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The role of the children in ancient Mayan civilization was first, and foremost, to help their elders. Once children turned five or six, they were expected to contribute to the family and community. They were treated as young adults and received more responsibilities as they grew older.
As an adolescent in the Mayan Society, as in any other culture/society, there are "norms" or "responsibilities" that are learned and need to be followed through. In the Mayan culture, children were raised and treated as adults. Mayan children are raised to help and learn from their parents; this includes household chores, survival skills, and hunting skills if needed. For the most part, there are different "norms" or "responsibilities" for genders. In the perfect example, the mother would show and teach her daughter her skill, and a father would show his son his skill, if the father had a job, then he would show his son how to get the job required done. [1]
Young girls were expected to perform household duties, while young boys were to help their fathers in farming.
Mostly women raised the children, but when a boy was about four or five, his father would begin training him. [2]
When adolescents turned 15, they were expected to be independent. Today, this tradition of work ethic still applies to adolescents.
Children in the Mayan culture most likely already had their life planned out already. The females would be taught by their mothers everything there could be to learn and the same for the males, the father would teach their sons the "job" the father would be in. In the Mayan culture, it was believed that the kids are always being taught survival skills and the ways of their culture. [3]
The Maya desired some unnatural physical characteristics for their children. For instance, at a very young age boards were pressed on babies' foreheads to create a flattened surface. This process was widespread among the upper class.
Another practice was to cross babies' eyes. To do this, objects were dangled in front of a newborn's eyes until the newborn's eyes were completely and permanently crossed. [4] In addition, there were a few unique customs regarding children. For example, most Maya children were named according to the day they were born. Every day of the year had a specific name for both boys and girls and parents were expected to follow that practice.
Most burial sites for children were not as elaborate as adult burial sites. "Infants/toddlers generally lacked offerings… for [children] who died before reaching the age of five, the only elaboration or special treatment consisted of inclusion within a probable family group…" [5] However, some burial sites for children did contain more gifts than other youngsters. This suggests that the family had a great deal of remorse and/or the child had high standings.
Several values were stressed to Mayan children. Not only was strong work ethics desirable, but working for the betterment of the community was necessary.
Families were extremely important to the Maya culture, and respecting the leaders in one's family was imperative. "A sense of responsibility is another important quality that children have to learn. This includes independence, self-confidence, and the ability to make decisions." [6] It is believed that the most important quality for children to have was common sense, and they received this by shadowing their parents.
Among Yucatec Maya parents, the ceremony called hetsmek' is still practiced even among professionals living in Mérida, the capital of Yucatán.
Maya populations are present today in many areas of Central and South America, such as Guatemala. There is limited research on the lives of Maya children, mostly because developmental research has primarily involved European-American children. [7] However, the goals for Maya children's socialization and daily activities differ from those of other cultures, especially those that are most studied. [8]
Children in many Maya communities often engage in different socialization patterns than those commonly found in European-American communities. [8] Specifically, Maya cultures commonly emphasize the primacy of community activities (in which adults and children are participants), the importance of parental beliefs, and the independence of children's motivation in their socialization. [9] [10] Children in Maya communities develop within the context of work and other family activities. [8] They commonly learn through observing and engaging in work with others. [9]
Children in modern-day Maya communities observe and participate in work with people of all ages. [11] Young children in Maya communities such as San Pedro La Laguna have been observed listening in on the work of older children, adults, and elders. [11] These children are expected to observe the activities going on around them for their learning to take place. [7] The mix of interaction between age groups in Maya communities is important to their learning. Age segregation does not play an active role in the learning patterns of Maya children, as they interact with both adults and children of all ages. [12] Mayan siblings also play an active role in directing each other's learning. [13]
Children in Maya communities also observe and participate in adult work to become active members of their community. [14] Though children in European American communities do not engage in as much productive or goal-driven work, Maya children see this work as embodying their sense of self-worth. [15]
Maya children engage in less imaginary play than children from many middle-class Western communities. [12] When European-American adults play with children, the play is seen as an educational exercise, but play that Maya children partake in is often an emulation of mature work happening around them [16] For example, a child will pretend to "weave" on a make-believe loom, or "wash clothes" by pouring water on a cloth. [17] In this way, Maya children are learning through play.
