Mayan Social Pyramid

19. What is a varna?

A varna is a class or caste.

20. According to the Vedas, what does each varna have?

Each varna has its own duties.

21. Who held the top place among the castes?

The Brahmins held the top place among the castes.

22. Among the four varnas, who was the lowest class?

The Shudras were the lowest class.

The untouchables, also called daleets, were the lowest.

23. Who was lower than the lowest class?

They were technically without a class.

24. What jobs did the untouchables, or daleets, do?

The daleets did undesireable work, like handling garbage and dead animals.

What are the four main social classes (castes) according to Hinduism?

What are their roles (dharma) ?

Priests and religious scholars

Brahmins

1.

Rulers and warriors

Kshatriyas

2.

Herders and merchants

Vaishyas

3.

Servants

Shudras

4.

1. During the Classical Period, where did the Maya live?

During the Classical Period the Maya lived in city states.

2. Within each state, how was Mayan society structured?

Within each state, society was structured like a pyramid.

3. Who was at the top of the Mayan social pyramid

The ruler was at the top of the Mayan social pyramid.

11. What layer in the social pyramid was under the nobles and

priests?

4. What Mayan word means “true man”?

Merchants and artisans were under the nobles and priests.

Halac uinic means "true man".

12. Why did Mayan artisans make a wide variety of objects.

5. What did the halach uinic do?

Many objects were designed to pay tribute to the gods.

The Halac uinic ruled the state with the help of his advisors. He decided when and where to go.

Slaves were at the bottom of the Mayan social pyramid.

6. When the Mayan ruler died, who succeeded him?

15. Who was at the bottom of the Mayan social pyramid?

The peasants were the backbone of Mayan society.

14. When they were not working the land, what were Mayan peasants doing?

16. How did people become slaves?

13. Who was the backbone of Mayan society??

The next layer of the social pyramid was nobles and priests.

Some were born into slavery, some children were sold into slavery, and

some war prisoners became slaves.

When the Mayan ruler died, a son or other close male relative succeeded him?

7. What layer in the social pyramid was under the ruler?

Nobles and priests were the only members of Mayan society who knew

how to read and write.

When they were not working the land, peasants spent time building

pyramids and temples.

8. What special skill did nobles and priests have?

17. What happened to higher rank people captured in battle?

The nobles served as officials and oversaw the administration of the state.

Higher rank war captive slaves were sacrificed.

9. What jobs did nobles have?

Priests led rituals, offered sacrifices, and foertold the future.

They determined the best days to go into battle.

10. What jobs did Priests have?

25. What is Brahman?

26. How do Hindus see time?

Brahman is the name for a supreme power.

Hindus see time as going around in a circle

like a great wheel.

Everything is part of Brahman.

27. What do Hindus believe Brahman is constantly doing?

29. What do Hindus call the soul?

Hindus call the sould atman.

Brahman is constantly creating, destroying, and recreating the universe.

28. According to HIndu belief, what is part of Brahman?

They began building great temples.

30. What did Hindus do in the 6th century C.E. to connect with their deities?

The law of karma governs what happens to a person's soul after death.

47. What does the law of Karma govern?

48. What type of body would the sould be reborn into?

The answer depended on the soul's karma.

If people lived well, they would be born into a higher class.

49. What would happen if a person lived well?

If they lived poorly, they would be born into a lower class.

50. What would happen if a person lived poorly?

51. In the caste system, people could not escape the social class

of their birth. According to the law of Karma, why is this fair?

People's social classes reflected their actions in past lives.

52. In the 20th Century, what Indian leader called the

untouchables "children of God"?

Samsara is the cycle of death and rebirth.

I know I made a typo.

Mahatma Gandi

54. What happens when the sould escapes the cycle of

death and rebirth?

53. What is samsara?

It is united with Brahman. Moksha

It is the belief that person't soul is reborn into a new body after death.

55. What is reincarnation?

56. Which river is one of the most holy places in India?

57. What are Hindu monks known as?

The Ganges

sannyasins

They called their system of social classes varna dharma.

41. What did Hindus call their system of social classes?

Karma

46. What is the Hindu term for living according to one's dharma?

The cow is the Hindu symbol for the reverence of life.

45. What is the Hindu symbol for the reverence of life?

They value marriage, sharing food, and caring for the soul.

44. What are the common set of values that Hindus are

expected to follow?

Their duties included performing rituals and reciting

the Vedas.

43. What were Brahmin's duties?

It means "the way of one's kind."

42. What does varna dharma mean?

To follow one's dharma ameans to perform one's duties and so to live as one should.

40. What does it mean to follow one's dharma?

Dharma stands for law, obligation, and duty; it's your role in the play of life.

39. What does Dharma stand for?

They are the symbol of light triumph over darkness, good triumph over evil.

38. What are the Divali lamps a symbol of?

The Hindu New Year Festival is called Divali.

37. What is the Hindu New Year festival called?

Mayan Social Pyramid