Mayan Economy Subsistence, Trade, and Social Classes

The Mayan economy, which is to say the subsistence and trade networks of the Classic Period Maya (ca 250–900 CE), was dependent to a large extent on the way the various centers interacted with each other and with the rural areas under their control. The Maya were never one organized civilization under one leader, they were a loose collection of independent city-states whose individual power waxed and waned. Much of that variation in power was the result of the changes in the economy, in particular, the exchange network that moved elite and ordinary goods around the region. Fast Facts: Mayan Economy Mayan farmers grew a wide variety of crops, primarily relying on corn, beans, and squash.  They raised and tended domestic dogs, turkeys, and stingless bees.  Significant water control systems included dams, aqueducts, and holding facilities.  Long-distance trade networks moved obsidian, macaws, textiles, marine shell, jade, and slaves throughout the region. The city-states are collectively designated Maya by and large because they shared a religion, architecture, economy, and political structure: today there are over twenty different Maya languages. Subsistence The subsistence methodology for people who lived in the Maya region during the Classic Period was primarily farming and had been since about 900 BCE. People in the rural areas lived in sedentary villages, relying heavily on a combination of domestic maize, beans, squash, and amaranth. Other plants domesticated or exploited by Maya farmers included cacao, avocado, and breadnut. Only a handful of domesticated animals were available to the Maya farmers, including dogs, turkeys, and stingless bees. Stingless bee pollinating a gourd flower. RyersonClark / iStock / Getty Images Plus Highland and Lowland Maya communities both had difficulties with obtaining and controlling water. Lowland sites like Tikal built immense water reservoirs to keep potable water available throughout the dry season; highland sites like Palenque built underground aqueducts to avoid frequent flooding of their plazas and residential areas. In some places, the Maya people used raised field agriculture, artificially raised platforms called chinampas, and in others, they relied on slash and burn agriculture. Maya architecture also varied. Regular houses in the rural Maya villages were typically organic pole buildings with thatched roofs. Classic period Maya urban residences more elaborate than rural ones, with stone building features, and higher percentages of decorated pottery. In addition, Maya cities were supplied with agricultural products from the rural areas—crops were grown in fields immediately adjoining the city, but supplements such as exotic and luxury goods were brought in as trade or tribute. Long-Distance Trade A young boy smiles as he holds a Scarlet Macaw by the wings to admire its plumage, Colombia, 2008. Wade Davis / Archive Photos / Getty Images The Maya engaged in long-distance trade, beginning at least as early as 2000-1500 BCE, but little is known about its organization. Trade connections are known to have been established between pre-classic Maya and people in Olmec towns and Teotihuacan. By about 1100 BCE, the raw material for goods such as obsidian, jade, marine shell, and magnetite was brought into the urban centers. There were periodic markets established in most of the Maya cities. The volume of trade varied over time--but much of what archaeologists use to identify a community that was hooked into the Maya sphere was the shared material goods and religion that were no doubt established and supported by the trade networks. Symbols and iconographic motifs depicted on highly crafted items like pottery and figurines were shared over a widespread area, along with ideas and religion. The interregional interaction was driven by the emergent chiefs and elites, who had greater access to specific classes of goods and information. Craft Specialization During the Classic period certain artisans, especially those makers of polychrome vases and carved stone monuments, produced their goods specifically for the elites, and their production and styles were controlled by those elites. Other Maya craft workers were independent of direct political control. For example, in the Lowland region, the production of everyday pottery and chipped stone tool manufacture took place in smaller communities and rural settings. Those materials were likely moved partly through market exchange and through non-commercialized kin-based trade. By 900 CE Chichà ©n Itzà ¡ had become the dominant capital with a larger region than any other Maya city center. Along with Chichà ©ns militaristic regional conquest and the extraction of tribute came a large increase in the number and variety of prestige goods flowing through the system. Many of the previously independent centers found themselves voluntarily or forcibly integrated into Chichà ©ns orbit. Post-classic trade during this period included cotton cloth and textiles, salt, honey and wax, slaves, cacao, precious metals, and macaw feathers. American archaeologist Traci Ardren and colleagues note that there is an explicit reference to gendered activities in the Late Post Classic imagery, suggesting that women played an enormous role in the Maya economy, particularly in spinning and weaving, and manta production. Maya Canoes   There is no doubt that increasingly sophisticated sailing technology impacted the amount of trade that moved along the Gulf Coast. Trade was moved along riverine routes, and Gulf Coast communities served as key intermediaries between the highlands and the Peten lowlands. Waterborne commerce was an ancient practice among the Maya, extending back to the Late Formative period; by the Post-classic they were using seagoing vessels that could carry much heavier loads than a simple canoe. During his 4th voyage to the Americas, Christopher Columbus reported that he met a canoe off the coast of Honduras. The canoe was as long as a galley and 2.5 meters (8 feet) wide; it held a crew of about 24 men, plus the captain and a number of women and children. The vessels cargo included cacao, metal products (bells and ornamental axes), pottery, cotton clothing, and wooden swords with inset obsidian (macuahuitl). Elite Classes and Social Stratification Maya economics were intimately tied to hierarchical classes. The social disparity in wealth and status separated the nobles from ordinary farmers, but only slaves were a sharply bounded social class. Craft specialists—artisans who specialized in making pottery or stone tools—and minor merchants were a loosely defined middle group that ranked below the aristocrats but above common farmers. In Maya society, slaves were made up of criminals and prisoners obtained during warfare. Most slaves performed domestic service or agricultural labor, but some became victims for sacrificial rituals. The men—and they were mostly men—who ruled the cities had sons whose family and lineage connections led them to continue family political careers. Younger sons who had no available offices to step into or were unsuited for political life turned to commerce or went into the priesthood. Selected Sources Aoyama, Kazuo. Preclassic and Classic Maya Interregional and Long-Distance Exchange: A Diachronic Analysis of Obsidian Artifacts from Ceibal, Guatemala. Latin American Antiquity 28.2 (2017): 213–31.Ardren, Traci, et al. Cloth Production and Economic Intensification in the Area Surrounding Chichen Itza. Latin American Antiquity 21.3 (2010): 274–89.  Glover, Jeffrey B., et al. Interregional Interaction in Terminal Classic Yucatan: Recent Obsidian and Ceramic Data from Vista Alegre, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 29.3 (2018): 475–94. Gunn, Joel D., et al. A Distribution Analysis of the Central Maya Lowlands Ecoinformation Network: Its Rises, Falls, and Changes. Ecology and Society 22.1 (2017).  Luzzadder-Beach, Sheryl, et al. Sky-Earth, Lake-Sea: Climate and Water in Maya History and Landscape. Antiquity 90.350 (2016): 426–42.  Masson, Marilyn A., and David A. Freidel. An Argument for Classic Era Maya Market Exchange. Journal of Anthropo logical Archaeology 31.4 (2012): 455–84.  Munro, Paul George, and Maria de Lourdes Melo Zurita. The Role of Cenotes in the Social History of Mexicos Yucatan Peninsula. Environment and History 17.4 (2011): 583–612.  Shaw, Leslie C. The Elusive Maya Marketplace: An Archaeological Consideration of the Evidence. Journal of Archaeological Research 20 (2012): 117–55.

