Parker, Megan & Spenard, Jon. (2020). Ritual Plant Use in Pacbitun’s Caves: A Social Paleoethnobotanical Approach.

Prufer, Keith M., and James Edward Brady. Stone Houses and Earth Lords : Maya Religion in the Cave Context . Boulder, Colo: University Press of Colorado, 2005. Print. 

  Powis, Terry G, Sheldon Skaggs, and George J Micheletti. An Archaeological Reconstruction of Ancient Maya Life at Pacbitun, Belize: Edited by Terry G. Powis, Sheldon Skaggs and George J. Micheletti. Oxford, England: BAR Publishing, 2020. Print.

Maya medicine thrived because of the amount of land they occupied throughout Mexico, Belize and Guatemala (Schuster, 2001). The forests are diverse and species-rich. This afforded healers of Maya medicine the opportunity to discover remedies for illnesses and diseases. The healers were key to understanding plants and their medicinal properties and were sought out for their native plant expertise as well as their spiritual guidance. Plants and people interconnected in the sense of Ch’ulel’, healers are there to make sure there is a balance in the body. The plants take care of the physical illness and the healer takes care of the spiritual aspect (Schuster, 2001). Depending on the illness, healers will choose what type of plants are appropriate to begin the process of healing. One of the Six Principles of Maya Medicine is the concept of hot/cold/neutral based on classifications of plants that healers have (Walshe-Roussel). The idea of the Hot/Cold principle is that hot plants treat cold illnesses and cold plants treat hot illnesses. Aside from plants being classified as hot or cold, their colors were indicative of their capabilities to treat illnesses. For example, yellow plants were used for infections/ailments of the liver and spleen. Blue plants were to treat nervous systems and white plants were typically plants to stay away from because they were often poisonous (Schuster, 2001).  Common cures were to address illnesses, such as cough, cold, headaches, fever and periodic epidemic diseases like smallpox, yellow fever, or measles. 

Schuster, A. M. H. (2001). On the Healer’s Path. Archaeology, 54(4), 34–38. 

Walshe-Roussel, B., Otarola Rojas, M., Sanchez Vindas, P. et al. Ethnobotany of Immunomodulatory Treatments Used by the Q’eqchi’ Maya of Belize. Econ Bot 73, 154–170 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-019-09451-6

“Cacao grows in pods directly from the trunk of the tree (i.e., not on branches). In order to make chocolate, the pods have to be cut open and the seeds (also called beans) extracted. Next, the seeds and pulp are fermented for several days (up to six), which allows the seeds to germinate briefly. This process is necessary to give the chocolate flavor to the end product.” (Vail, 2014) It was common that the cacao beans were fermented, roasted or ground up. 

Cacao played a significant role in ceremonial practices for Maya people but it also had a place in the medicinal aspects. Commonly used when someone had a fever, the person would be put into an herbal bath along with a chocolate and herb drink to break the fever. Cacao is commonly know for drinking during feastivities and special occasions but it was used as medicine and/or used to disguise the flavor of medicine. It was often used as a chocolate paste for better digestion of butter medications. All parts of the cacao plant were harvested and used: beans, bark, leaves and flowers for a variety of different reasons from skin irritation, fevers to external burns. Cacao was also used as a stimulant, weight gain and sometimes snake bit remedies. Maya people were very knowledgeable of their plants and they knew exactly how to use them. Modern day scientific experiments now show that cacao has distinctive compounds that can inhibit microbes and has antibacterial properties.


Martin, Simon. “Tales from the Underworld: Cacao in Ancient Maya Religion.” Cacao in Ancient Maya Religion, https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/maya/chocolate/cacao-in-ancient-maya-religion.

Vail, Gabrielle. “The Food of the Gods: Cacao Use among the Prehispanic Maya.” The Food of the Gods: Cacao Use among the Prehispanic Maya, https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/maya/chocolate/cacao-use-among-the-prehispanic-maya. 

The Maya, given their geography in the Yucatan peninsula, experienced often times very dry conditions which resulted in an environment that was not ideal for growing and raising crops. Despite this factor however, scientist have done studies on things like the soil in the area as well as studied how the Maya managed their water due to the fact that water was not readily available as rain came with the seasons, and found that the Maya developed different tools and farming practices that allowed them to domesticate crops. In the book “The Maya World” the authors touch on these topics and came to the conclusion that, after observing the paleoecology within Maya agriculture, the Maya interacted with their surroundings in many ways that not only affected the environment, but also reveals that the Maya were able to create intricate agricultural systems and practices which allowed them to survive. 