Engaging in play that emulates work, and providing actual contributions to work, are characteristic of a style of learning referred to as Learning by Observing and Pitching In (which was previously called Intent Community Participation [18] ). This approach involves the learner observing and listening, directed by their initiative and concentration. This individual drive to learn is coupled with the learner's expected participation in shared endeavors. In other words, Maya children learn through Intent Community Participation because they are self-motivated to learn, and are included and given responsibilities. Maya children are respected as capable contributors to their community from as young as age 3 or 4. [18]
This style of learning can be contrasted with other learning styles, such as assembly-line instruction. [18] Assembly-line instruction is the approach taken by most Westernized schooling. Assembly-line instruction is based on the transmission of knowledge from experts to subordinates, in a way that does not facilitate purposeful activity. Maya Children do not participate primarily in this style of learning, because they learn through inclusion and hands-on experience. Because of this form of learning, Mayan children are much more observant in their environment as compared to European-American children. [ citation needed ] Learning through observation and participation develops skills such as dual attentiveness which supports their way of life and learning. Through methods such as Learning by Observing and Pitching In, Maya children work as a community to build their skills for contributing to their community.
Yucatán, officially the Estado Libre y Soberano de Yucatán, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, constitute the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It comprises 106 separate municipalities, and its capital city is Mérida.
Observational learning is learning that occurs through observing the behavior of others. It is a form of social learning which takes various forms, based on various processes. In humans, this form of learning seems to not need reinforcement to occur, but instead, requires a social model such as a parent, sibling, friend, or teacher with surroundings. Particularly in childhood, a model is someone of authority or higher status in an environment. In animals, observational learning is often based on classical conditioning, in which an instinctive behavior is elicited by observing the behavior of another, but other processes may be involved as well.
Mérida is the capital of the Mexican state of Yucatán, and the largest city in southeastern Mexico. The city is also the seat of the eponymous municipality. It is located in the northwest corner of the Yucatán Peninsula, about 35 km inland from the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. In 2020, it had a population of 921,770 while its metropolitan area, which also includes the cities of Kanasín and Umán, had a population of 1,316,090.
The Mayan languages form a language family spoken in Mesoamerica, both in the south of Mexico and northern Central America. Mayan languages are spoken by at least six million Maya people, primarily in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras. In 1996, Guatemala formally recognized 21 Mayan languages by name, and Mexico recognizes eight within its territory.
The Maya are an ethnolinguistic group of indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. The ancient Maya civilization was formed by members of this group, and today's Maya are generally descended from people who lived within that historical region. Today they inhabit southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and westernmost El Salvador and Honduras.
The Books of Chilam Balam are handwritten, chiefly 17th and 18th-centuries Maya miscellanies, named after the small Yucatec towns where they were originally kept, and preserving important traditional knowledge in which indigenous Maya and early Spanish traditions have coalesced. They compile knowledge on history, prophecy, religion, ritual, literature, the calendar, astronomy, and medicine. Written in the Yucatec Maya language and using the Latin alphabet, the manuscripts are attributed to a legendary author called Chilam Balam, a chilam being a priest who gives prophecies and balam a common surname meaning ʼjaguarʼ. Some of the texts actually contain prophecies about the coming of the Spaniards to Yucatán while mentioning a chilam Balam as their first author.
Collaborative learning is a situation in which two or more people learn or attempt to learn something together. Unlike individual learning, people engaged in collaborative learning capitalize on one another's resources and skills. More specifically, collaborative learning is based on the model that knowledge can be created within a population where members actively interact by sharing experiences and take on asymmetric roles. Put differently, collaborative learning refers to methodologies and environments in which learners engage in a common task where each individual depends on and is accountable to each other. These include both face-to-face conversations and computer discussions. Methods for examining collaborative learning processes include conversation analysis and statistical discourse analysis.
Yucatec Maya is a Mayan language spoken in the Yucatán Peninsula, including part of northern Belize. There is also a significant diasporic community of Yucatec Maya speakers in San Francisco, though most Maya Americans are speakers of other Mayan languages from Guatemala and Chiapas.
