The Maya are a group of related indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica, descended from the builders of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization whose city-states, writing system and calendrical astronomy are extensively documented archaeologically, and today comprising more than two dozen distinct ethnolinguistic communities across southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and parts of Honduras and El Salvador, unified by shared cultural heritage rather than a single language or political structure. Contemporary Maya communities, particularly in Guatemala where Maya peoples form a substantial share of the national population, have documented histories of land dispossession and, during Guatemala's 1960-1996 civil war, systematic violence against Maya communities that a United Nations-backed truth commission characterized as constituting acts of genocide in some regions. Maya cultural and linguistic revitalization movements are active and documented across the region today.
Facts
Group TypeSourced to the subject's own accountIndigenous ethnic groups (composite category) 1 Typical RegionSourced to the subject's own accountMesoamerica (southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, western Honduras and El Salvador) 1 Primary LanguageSourced to the subject's own accountMayan languages (more than thirty distinct languages in the family, including K'iche', Yucatec Maya, Kaqchikel and Q'eqchi') 1 Subsistence ModeSourced to the subject's own accountHistorically and, for many contemporary communities, still today, milpa swidden agriculture centered on maize, beans and squash. 1 Disputed
Population Estimateapproximately 6 to 7 million, across more than two dozen distinct Mayan-language groups 1 Sourced to the subject's own account'Maya' comprises numerous distinct contemporary ethnolinguistic groups (K'iche', Yucatec, Kaqchikel, Q'eqchi' and many others) whose individual and combined totals are drawn from differing national censuses across Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras. Sources
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