The Importance of Corn in Mayan Culture Essay Example

Many centuries ago, around 9,000 years in Central America, our Mayan ancestors changed our understanding of how maize agriculture started as an evolution for the development of civilization. Maize is an essential nutritional product that has been a universal ingredient in making different products, such as tortillas, tamales, flour, etc. The early Native Americans or Mayans used the corn husks to make dolls, baskets, mats, and mattresses. The Maize crops (also known as corn) that our Mayan ancestors first created helped us with our economy, nutrition, and the development of our environment.  

The evolution of maize agriculture is vital in understanding the development of civilizations because it helped us today to learn how we can grow crops and make tamales out of corn and flour. Corn was the New Worlds' secret weapon and the builder of its civilizations because it has covered other monuments in the Americas. According to our textbook, without corn, we would not have cathedral-like grain elevators in the corn belt, glass and steel spires in modern cities, roads and highways, trains, factories, and universities. Corn is known to be the core of American civilization. Our textbook says corn is the "most efficient device for trapping the sun's energy and turning it to our use." therefore, Maize crops adapted to dry regions have a distinctive carbon dioxide fixation pathway called C4. The corn plant can absorb CO2 concentration when the C3 plants fail. Corn plants can perform a high rate of photosynthesis. Historians have labeled corn as "The grain that built a hemisphere." It is said that corn was the grain that built a hemisphere because of all the benefits it has given us globally. Corn has brought a great source of nutrition, giving us vitamin B, C, magnesium, and potassium. It is low on carbs and high on protein. Corn changed the lives of ancient peoples in the Americas by being the number one most pliable source of nutrition. Since the Mayans lived on Mesoamerica, a very dry piece of land and only had swamps, and it was hard for them to grow any vegetation. The early Mayans were able to grow enough corn to feed their population by getting the soil of the swamps. So they started to get the rich soil of the swamps a few miles away from their homelands and started growing corn crops. Corn had become a religious part of the Mayan culture, making ceremonies and rituals. The Mayans adored a God named the God of Maize. The God of Maize was a man with a deity at the center of the Maya cosmos responsible for the corn on which all life depends. It is said that the Maize God descends to the underworld, where the lords of death kill him. After they kill him, they hang his head from a tree. As years go by, his children, the hero twins, go on a search for him and defeat the lords of death. As they accomplish the goal of defeating the lords of death, the God of maize becomes resurrected and returns to the earth's surface. As he returns, the world's first day dawns, and corn is reborn. Teosinte is a very important wild grass crop. As time passed, it eventually became modern maize, known as corn. Teosinte is related to corn by being not the mother but the daughter of corn. Corn was so important to Europeans once they arrived on American shores because it became a staple food crop for the colonists. Maize had become a food source for the Europeans, bringing change to their diets. The ancient Mayans never used coins as money; instead, they viewed chocolate as a source of money. Cocoa was more valuable than maize because they could buy food and other goods from the exchanges they would do with the Europeans. A childhood memory when I was five years old that I would never forget that involves corn is when my family and I would have cookouts on the fourth of July. And my dad would be toasting corn on the grill, and you could smell the sweetness and freshness from a mile away. Once the corn was done, my mom would put mayo, parmesan, and some tajin. The best part was biting into it and getting all those flavors at once. I love corn, especially on holidays, birthdays, and celebrations. 

After concluding how our Ancient Mayan ancestors first discovered corn, if we did not have this product, there wouldn't be any knowledge of how to make corn. Because of our Ancient Mayan culture, we can crop corn as our ancestors did but in an efficient modern way, and we can have corn as one of the most crucial nutritious products for our body. We can go back in history and learn how corn was first developed. If we did not have corn today, for what is said, "Corn is the core of American civilization," we would have never had glass and steel spires in modern cities, roads and highways, trains, factories, and universities. Our Mayan culture brought us to have corn as a piece of celebration when we celebrate holidays, birthdays, family events, etc.