The Story Of Araby By James Joyce - 1293 Words

Araby is a short story written by James Joyce. Who lived from 1882 to 1941. Quit Ireland at twenty and spend his life writing about Dublin, where he was born. The main character of this story is a young boy, who is portrayed by the first-person narrator, whose name and age is unknown. Probably his age would be about 11 to 14 years old. Also, the narrator lives with his aunt and uncle, and goes to school, which gives us an idea that he is unable to live by himself. This short story is basically about a young boy that going through his first infatuation. The story Araby has some kind of classical narrative. It has a feel in certain elements of an epic story. This is how the basic epic story goes. A hero leaves home and goes on a journey to unfamiliar place to find something or someone and then they come back home. This element’s is the boy’s journey to the bazaar. The first setting in the story comes in the beginning. The story opens with this line: â€Å"North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quiet street except at the hour when the Christian Brothers School set the boys free.† Going back to the James Joyce biography, we know this that he also attended a Christian Brothers School. I can compare the events in the story to author’s life. As we already know from the chapter 48, Critical Approaches to Literature, that biography is a branch of history that can help reader to understand the meaning of the poem or a story through and to do this we need to understand an author’s lifeShow MoreRelatedJames Joyce s Araby - Interaction Of Story And Setting925 Words   |  4 PagesThe Interaction of Story and Setting in James Joyce’s â€Å"Araby†. The narrator of Joyce’s â€Å"Araby† is a young man who fell in love with Mangan’s sister. He always kept his distance and never really confronts her a nd expresses his love for her. The two didn’t want to approach each other because of shyness, nervousness, and afraid. The narrator did promise her that he will go to Dublin bazaar called â€Å"Araby† and buy something for her. This leads up to the porch where they met for the first and last timeRead MoreAraby and James Joyce1207 Words   |  5 PagesThe short story â€Å"Araby† is clearly identifiable as the work of James Joyce. His vocalized ambition of acquainting fellow Irish natives with the true temperament of his homeland is apparent throughout the story. Joyce’s painstakingly precise writing style can be observed throughout â€Å"Araby† as well. Roman Catholicism, which played a heavy role in Joyce’s life, also does so in the story which is another aspect which makes Joyce’s authorship of the story unmistakable. As a result of Irish heritage displayedRead MoreAraby, by James Joyce Essay942 Words   |  4 Pages The story, quot;Arabyquot; by James Joyce, is a short story about a young boys life and his quest to impress the young girl for whom he has feelings. The protagonists to the young boy, including the young girl, are the boys uncle, and the people at the Bazaar booth. The initial point of conflict occurs when the girl informs the boy that she cannot attend the bazaar, as she has every other year. quot;She could not go, she said, because there would be a retreat that week in her conventquot;Read MoreAraby-Postcolonial Interpretation Essay examples1504 Words   |  7 PagesARABY-POSTCOLONIAL INTERPRETATION In the short story of Araby, James Joyce attemps to expose many ideas and themes that places the setting of Araby in a postcolonial era. The narator describes the setting of NORTH RICHMOND STREET AS A BLIND, QUIET STREET, HAVING HOUSES WITH INPERTURBABLE FACES, This dull and dark description of the enviroment goes on throughout the story connecting this sombre setting Dublin with the mondane activities of the people. eg. 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The emotional reactions, anguish and anger, show the importance of the events in the young boy’s life. The deprecating word vanity is significant to the story’s theme, because while anguish and anger are emotional reactions, the admissionRead MoreThe Anonymous Storyteller By James Joyce932 Words   |  4 PagesIn James Joyce s Araby, the anonymous storyteller is charmed by the sister of his companion, Mangan. He plans to purchase a blessing for her at the Araby bazaar, which serves to him as a picture of getaway from the preventing environment of his neighborhood in Dublin. Through these characters and this setting, Joyce