Mayan Sign Language is a sign language used in Mexico and Guatemala by Mayan communities with unusually high numbers of deaf inhabitants. In some instances, both hearing and deaf members of a village may use the sign language. It is unrelated to the national sign languages of Mexico and Guatemala, as well as to the local spoken Mayan languages and Spanish.
Youth participation is the active engagement of young people throughout their own communities. It is often used as a shorthand for youth participation in any many forms, including decision-making, sports, schools and any activity where young people are not historically engaged.
Barbara Rogoff is an American academic who is UCSC Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research is in different learning between cultures and bridges psychology and anthropology.
Team learning is the collaborative effort to achieve a common goal within the group. The aim of team learning is to attain the objective through dialogue and discussion, conflicts and defensive routines, and practice within the group. In the same way, indigenous communities of the Americas exhibit a process of collaborative learning.
Informal learning is characterized "by a low degree of planning and organizing in terms of the learning context, learning support, learning time, and learning objectives". It differs from formal learning, non-formal learning, and self-regulated learning, because it has no set objective in terms of learning outcomes, but an intent to act from the learner's standpoint. Typical mechanisms of informal learning include trial and error or learning-by-doing, modeling, feedback, and reflection. For learners this includes heuristic language building, socialization, enculturation, and play. Informal learning is a pervasive ongoing phenomenon of learning via participation or learning via knowledge creation, in contrast with the traditional view of teacher-centered learning via knowledge acquisition. Estimates suggest that about 70-90 percent of adult learning takes place informally and outside educational institutions.
The Huay Chivo is a legendary Maya beast. It is a half-man, half-beast creature, with burning red eyes, and is specific to the Yucatán Peninsula. It is reputed to be an evil sorcerer who can transform himself into a supernatural animal, usually a goat, dog or deer, in order to prey upon livestock. In recent times, it has become associated with the chupacabras. The Huay Chivo is specific to the southeastern Mexican states of Yucatán, Campeche and Quintana Roo. Alleged Huay Chivo activity is sporadically reported in the regional press. Local Maya near the town of Valladolid, in Yucatán, believe the Huay Chivo is an evil sorcerer that is capable of transforming into a goat to do mischief and eat livestock.
Ancient Maya women had an important role in society: beyond propagating the culture through bearing and raising children, Maya women participated in economic, governmental, and farming activities. The lives of women in ancient Mesoamerica are not well documented: "Of the three elite founding area tombs discovered to date within the Copan Acropolis, two contain the remains of women, and yet there is not a single reference to a woman in either known contemporary texts or later retrospective accounts of Early Classic events and personages at Copan," writes a scholar.
Learning through play is a term used in education and psychology to describe how a child can learn to make sense of the world around them. Through play children can develop social and cognitive skills, mature emotionally, and gain the self-confidence required to engage in new experiences and environments.
Indigenous education specifically focuses on teaching Indigenous knowledge, models, methods, and content within formal or non-formal educational systems. The growing recognition and use of Indigenous education methods can be a response to the erosion and loss of Indigenous knowledge through the processes of colonialism, globalization, and modernity.
Child work in indigenous American cultures covers child work, defined as the physical and mental contributions by children towards achieving a personal or communal goal, in Indigenous American societies. As a form of prosocial behavior, children's work is often a vital contribution towards community productivity and typically involves non-exploitative motivations for children's engagement in work activities. Activities can range from domestic household chores to participation in family and community endeavors. Inge Bolin notes that children's work can blur the boundaries between learning, play, and work in a form of productive interaction between children and adults. Such activities do not have to be mutually exclusive.
Styles of children’s learning across various indigenous communities in the Americas have been practiced for centuries prior to European colonization and persist today. Despite extensive anthropological research, efforts made towards studying children’s learning and development in Indigenous communities of the Americas as its own discipline within Developmental Psychology, has remained rudimentary. However, studies that have been conducted reveal several larger thematic commonalities, which create a paradigm of children’s learning that is fundamentally consistent across differing cultural communities.
Child integration is the inclusion of children in a variety of mature daily activities of families and communities. This contrasts with, for example, age segregation; separating children into age-defined activities and institutions. Integrating children in the range of mature family and community activities gives equal value and responsibility to children as contributors and collaborators, and can be a way to help them learn. Children's integration provides a learning environment because children are able to observe and pitch in as they feel they can.
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