Maize was considered a very important staple food for the Maya and part of the reason why is because it was easy to store and can be grown in abundance. In studying the production of Maize different farming techniques such as swidden farming which helped to clear fields and create new fertile soil and therefore, aided in the creation of future crops, Milpas which was the Mayan word for large scale corn fields, bajos which were swampy areas located in Maya lowlands, chultuns as possible water or food storage, and tajos which helped to maintain the fertility of soil, the Maya have been able to build an intricate farming system with lots of biodiversity that was able to sustain their people for thousands of years. It is also important to note that there is very little research done on Maya farming/ agricultural practices and so it is important that we continue to do research because in studying Maya agricultural practices, it not only reveals different aspects of Maya history and culture, but it also can show patterns in environmental and climate changes.

Intro: McNeil, Cameron L.
 2020    Favored Plants of the Maya. In The Maya World, edited by Scott R. Hutson, and Traci Ardren, pp. 183-202. Routledge, London and New York.

Burning crops comes with so many more benefits such as acting as a form of pest control, creating ash which, “replenishes nitrogen, and adds phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, and manganese”, (Nigh, 2013) as well as helping in reducing the amounts of weeds in the milpas overall. A lot of work comes with swidden farming. The Maya first need to be sure the weather is okay for a burn meaning steady winds and no chance of rain. Then during the burn, the Maya need to be able to contain the fire which they do by using fire breaks which are, “strips of land that have been cleared free of vegetation and debris, forming a perimeter around the clearing.” In doing so this helps in containing the fire and after about 45 minutes, the burning is done and all that’s left is the nutrient rich soil that will soon be used for maize.

Swidden (slash and burn): Nigh, Ronald, and Stewart AW Diemont. “The Maya Milpa: Fire and the Legacy of Living Soil.” Frontiers in ecology and the environment 11.s1 (2013): e45–e54. Web.

Another important fact about milpas is that, according to the article “Climate-Smart Adaptations and Government Extension Partnerships for Sustainable Milpa Farming Systems in Mayan Communities of Southern Belize”, author Kristin Drexler, the milpas are a significant aspect to Maya community, ceremonies, and rituals. The reason why is because, since it is a staple food source, the community works together to tend to the milpas and make sure they are growing properly. Rituals and ceremonies for the milpa also take play on a community scale and they are performed to ensure good weather and health for the future crops.

Milpas: Drexler, Kristin. “Climate-Smart Adaptations and Government Extension Partnerships for Sustainable Milpa Farming Systems in Mayan Communities of Southern Belize.” Sustainability (Basel, Switzerland) 13.6 (2021): 3040–. Web.

One of the major differences between northern and lowland chultuns, according to researchers, is that the lowland ones were much more shallow and were not shaped the same way. Thomas Gann, an amateur archaeologist, hypothesized that if these lowland chultuns were used for food, they were used to store mostly maize. However, after extensive experimentation on this topic, researchers found that the only food that was able to survive storage in these lowland chultuns are the ramon seeds. This theory by O. F. Cook in 1935, that these chultuns in the lowlands were for ramon seeds rather than water was deemed plausible because of the fact that, at the time, the ramon tree was another important staple food source for the Maya. Though chultuns are mostly used for water, as they are found in abundance in areas that lack frequent rainfall, researchers have continued to experiment with other possible uses.

Chultuns: Puleston, Dennis E. “An Experimental Approach to the Function of Classic Maya Chultuns.” American antiquity 36.3 (1971): 322–335. Web.

 

Though most crops, specifically maize, do not respond that well to overly wet areas, “The Maya” book suggest that the Maya who occupied these lowlands could have utilized the technique of “flood-recession farming” which refers to the process of farming in a known flood area and then, over time, the water in the area eventually dries up until the next rain season. This idea was suggested by Vernon Scarborough who knows that bajos become increasingly dry during the winter season, thus the practice of flood-recession farming” seems possible. Though the bajos themselves were not very good for crops, the Maya utilized the soil that was around the bajos because that soil was good crops. The Maya in the lowlands were successfully able to use these bajos to their advantage and in doing so, they not only had a stable water source, but they also adapted to the environment to better interact with the vegetation.

Coe, Michael D., and Stephen Houston. The Maya. 9thth ed., Thames & Hudson, 2015, pp. 14-22

Bajos: Dunning, Nicholas P et al. “Arising from the Bajos: The Evolution of a Neotropical Landscape and the Rise of Maya Civilization.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 92.2 (2002): 267–283. Web.

Caves were and still are essential to Maya culture. Caves were places where you could contact nonhuman people or environmental forces. Water in caves was often associated with the underworld, life, and death, night and day. Caves are also tightly related to the creation story, powerful spiritual forces, destruction, and control of water, rain, and the earth (Butler, Morehart, 2021) hence the significance of rituals in caves. Caves were often portraited in the Popol Vuh the Maya book of creation. The Lord of the underworld, Xibalba lures and sacrifices the Hero twins’ father. The twins grow up, learn to play ball and then challenge Xibalba. Once they defeated Xibalba they resurrect their dad who becomes the Maize God (Butler, Morehart, 2021). 