conveys the topic that in man s young optimism and his gullib le longing, he finds a restricting disillusionment, brought about by his adolescence and the constraints of his realityRead More`` Araby `` By James Joyce1315 Words   |  6 PagesThe short story â€Å"Araby† by James Joyce is a young boy who has such an infatuation for his friend Mangan sister, he begins to idolize her as if she was a saint. This is when the idea of love and desire come into play. He simply can’t stop thinking about her and sees her in a godly like way. As the story begins to unfold the realization that the young boy doesn t quite understand the concept of the illusion and the reality of what Mangan’s sister really means to him. The young boy realizes that hisRead MoreCharacter Analysis in Araby by James Joyce904 Words   |  4 PagesAnalysis of the Narrator in â€Å"Araby† by James Joyce While â€Å"growing up† is generally associated with age, the transition from adolescence to adulthood in particular comes with more subtlety, in the form of experience. James Joyce’s short story â€Å"Araby† describes the emotional rollercoaster of its protagonist and narrator - a young boy in love with his best friend’s sister - caused by the prospects of a potential future with his crush. The narrator of James Joyce’s â€Å"Araby† is an innocent, emotionallyRead MoreJames Joyce s Araby And The Dead1176 Words   |  5 Pages James Joyce’s short stories â€Å"Araby† and â€Å"The Dead† both depict self-discovery as being defined by moments of epiphany. Both portray characters who experience similar emotions and who, at the ends of the stories, confront similarly harsh realities of self-discovery. In each of these stories, Joyce builds up to the moment of epiphany through a careful structure of events and emotions that leads both protagonists to a redefining moment of self-discovery. The main characters in both these stories

Prelude no 15 in Db major by Chopin Free Essays

The song Prelude no.15 by Chopin, also known as the raindrop prelude is written in ternary form, which means it’s an ABA structure. It’s structure unlike many other preludes has a very clear Ternary form structure with a coda at the end to finish the piece nicely. We will write a custom essay sample on Prelude no 15 in Db major by Chopin or any similar topic only for you Order Now Section A is written in Db, while section B is written enharmonically in C# minor. Although it is in Ternary form the piece can be split into 4 parts. The Coda, A, B, and A again. Melody and Rhythm Just like the name of the piece, Raindrop, throughout the piece sustained notes are used to act as the continuous raindrops falling. During the piece such as in the first bar, Chopin uses descending notes and arpeggio’s to represent falling raindrops. He also uses septuplets and turns to create similar effects. He changes to the relative minor and dominant keys to create variation within the melody. Tonality The Raindrop Prelude is written in Db major with 5 flats. Bb, Eb, Ab, Db and Gb. The piece is generally tonal and uses many different relative keys to create variation throughout the piece. Texture. Although the Raindrop Prelude is written and played on one piano the texture is generally quite thick throughout. Chopin, in the B section, uses a technique called doubling to create a powerful and a build up of the texture. This is where a note is played in octaves in both hands creating a more emotional feeling as well, as a feature of romantic music. The texture could be described as both polyphonic and homophonic as the melody above the pedaled notes is more complex but fits in with many of the sustained notes. Use of Piano. Because Prelude no. 15 is written for piano Chopin uses the abilities of the piano very well to create variation among sections. For example, in section B the melody is played in the Left hand rather than the Right which created a low forceful and powerful sound. Also by using pedaled notes in both the harmony and melody the sound of the piano created the feel of raindrops. Chopin also wrote Prelude no. 15 because many pieces of music were created for the piano in the Romantic era as the instrument was developed and made bigger which enables it to create Cantabile sounds and sustained slurs with pedals. Also piano’s were now able to make larger ranges of dynamics, articulation and pitches because of the use of hammers on strings and the extension of octaves. How to cite Prelude no 15 in Db major by Chopin, Essay examples

