Reputation for the Maya writing system

Maya writing was at used in the Maya area from about 300 BC (as soon as we notice it into the murals of a website called San Bartolo in Guatemala) to your sixteenth century whenever the Spanish Conquistadors mention it within their reports.

The writing system had already mostly fallen out of use by the time the Spanish colonisers arrived in the 16th century although there are still nearly 30 Mayan languages spoken in the area today, by more than 6 million speakers in Maya communities.

The Christian priests and missionaries whom arrived burned many ‘idols’ and ‘heathen effigies’ – together with original bark-paper publications employed for recording calendrical, astronomical and information that is ritual to ensure enduring conversion to Christianity.

The spoken languages survived and developed through the hundreds of years, but much like many native and smaller languages in the field, have now been decreasing in the long run in preference of almost all languages, in cases like this Spanish. The increased loss of language ended up being additionally exacerbated through colonialism and racism, because it had been frequently regarded as beneficial to be since non-indigenous as you possibly can (and frequently is still). Schools had been needed to show in Spanish just and often forbade the utilization of Mayan languages.

Within the last ten years nevertheless, Mayan languages have experienced a revival because of the emergence of more cultural awareness and cultural pride in ‘being Maya’, plus the end regarding the civil war in Guatemala. Read more