and Kronos). Then the mother and father created many other gods. They created the gods of the crops like the Corn God, the god of rain, the god of fire, the god of smoke, and the gods of the forests. The mother and father also created four men, who were the ancestors of all men. Some stories say that the mother and father first made men out of mud. But these mud men were stupid, with no brains, and so the mother and father destroyed them. Next the mother and father made men out of wood. But these wood men were dull, with no emotions, and they couldn't feel gratitude to their makers (compare the Jewish story of Noah). Finally the mother and father tried again and made men out of corn (maize) - and that worked just right. Corn was the main food for Mayan people, so they had a lot of popular stories about corn, like the story of the opening of Maize Mountain.
A woman lays a parade carpet of flowers and grass for Holy Week in Guatamala
There were many big religious holidays every year in the Mayan empire. One was the five "Lost Days" at the end of the Mayan solar calendar every year. Mayan priests and leaders held big parades to celebrate the holidays. Women laid out grass and leaves and flowers in patterns to make beautiful (but temporary) carpets for the paraders to walk on.
To find out more about South American religion before 1500, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:
Ancient Rome (Eyewitness Books), by Simon James (2004). For kids.
Handbook of Mediterranean Roman Pottery, by John W. Hayes (1997). Hayes has been the leading expert on Roman pottery for the last several decades.
Roman Pottery, by Kevin Greene (1992). Greene is another pottery expert, particularly interested in what pottery can tell us about the Roman Economy.
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(a project)
Aztec
Inca
South America after 1500 AD
North America before
1500 AD
North America after
1500 AD
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