Jars found inside caves are strong evidence of rain rituals being performed inside the mountains. Other rituals performed in caves were fertility rites and agriculture, in association with deities. These rites were conducted to ensure a productive harvest and the maintenance of life. Some of these rituals were thought of as asking permission from the deities before planting crops, then repaying the deities with food offerings after harvest. Today, Modern Maya of Zinacantan, highlands Mexico still make pilgrimages to caves and mountains to communicate and repay the Earth Lord. Some rituals had political ties to them like negotiations and socioeconomic factors (Morehart, 2005) 

One of the big questions surrounding cave rituals is, who participated in them? From the literature, we can hypothesize that in Pacbitun, Belize both elites and common people, at times including females participated in cave rituals. Some rituals included ingesting mind-altering beverages, burning pine tree bark, consuming cacao, and willow tree leaves and barks in association with water. It is important to not make inferential leaps regarding the social statuses of those who used caves. There is not enough archaeological evidence to deduce socioeconomic and political affiliation. 

 “...The yellow koch-plant, the black koch,/ the chiuoh-xiu, are his arbor. Very yellow would be the fruit of the put ("papaya"). The balam-kuch-ci ("jaguarvulture-agave"): This enters into the anus of tarantula-eruption, tarantula-seizure. Then he took the rough exterior of the chi ("nancen"). This is his arbor, where he took his force…” (Roys, 1965)

References:

Berlin, Elois Ann, et al. Medical Ethnobiology of the Highland Maya of Chiapas, Mexico: The Gastrointestinal Diseases, Princeton University Press, New Jersey, 2015. 

Perishable. “Ancient Mayan Wisdom.” D. Gary Young, https://www.dgaryyoung.com/blog/2018/ancient-mayan-wisdom/. 

“Yellow Fever.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/yellow-fever. 

  

“The physicians and the sorcerers assembled in one of their houses with their wives … they opened the bundles of their medicine, in which they kept many little trifles and … little idols of the goddess of medicine, whom they called Ix Chel.” (Guerra, 1965)

Fortunately, through the amount of the events they endured, they never gave up their religion nor stopped their practices.

References:
Guerra, Francisco. (1964). Maya Medicine. Medical History. 8(1): 31–43. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1033334/pdf/medhist00160- 0037.pdf.

Schuster, A. M. H. (2001). On the Healer’s Path. Archaeology, 54(4), 34–38. 

 

Because the tajos were built along river banks or around areas that were prone to floods, the Maya had to consistently keep up with maintenance other wise they risked having all of their crops get flooded out. The tajos were good for providing biodiversity to areas where biodiversity was not very common. With that being said, if the crops were to be ruined because of something like weather, the Maya who lived in the areas with poor soil risked losing their food source. This is why everyone worked together to run this intricate farming system.

Hoogesteger van Dijk, Vincent M, Alejandro Casas, and Ana Isabel Moreno-Calles. “Semiarid Ethnoagroforestry Management: Tajos in the Sierra Gorda, Guanajuato, Mexico.” Journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine 13.1 (2017): 34–34. Web.

 

Swidden (slash and burn): Nigh, Ronald, and Stewart AW Diemont. “The Maya Milpa: Fire and the Legacy of Living Soil.” Frontiers in ecology and the environment 11.s1 (2013): e45–e54. Web.

Milpas: Drexler, Kristin. “Climate-Smart Adaptations and Government Extension Partnerships for Sustainable Milpa Farming Systems in Mayan Communities of Southern Belize.” Sustainability (Basel, Switzerland) 13.6 (2021): 3040–. Web.

 

Coe, Michael D., and Stephen Houston. The Maya. 9thth ed., Thames & Hudson, 2015, pp. 14-22

 

Chultuns: Puleston, Dennis E. “An Experimental Approach to the Function of Classic Maya Chultuns.” American antiquity 36.3 (1971): 322–335. Web.

 

Bajos: Dunning, Nicholas P et al. “Arising from the Bajos: The Evolution of a Neotropical Landscape and the Rise of Maya Civilization.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 92.2 (2002): 267–283. Web.

 

Hoogesteger van Dijk, Vincent M, Alejandro Casas, and Ana Isabel Moreno-Calles. “Semiarid Ethnoagroforestry Management: Tajos in the Sierra Gorda, Guanajuato, Mexico.” Journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine 13.1 (2017): 34–34. Web.