The objective of this blog is that people around world can have knowledge about ancient civilizations. like Mayan civilization in these case


martes, 11 de marzo de 2008

FAMILY STRUCTURE AND INTERACTION - work/life balance









We don’t have the same concept about family or in terms of love and relationships between member of Mayas, they generally marriage in early twenties and these marriages were arranged in comparison with modern civilization were couples marriage for love; also we have concepts completely different about freedom or work, for example, in ancient civilizations woman just made domestic works like take care for children, cook cleaning between others , but now in the 21st century, woman work at the same capacity like a men, they can go to the office, bring the kids from school, and clean the house, everything in one day.


To other hand Mayas in the beginning are a nomadic civilization and lived in small family bands, but when started cultivating maize they abandoned a nomadic way of life to settle in villages surrounded by cornfields. Also the Maya created arable land by using a “slash and burn” technique to clear the forest and planted maize and secondary crops such as beans, squash and tobacco. The small villages where they lived are consisting of household compounds, occupied by extended families. In addition the division of labor was clearly between men and women: first, the men looked after building huts and caring for the cornfields, while the women prepared food, made clothing and tended to the family’s domestic needs.
Family structure may alternate between nuclear and extended, with the addition of newly married couples who will leave with their parents until they firs child is born.
The Maya society was divided into four main groups:
© The nobility: which are formed by priests, warriors, traders and bureaucrats, exercised power and belonged to this group only by birth.

© The craftsmen: who are specialized manufacturing objects used by the nobility to dress, decorate their homes and show their range. Farmers living scattered around the cities and pay third of what they produced to the nobility.

© The slaves: are prisoners of war that were sold to work or to be slaughtered in certain rituals to rain, the earth or the sun.


by: Jennifer Jimenez J

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