Summary On Bloodletting

In the article Classic Maya Bloodletting and the Cultural Evolution of Religious Rituals: Quantifying Patterns of Variation in Hieroglyphic Texts, readers learn about bloodletting and religious rituals, how they came about in the classic Maya, and the different patterns showing different regions partaking in these religious rituals through hieroglyphs. Bloodletting in the Maya lowlands was something that was seen in various forms such as social integration and political legitimacy, as expressed in the article. Bloodletting being seen as social integration may have come about in the sense that certain people shed blood and others feel the need to do it as well. Bloodletting seen as political legitimacy may have been a way for political figures …show more content…
It is known that bloodletting was not taking place in one area of Mesoamerica but very popular within the Maya. Through iconography and epigraphic data it is seen that bloodletting was something that was taken seriously and documented very well by the Maya. Expressed in the article is how iconography showed men piercing their foreskin and the women piercing their tongues. Men would use stingray spines to pierce their foreskin while women would pierce their tongues and then pass a rope that had spikes on it through the piercing made in the tongue. Something that is greatly taken into consideration and researched upon in the article is the word ch’ahb’ and its logographic sign which is correlated to bloodletting. In the article, ch’ahb’ is researched upon to see where exactly bloodletting took place in Mayan regions as well as to figure out how more people came to know about bloodletting in different areas. Spatial analysis were done by using statistics to see where bloodletting was being performed and how many people were taking apart of …show more content…
First Martin introduces and describes how the Mayan number system worked along with different glyph inscriptions. He then goes on to describe how the Mayans were astronomers in the sense that they knew when the sun would go down to the underworld and eventually rise up once again to give them a new day. Many glyphs show deities as the reason why the sun would come up. Soon after Martin describes the Lords of Stone in which he is also describes different ways the Mayans believed the world was created. According to Martin the Lords of Stone were four men who held the sky up so it would not fall onto those living on the earth. Mayans saw them and drew them as living rocks where they had relationships with the time period. Descriptions of stela and their relationship with the long count are explained to show the significance of the long count. Stela is used to commemorate different time periods, on every K'atun a new stela or alter is made. It is then noted during the Classic period that there is a relation between the Mayan calendar and royal powers. During this time more portraits of those in power are seen with specific dates which lead people to believe in the relation between the two. Many people took this as simply seeing those with power trying once again to over glorify themselves when in reality it is more serious than this. Certain dates in the Long