Introduction
This research paper is designed to provide information basically on the highlighting topic of Mayan Culture. Mayan Culture has been derived from the ancient Native American culture and its description would be provided in the later topics of the paper. Apart from that, the issues which would be described in this paper with regard to the Mayan Culture would be the prenatal issues and birth that were experienced by the people of Mayan Culture. Different aspects of the prenatal and birth issues would be discussed with information on the Mayan culture as well.
The Mayan Culture
The history of the world contains many secrets and historic values and civilizations under its core. Yet, the modern civilization has succeeded in revealing some of those ancient civilizations and historical narrations either with the help of its modern technologies or from the folk tales told by our fore fathers. Among these old histories, Mayan civilization is considered to be one of the greatest and grandest in the history of the world because of its diversified culture. This civilization is loaded with the tremendous work carried forwards by the Mayan people in the areas of art, monumental architecture, astronomical infrastructure and intelligent mathematical systems.
(Herring, 2005, p56) The time period of the Mayan civilization is recorded to be from 2000BC till 1500AD and the geographical location of the Mayan culture used to cover the areas of the southern Mexican states of Chiapas, Tabasco, and the Yucatan Peninsula states of Quintana Roo, Yucatan and Campeche. Other geographical areas which were said to be covered by the Mayan civilization were Belize, western Honduras, El Salvador and Caribbean.
The religion, however of the people of Mayan culture was quite different from those of the Greek culture. They believed in different kind of Gods and a cyclical nature of time. All the rituals and traditional ceremonies used to be celebrated according to their separate calendars of different terrestrial/celestial cycles. The Mayas also used to carry out the practice and custom of offering human sacrifices to their Gods so that they could get protection, shelter, food, happiness, children, brave army, wealth and power. These sacrifices were sacredly carried out by their chosen priests.
(Grolier, 2002, 545) The areas in which the Mayas were famous for and incorporated many historical works for us to see are:
- Architecture: The architectural designs built by the Mayas have been recovered by famous archaeologists and the work they discovered done by the Mayas is spectacular and very unique. The Mayas were masters of building unique building structures and step-shaped pyramids. Other types of building structures made by the Mayas are pyramids, ball courts, palaces, ceremonial platforms, temples and observatories.
- Astronomy: The Mayas were also famous for their spiritual astronomy and used to showcase their knowledge of Orion Nebula at many occasions.
- Art: The statuettes and carvings found from the ruins of Mayan civilization prove that they were capable to make the most beautiful and sophisticated designs of art as compared to the other civilizations.
- Mathematics: The people of the Mayan culture increased their mathematical talents to great extends and they also used to make use of their mathematical skills in the astronomy sector.
- Agriculture: The Mayas were also had good name in producing food by means of agriculture with different methods.
(Miller, 2006, p97-124) Apart from all these information gathered by the archaeologists, the reason for the demolishment of the Mayan civilization remains a secret. Nobody knows that what was the main reason lies behind its collapse. Several people give their own reasons and statements. According to the experts, the reason for the collapse of the civilization could be anything, for instance; foreign invasion or intrusion, peasant revolution, environmental disasters, overpopulation, endemic disease or plague, climatic change, collapse of the means of trade.
Modern Maya Culture
(Grolier, 2002, p545) The signs of the Maya culture never demolished completely from the face of the world and there is some population of the Maya people living in different areas of Honduras, El Salvador, Belize, Guatemala, and the Mexican states of Chiapas, Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Campeche and Tabasco. The language used by the native people varies to around 30 diversified languages but mostly; they use Spanish as their core communication medium. The religious aspects, however, have changed and they now follow a mixed religious approach of Christianity and Mayan ancient rituals.
At present, the Mayas make use of trading, farming, carving, manufacturing antique items, pottery, ceremonial masks and most of the time weaving as their basic means of trade and earnings.
Description of Prenatal and Birth Care
Prenatal is the term associated with the woman who is pregnant and expecting a baby. Prenatal care is very important for the health and life of any woman who is pregnant. Prenatal care is basically the set of healthy and support services which are delivered and provided to the expected lady during the period of pregnancy. The general steps followed in the prenatal care are the periodic visits paid to the doctor for regular check-up, screening, monitoring, testing, risk assessment, nutrition evaluation, proper medication, healthy diet, counseling, labor and delivery, and child care (McCormick, Siegel, 1999, p78).
