Halach uinik or halach uinic (Yucatec Maya:'real man') was the name given to the supreme ruler, overlord or chief, as they were called in the colonial period of a Mayakuchkabal.[1]
Most kuchkabal were run by a halach uinik, who ruled on behalf of one of the gods of their pantheon, constituting a theocracy. The succession occurred in the same family, with power passing from parent to child, under the law of primogeniture. The halach uinik concentrated all religious, military and civil power in one person. They chose officials from among the members of the theocracy who helped in the administration of the kuchkabal. They usually designated their family members as heads or batab of the batalib (municipalities) that formed the kuchkabal. These batabob commanded their own soldiers, presided over the local council, implemented justice, and controlled the payment of taxes. In addition to these assignments, they also took care of the fields at the times indicated by the priests or ah k'in.
The halach uinic was lord of a Maya city-state. It was a hereditary office which was transmitted to the eldest child, normally to a son. Its main symbol of power was the "manikin scepter", a ceremonial baton that featured a figurine of K'awiil, the god of life.
Several officials were appointed directly to support the halach uinic. They were:
a. The Ah Holpop: political-religious delegates to the Halach Uinic.
b. The Nacom: was the principal military head of a city-state.
c. The Ahuacan: was the high priest. Watched calendars, sacred books and education. He also directed the sacrifices and rites of divination.
d. The tupil: the guards were guarding public order and law enforcement.
Theocracy is a form of government in which one or more deities are recognized as supreme ruling authorities, giving divine guidance to human intermediaries who manage the government's daily affairs.
The Spanish conquest of Yucatán was the campaign undertaken by the Spanish conquistadores against the Late Postclassic Maya states and polities in the Yucatán Peninsula, a vast limestone plain covering south-eastern Mexico, northern Guatemala, and all of Belize. The Spanish conquest of the Yucatán Peninsula was hindered by its politically fragmented state. The Spanish engaged in a strategy of concentrating native populations in newly founded colonial towns. Native resistance to the new nucleated settlements took the form of the flight into inaccessible regions such as the forest or joining neighbouring Maya groups that had not yet submitted to the Spanish. Among the Maya, ambush was a favoured tactic. Spanish weaponry included broadswords, rapiers, lances, pikes, halberds, crossbows, matchlocks, and light artillery. Maya warriors fought with flint-tipped spears, bows and arrows and stones, and wore padded cotton armour to protect themselves. The Spanish introduced a number of Old World diseases previously unknown in the Americas, initiating devastating plagues that swept through the native populations.
Chan Santa Cruz was the name of a shrine in Mexico of the Maya Cruzob religious movement. It was also the name of the town that developed around it and, less formally, the late 19th-century indigenous Maya state, in what is now the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, of which it was the main center. This area was the center of the Caste War of Yucatán beginning in 1847, by which the Maya established some autonomous areas on the east side of the Yucatán Peninsula. The main conflict ended in 1915, when they agreed to recognize the Mexican government, but guerilla fighting would persist into the 1940s.
Until the discovery that Maya stelae depicted kings instead of high priests, the Maya priesthood and their preoccupations had been a main scholarly concern. In the course of the 1960s and over the following decades, however, dynastic research came to dominate interest in the subject. A concept of royal ʼshamanismʼ, chiefly propounded by Linda Schele and Freidel, came to occupy the forefront instead. Yet, Classic Maya civilization, being highly ritualistic, would have been unthinkable without a developed priesthood. Like other Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican priesthoods, the early Maya priesthood consisted of a hierarchy of professional priests serving as intermediaries between the population and the deities. Their basic skill was the art of reading and writing. The priesthood as a whole was the keeper of knowledge concerning the deities and their cult, including calendrics, astrology, divination, and prophecy. In addition, they were experts in historiography and genealogy. Priests were usually male and could marry. Most of our knowledge concerns Yucatán in the Late Postclassic, with additional data stemming from the contemporaneous Guatemalan Highlands.
Ah Canul was the name of a Maya Kuchkabal of the northwest Yucatán Peninsula, before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century.
Ah Kin Chel was the name of a Maya chiefdom or Kuchkabal of the northern Yucatán Peninsula, before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century.
