Re: Any Mayan Expert out there?

James Halls (ap596@FreeNet.Carleton.CA)
Sun, 28 May 1995 13:12:42 GMT

DaveB626 (daveb626@aol.com) writes:
> Q: Mayan bloodletting rituals-> Why did Mayan women do this? Is there a
> significance in using women's blood? Why pass bark through their tongues
> (ouch!)?
As far as I know there was no special significance attached to women's
blood. Mayan male nobility not only passed barbed ropes through their
toungues but also through their penis. It was not the sex of the giver so
much as the fact that the giver was noble and (according to present theory
as I recall) this gave the blood special power to influence the gods.

> Q: What are Tlatilco ladies? > >
Sounds familiar, but I can't help you there.

> What was the daily life of Mayan women? And men?
Very generally speaking and, only for commoners, women did the household
stuff such as child rearing and food preparation, men did the farming and
laboured on the construction of ceremonial precincts, or were the "pack
animals" in trade caravans (no wheels or large beasts of burden in the
Americas until the Spanish arrived).


> Thanks for sharing.
> (-<-) peace,
> dave blackwood

For considerably more detailed responses try posting to
sci.archaeology.mesoamerican. They would appreciate some interesting on
topic questions like what you pose:)

James

--

"Treason doth never prosper, for if it prosper, it be not treason"