Almost everything a man does is based on his beliefs and what he chooses to believe in. Religion is the primary foundation of ones beliefs. Luckily, today our religious beliefs are not as violent as they were between 300 and 900 C.E . The Mayans are a Mesoamerican civilization who inhabited in the Yucatán Peninsula states of Quintana Roo, Campeche and Yucatán and southern Mexican states of Chiapas and Tabasco during this time period. Their civilization is identified with highly advanced people, politically, economically, socially and intellectually. An example of this was their creation of almost a perfect calendar without the use of a leap year and the introduction of agriculture. Although the Mayans were first seen as peaceful, hieroglyphics carved into stone, pottery and bone proved otherwise. It was through Maya's advanced writing system of scripts, we see that bloodletting and scarification played a big roll in their religion. Their religion was distinguished by the worship of nature gods for example; Chac, the god of rain, Kukulcan, the god of wind or Gukumatz, the god of the four elements of earth. Maya's believed heavily on these gods and worshipped them in their everyday lives. Human sacrifice was incorporated into Maya religious ceremonies as it satisfied their obligation towards the gods and it was spiritually linked to the concepts of creation and rebirth. Everything the Mayans worked towards had a goal of appeasing their gods. .
Mayans built many pyramids and temples to honour their gods and to preserve their religion. However, it was not their only way of honouring their gods. Mayans sacrificed humans as offerings to their gods to show their tribute. Popol Vuh is the most important source of Maya civilization. Popol Vuh translates to "Book of the Quiche (Native American people)" which is large and structured set of texts depicting Mayan mythological and historical texts.
