User:Danielle Bieber

So, you came to me to learn about Ancient Mayans, a? Well, good thing cause you came to the RIGHT person! I am here to teach you ALL about the Mayans! I will teach you about everything you have to know about the mayans! Well, let's get started! (note: this is 6th grade.)

Ok, so, I have done this many times, and it's very easy to remember. (Trust me!) Let's start with their geography. If you don't know what a word means, I may put it in parenthases, or at the very end of this lesson. The Mayans lived through 300 B.C to 250 A.D. The Mayans settled in Southern Mexico. The countries in this area are Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador. Their resources were cenote (a sinkhole with accessible ground water), and rainforests were very common, as well. The Aztecs on the other hand, lived from 1195 A.D to 1521 A.D. They settled in an area called Aztlan and Southern Mexico. The country it's known now as is Central Mexico. Their natural resources were crops, and corn. Incas lived from 1400 A.D until 1532 A.D. The settled in Southern America, now known as Southern America (haha) and in other terms Cuzco, Peru, Ecudor, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. Their natural resources were spoons, arrows, and tropical fruits and the fruit's skins. That's all for geography! Hope that was enough information for you! If not, read on I have to teach you about Daily Life and their Social Classes! Let's explore!

  Ok, now moving on to daily life and social classes, let's first start with the Mayans. Mayans social classes went in order from the highest class, to the lowest class. In the highest class was the leader, nobles, and priests. In the middle class was craftspeople, traders, and warriors. In the lowest class, (also to me the worst class), the farmers, slaves, and different people who worked for others or with others. (Some workers were payed, while others weren't). The Mayans ate fish, duck, turkeys, deer, crops, and even monkeys! Eww! They lived in leaves and mud. Men wore a type of clothing called "loincloth", which is a piece of cloth for men wrapped around the hips. Women wore dresses they sewed or created. Men had to be 17 years old to marry! Shocking? Well guess what? Women married at age 14! Can't picture a 17 year old and a 14 year old together? Guess what? Me either! They had to be in the same social class to be married however. So if you were a noble, you had the choice of marrying another noble, a priest, or the leader! The family's life usually consisted of the daughter cleaning, cooking, and babysitting. While the mom, however, had to clean or cook. The son farmed and did work around the house for him and his family or other people for a little bit of money. The dad had to farm and do the same thing the son did. Moving on to the Aztecs! The Aztec's social classes were, in the highest class it held commoners, nobles, and the leaders. In the middle class, were the warriors, priests, scholars, merchants (sellers of items), and craftsmen and women. In the lowest class were the farmers, house cleaners and keepers, chefs (cooks), and clothing makers. They ate maize (a type of corn), tomatoes (a type of crop), atole (gruel), porridge, tortillas, and chocolate! Yum chocolate! Women wore dresses, blouses, and skirts. They made homes out of flowers, adobe (sun baked brick), and hard stones. To marry, men had to be 20 years old and women had to be 13 years old OR up to 19! 20 and 13 is hard to picture.. but 20 and 19 or 20 and 18 or so sound a little better *laugh*. The family's life consisted of the women cooking and sewing clothes. Men had to farm and do other things to support the family. Inca time! Inca's highest class held the strongest Incas and the governors. In the middle it held the rulers, and cooks. The lowest class was just... plain old people. They ate corn, potatoes, and quinoa (goose's feet). Women wore dresses while men wore sandals and tuniques. To build homes they used adobe and mud. This time, marriage is even wierder! (Sort of!) Women had to be 16 years of age to marry, while men had to be 25 years old! Guess what? You couldn't be single because it was against their religion. In the family, the women created textiles (fabric for clothing). Men farmed and served in the military. Wow! Isn't history fun and shocking to learn about?

Well, now im going to teach you about their cultures. The Mayans believed in corn gods and rain gods! They had many ceremonies for religions, where they prayed, danced, and did sacrifices for individual people to be sacrificed to the gods. Women got tatoos to look "beautiful"! They also had many body piercings. Kind of gross... think about it! I wouldn't really want to be married to a lady with piercings on her arms and fingers and stuff... gross! When women had children, they carefully placed a block of wood on the baby's head and smashed it against the baby's forhead to give them a flat forhead! Wierd enough for you? Well guess what? They also sometimes placed food in between the baby's eyes laying on the nose, and the baby would look in between at the food for a long amount of time, and then the baby would become cross-eyed, as a sign of "beauty". I don't know about you, but that's kind of gross to me! The Aztecs often battled to capture prisoners and sacrifice them. They had ceremonies that showed religion also. They had sacrifices, and so I hear, that the best give for the gods was people's hearts! I wouldn't really want a heart on my birthday or at Christmas time! Haha! Many people died to make others happy which wasn't very necessary.