More from my October / November trip to Mexico City...
On every trip to Mexico City I make at least one visit to the National Museum of Anthropology. I already posted an entry and photos about the special exhibit "The Greatness of Mexico". You may recall that on recent trips I have been going room by room through the recently renovated galleries of the second floor. While the first floor displays the archaeological treasures of Mexico's pre-Hispanic civilizations, the less visited second floor deals with the indigenous peoples of Mexico today.
The gallery devoted to the peoples of the Gulf coast is still closed off and under renovation. The next gallery deals with the Mayas, who constitute the largest native group in present-day Mexico. I must say that I was somewhat disappointed with the exhibit. There is a lack of signage describing many of the items in the showcases, so my description here of the gallery is rather sketchy.
The Mayan region covers a geographically diverse area as shown in the mural / map at the entrance to the gallery.
The Mayan realm extends from the scrub forests of the flat Yucatan Peninsula in the north, southward into the dense tropical rainforests and westward into the mountains of the state of Chiapas. The lives of the various tribes who speak different dialects of Mayan language family are very different.
In Yucatán the Mayan people live in oval huts with a thatched roof. (If you travel through that part of the country, you will see that in the countryside, a great many still live in these traditional huts.) The walls are made of poles cut from the forest, covered with a mixture of mud and straw, and then white-washed.
The inhabitants sleep in hammocks which they unfold and string from the rafters at night.
Deep in the rainforests near the Guatemalan border are the Lacandon Mayas. Although they are now adapting modern ways, until well into the 20th century they lived very simple, isolated lives. They wore tunics made from tree bark, and both men and women had long hair.
They plant small gardens of vegetables, fish, and hunt with bows and arrows. (I can remember on my first visit to the Mayan ruins of Palenque, some forty years ago, there was a Lacandon man in traditional attire selling bows and arrows to the tourists.)
In the highlands of Chiapas the people live in stone houses with tile roofs.
The women weave beautiful garments with intricate designs that are identical to the designs seen on ancient Mayan carvings.
The men wear heavy wool ponchos (it gets cold in those mountains!) and hats which are decorated with ribbons.
Pottery from the state of Chiapas. The clay jaguars from the town of Amatenango have become quite popular in handicraft shops and markets, and I have several at home.
Their religion is an amalgam of Catholicism and traditional Mayan beliefs.
This model of a chapel in Chiapas reminded me of a trip I made some thirty years ago to the town of San Juan Chamula. Inside the church, which has no chairs, the floor was covered with pine branches, and lit candles were set on the ground. The villagers were kneeling and chanting in their native Mayan tongue. It was a very other-worldly experience.
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