Prenatal Issues and Birth in the Mayan Culture
The people living in the modern culture of Mayan intend to live a very simple and contented life and they are quite happy and satisfied with that they are living in. the Mayas are very proud of their past and the way they have chose to live with the help of their past experiences and art. They prefer to deal with their own problems personally and try their best not to indulge the outside help in most of the cases.
Apart from all the resources available to the Mayas, there are some prenatal and birth issues associated with the Mayan culture which are highlighted for the ease of our readers in the following (INFORPRESS, 1997, p24) and (Miller, 2006, p97-124):
- Lack of resources for the people living in the Mayan culture because most of times, they are not found eligible for the medical insurances from the governing bodies and non-profit organizations because they do not carry medical insurance
- The Maya women does not know much about the medical facilities or the free prenatal/labor/delivery services provided by the government
- The pregnant women of the Mayan culture usually have to wait till the last minute to get the attention and services from the medical centers
- Mayans usually have the severe problem of high rate of birth defects, but the seniors hesitate to put up with their modus operandi
- The Mayas try their best to take help from the midwives available in their areas most of the cases of pregnancy and deliveries
- The Mayas avoid the interference of nurses, physicians and medical helpers from outside areas of their culture
- The prenatal care and pregnancy cases are dealt with the help of Mayan traditional herbal remedies and medicines
- The facility of prenatal or birth care are usually very far from the residential areas of the Mayas
- Most of the child births of Mayas take place at home because they lack in medical resources, knowledge and skills
- The prenatal care and birth values are strongly emphasized home based
- The Mayas do not follow the family planning strategies, which as a result, is increasing the number of complicated pregnancies and birth issues
- Many of the children born with some pre-dominant diseases within their bodies due to the lack of care and precautions taken for prenatal care
- There are no precautions or facilities available for the proper vaccination of the new born Maya babies
- Due to the lack of care and vaccines for the new born, many of the babies get sick and die every year
- Many Maya women die during the labor process while giving birth to their children because of the lack of knowledge and resource at home
- Many new born babies also get infected with the diseases of polio as there are no vaccines available and get disable for their entire life
- The Mayas are usually reluctant to adopt the birth spacing or family planning practices as this practice was never followed by their fore fathers
- The delivery ratio of the rural births in the hospital of the Maya babies is just 1:4 which means that only one baby gets the chance to born in a hospital out of four
- The health of Maya women has been affected to high extends due to many pregnancies and lack of care and resources for their health
Conclusion
History proves that the condition of the Mayas was very tremendous and marvelous in the past civilization of Mayan culture. But it has changed with the pace of time. The Mayan culture and the Maya people have been affected to high extends in the modern age. They have been affected with poverty, low income, and lack of resources, lack of education, and lack of medical facilities. Apart from that, the Maya women have less knowledge of the prenatal care which makes them suffer from several prenatal and birth issues. As a result, the health of the women and children gets affected mutually.
The people of Mayan culture have very less knowledge of the modern world as they live very far from the modern civilization and in case, if they try to avail the facilities, the distance between them and the city becomes a big hurdle. However, the pregnancy period of the Maya women is very crucial as she never gets the medical help on time and if she succeeds in getting it by any chance, it would be the last minute of her pregnancy or labor. The women and new born Maya babies have suffered a lot and have faced many prenatal and birth issues which we have already discussed in this paper above.
Nonetheless, the government and many communities are working to help the people to get medical facilities, prenatal and labor care for the women. Many non-profit organizations are sending their midwives, nurses and physicians to go into the Mayan areas so that they could facilitate and educate the Mayas with proper knowledge and sources for the emergencies.
References
Barbara D. Miller, 2006, Cultural Anthropology, Published by Pearson/Allyn and Bacon, p. 97-124.
Coe, Michael D; 2002, The Maya, 6th, New York Times: Thames & Hudson, pp. 150-152.
Herring, Adam, 2005, Art and Writing in the Maya cities, AD 600-800: A Poetics of Line, Cambridge, England; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, p. 56.
Grolier Incorporated, 2002, The Encyclopedia Americana, Published by Grolier Incorporated, p. 545.
M. McCormick, J. Siegel, 1999, Prenatal Care Effectiveness and Implementation, Cambridge University Press, p. 78.
INFORPRESS Centroamericana, 1997, Central America Report, Published by Inforpress Centroamericana, p. 24.