The Effects of the Conquest on Ancient Maya Civilization
Jordan Ison
ANT 245: People of Latin America and the Caribbean
April 05, 2017
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The Maya were one of the largest indigenous cultures in Native American and Latin
American history. The Maya were an established society; they had their organization of politics
and religion settled as well as their methods of food production, means of communication, and
labor systems. Their dynasties lasted nearly 3,000 years before they mysteriously collapsed
around 900 A.D., and rose again years later. The modern day Maya still live within the
borderland of their old rule in Central America. The territory that makes up this area now
consists of the countries of Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and five states in Mexico.
Once the Spaniards arrived in the ‘New World,’ life as they knew it began to fall apart
for every indigenous society that happened to be in their path. Not only did they bring disease,
new forms of religion, pack animals, slavery, and civil battles, they brought the fall of many
societies, which brought about the losses of cultures, families, heritage, and traditions.
For the Maya, the case was not that drastic. The Maya were able to adjust and keep some
of their culture, language, religion, politics, and farming techniques alive and well while
adopting new Western beliefs. What is so unfortunate about this is that the majority of Maya
culture is solely known through archaeological and anthropological evidence, such as folk art,
rather than written history; up until recently that is, with the new discoveries of temples and
ceramics with writing on them. In the opinions of some, this evidential history is a positive thing,
but according to others it is the latter.
The first of the many ways that the Maya were oppressed by the conquest is the change in
their politics. The Spaniards knew that in order for their control to be official, they had to
reorganize societal functioning to fit their own standard. In an article by Richard R. Wilk
(1985:312), he says that, according to Thompson, the Maya were an “…egalitarian, agrarian, and
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non-urban society.” This means that the Maya were a society that was modest yet self-serving;
but this theory was proven faulty after being popular for quite some time. Richard R. Wilk
believes that this theory was so popular because it was established during the time of the Peace
Corp. Wilk also says that this theory was only a ‘mere example’ of what Maya society could
have been in a perfect world.
What Maya political organization was truly like is quite amusing. In the opinion of Lisa
J. Lucero (2007:409) and many other anthropologists, Maya politics went hand-in-hand with
Maya religion. Lucero says that “religion is vital for political legitimization because [the] gods
support rulership.” The rulers in Maya society had an idea similar to the theory of “divine right.”
The kings of their societies were believed to have “…the mandate of heaven,” meaning that the
king was the direct intermediary, so to speak, between heaven and earth. The king would speak
