"Maya: Temples, Tombs and Time"

Video #4

This video contains scenes from Chichen-Itza and also examines Mayan culture in El Salvador.

Answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper. Don't forget to provide a critique at the end which explains and supports your assessment of the video.

1. What factors are mentioned in the video which are leading to the destruction of many Mayan ruins?
   
   
2. Which people are considered to be the ancestors or forebearers of the Mayan people and culture?
   
   
3. Which city is believed to show that the roots of Mayan culture goes back to perhaps 400 b.c., thus pre-dating the so-called classic Mayan period?
   
   
4. How tall is the tallest Mayan pyramid ever built?
   
   
5. How many Mayan city-states were there during the height of the classic period?
   
   
6. Why was the width of a Mayan interior room limited in terms of its dimensions?
   
   
7. When the king's tomb was examined an oddity was revealed by the glyphs concerning royal leadership. What was it?
   
   
8. When a king's forces or army were defeated in battle, what did the people believe was specifically responsible for this?
   
   
9. What did blood and the concept of the soul have in common?
   
   
10. In what year did the Maya believe the fourth cycle of creation began?
    
    
11. How many "worlds" figured in the Mayan concept of life and religion?
    
    
12. What is the name of the sacred Mayan tree and what is its shape?
    
    
13. What was the architectural layout or blueprint of Mayan cities designed or intended to reflect? What did the pyramids, plazas and ballcourts represent, respectively?
    
    
14. Who were the Itza people, where did they come from and who were their descendents?
    
    
15. How did the Chichen-Itza government arrangement differ from the normal Maya system? What evidence tells us this?
    
    
16. What did the ballcourt at Chichen-Itza symbolize or reflect?
    
    
17. What did the well at Chichen-Itza symbolize or represent?
    
    
18. After the Spanish came to the Maya areas what was the percentage of decline in the Mayan population?
    
    
19. Which food did the Maya deem to be the most important?
    
    
20. What is slash and burn farming?
    
    
21. When the Maya were forced by the Spanish to become Christian, how were they able to keep practicing their own old/traditional religious beliefs?
    
    
22. The plight of the modern day Maya is not very good? List 2 reasons why this is the case?
    
    
23. In contemporary Guatemala what percentage of the people own what percentage of the land?
    
    
24. Besides Guatemala, in what other country have modern Mayans turned violent in their quest for justice?

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