Hero Essay Research Paper Hero one who free essay sample

Hero Essay, Research Paper Hero: 1 who goes beyond the call of responsibility, acts sagely under force per unit area, put on the line their life, luck, or repute, and title-holders a good cause. These definitions all fit that of a hero # 8217 ; s. However, in my sentiment, a individual most decidedly does non necessitate to make everything listed above to measure up as a hero. As I see it, the three makings of a hero are bravery, forfeit, and leading. A definite mark of a hero is bravery. One who does non huddle in the face of danger is frequently given this rubric. Television show, film, and cartoon-type bravery is what many people think of when it comes to courage. However, I realize that true bravery does non hold to be of heroic proportions as histrions portray. My ideal hero demands to hold the sort of bravery to be successful in their life. We will write a custom essay sample on Hero Essay Research Paper Hero one who or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page He or she would do of import determinations that affect their personal lives, their household # 8217 ; s, and others # 8217 ; lives, even when it is an highly difficult determination to do. They would stand up to unfairness, even if it merely affected a little choice figure of people. For illustration, their foreman at work has been doing inappropriate progresss toward several employees. My ideal hero would hold the bravery to inform their foreman that he/she needs to halt or they will describe them to a higher superior executive or the # 8220 ; proper # 8221 ; governments. Risking one # 8217 ; s calling in order to do colleagues discomfort disappear is an illustration of true bravery. This is what my theoretical account hero would possess the ability to make. The willingness to give up something of value for the better of another individual is besides a quality of a hero. The familiar term for this thought is sacrifice. The type of individual whom forfeits is typically really loving and compassionate. There are those whom make forfeits wholly unwillingly, and stop up repenting the workss they have done. Peoples like this are typically selfish, and do non run into the criterions of my idealistic hero. My hero or heroine would be the type of individual who sees sacrifce as a good thing. Nuns, monastics, and priests are typical illustrations. They would necessitate to believe in the thought that â€Å"to spring is better than to receive† . For illustration, the few work forces who, on September 11, 2001 caused the high jacked plane heading for the Capitol edifice to land in a abandoned field in Pennsylvania. They sacrificed their lives so that those people in the Capitol would endure a petroleum and prematurely decease. Even though they were traveling to decease either manner, they cut their life short by doing the make bolding moves to try to recapture the plane. Those heroes made the ultimate forfeit to salvage the lives of the guiltless people working in the Capitol edifice. Another trait belonging to a hero is that of leading. The ability to supply counsel and advocate in a clip of crisis, whether big or little, is a trait all heroes bear. Whether the individual is an armed forces general, commanding officer, etc. or merely a school counsellor, they are all heroes in their ain respective. Despite their evidently immense differences, they are both championed by communities of all sizes. Personally, I do non care much about the # 8220 ; macho adult male # 8221 ; war heroes. My assortment of hero is more of one whom leads civil rights motions, leads an expedition into the great unknown that is Outer Space, or leads their state in a clip of catastrophe. For case, our current President, George Bush, Jr. , is making a fabulous occupation of steering our state after the onslaughts on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Despite that war with the terrorists is inevitable, he has calmed the state and created a sense of integrity throughout all 50 provinces . Under his leading, the American populace has been convinced that everything will be O.K. . Bush # 8217 ; s direction of our state # 8217 ; s catastrophe, shows how my ideal hero # 8217 ; s leading qualities could be exercised. Courage, forfeit, and leading are standards which my greatest hero would possess. Superhero-like properties and achievements are unrealistic. Therefore, I realize that a individual who contains all of my idealistic qualities is genuinely person particular. Despite that they may non move heroic all the clip, my hero would move when he or she is needed.