Ceh Pech is the name of a post-classic Maya ruling family and a province, or kuchkabal of the northern Yucatán Peninsula.
Chakán oregano of this land; 2) macaw tail feathers.’) is the name of one of the Mayan jurisdictions (kuchkabalob) that existed on the Yucatan Peninsula at the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century. Unlike other jurisdictions, Chakán did not seem to have a centralized government or control of a dominant Halach Uinik, as in the case of the provinces Ceh Pech or Ah Kin Chel. This is inferred from the fact that upon the Spaniards' arrival, Francisco de Montejo was well received by some local leaders (batabob), but not others, such as Ah Kin Chuy, who organized resistance in the region's eastern towns to repel Spanish settlers.
Chakán Putum was the name of a Mayan chiefdom of the southwestern Yucatán Peninsula, before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century. It was named after the capital city Chakan Putum. The city had approximately 8000 houses. It was a major port.
Cochuah is the name of one of the sixteen Mayan provinces into which the central Yucatán Peninsula was divided at the time of the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century.
Cupul or Kupul, was the name of a Maya chiefdom at time of the Spanish conquest of Yucatán. Cupul was one of the most extensive and densely populated Maya provinces on the Yucatán Peninsula. It was formed in the mid-fifteenth century after the fall of Mayapan and reached its maximum power during the sixteenth century, at the time of their own Spanish conquest led by the adelantado Francisco de Montejo. According to the Encyclopedia Yucatán in time, the Mayan voice ku-pul, means that throws the bouncing, giving a connotation referring to the Mayan ballplayers that existed in the region.
Ekab or Ecab was the name of a Mayan chiefdom of the northeastern Yucatán Peninsula, before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century. In the fifteenth century most of Yucatán was controlled by the League of Mayapan. By 1441 there was civil unrest. The provinces of the League rebelled and formed sixteen smaller states. These states were called Kuchkabals. Most Kuchkabals were ruled by a Halach Uinik, but Ekab wasn't. It was divided up into several Batabil. Each Batabil was ruled over by a leader called a Batab. In Ekab the Batabs were supposed to have equal power, but the Batabs on Cozumel had much more power than the others.
Hocabá-Homún, Hokabá-Homún or Hocabá was the name of a Maya Kuchkabal of the northwestern Yucatán Peninsula, before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century.
During the pre-Columbian era, human sacrifice in Maya culture was the ritual offering of nourishment to the gods and goddesses. Blood was viewed as a potent source of nourishment for the Maya deities, and the sacrifice of a living creature was a powerful blood offering. By extension, the sacrifice of human life was the ultimate offering of blood to the gods, and the most important Maya rituals culminated in human sacrifice. Generally, only high-status prisoners of war were sacrificed, and lower status captives were used for labor.
The League of Mayapan was a confederation of Maya states in the Postclassic period of Mesoamerica on the Yucatan peninsula.
A kuchkabal, also known as an ah kuch-kab or ah cuch-cab, was a system of social and political organisation common to Maya polities of the Maya Lowlands, in the Yucatán Peninsula, during the Mesoamerican Postclassic. There were somewhere between 16 and 24 kuchkabalo'ob in the 16th century. Kuchkabal may also refer to a ruling family.
Manikin scepters are objects that were held by Maya rulers to signify their power and authority. The term scepter is deceiving, because the object is too short to be held in the hand and touch the ground. Manikin scepters are normally clay or stone with intricate carvings and the face of a god. K'awiil was the most common god to be shown on them. All the manikin scepters held by the Halach Uiniks of the Kuchkabals of Yucatán show K'awiil.
Mo-Chel was the first Halach Uinik of the Kuchkabal Ah Kin Chel. He started the rule of the Chel family and the political state ruled by them. He was originally a nobleman, the son in law of one of the principal priests at Mayapan. Another priest Ah Xupan Nauat married his daughter Namox Chel to Mo. He is said to have foreseen the destruction of the League of Mayapan, and he fled with some followers to Tecoh near Izamal, where he established an independent state. He named the nation Ah Kin Chel.
The Chels, Cheles, or Che'els (in Maya glyphs) were the ruling family of the Maya Kuchkabal of Ah Kin Chel.
Batab, which is Mayan for 'Local village chief, chieftain', was the name given to the chief of a town or village called batabil.
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