Course Description

The objective of the course is to explore the pre-Columbian Maya civilization of southern Mexico and Central America. We emphasize their origins, their adaptations to varied environments, their political and social organizations, their artistic and intellectual accomplishments, their religious and value systems, and their daily lived experiences. This course focuses principally on the findings of archaeological fieldwork, but also highlights the findings of  ethnohistorians, art historians and epigraphers who study texts and images authored by indigenous scribes, native oral histories later recorded in writing, and eyewitness accounts of Spanish soldiers or priests during the first decades of Euro-Indigenous contact. The course also highlights the lives and accomplishments of modern Maya people.

Wichita State University, Fall 2015