As
a child I have seen Indiana Jones (cliché) and this is the reason why the
culture of the Maya has always intrigued me. As some of you may know, a lot of
researches has been done on this subject but also a lot of the conclusions are
not accepted anymore; as an example the Maya were eaters of human flesh is no
longer accepted. In the scientific literature there is a lot of information on
the Maya culture but not a lot of questions remains about the human sacrifice.
I
am really curious to know if the Maya actually had human sacrifice rituals and
if so was it accompanying death or sacrifice of war prisoners. We know that
Maya were big warriors; did they sacrifice war prisoners when a warrior died?
In which context can we find accompanying death or sacrifice of war prisoners? Furthermore,
what were the uses of the temple, like the Tikal's pyramids? Were they, like
the ones in Egypt, reserved for the king and his family as their burial or were
they religious temples?
Of
course Maya's culture really interests me, but all the question of the human
sacrifice in general does. Why a society has those practices? Who did the
people choose to sacrifice? For whom this ritual is reserved? What does a
ritual like this say about the believe and the religious practice of a society?
Those are questions I would like to explore in the class as well as the Maya's culture.
