The Mayans played a significant role to the colossal development of world history through to their contributions on written language, animism, irrigation systems, arts and architecture, ceremonials (bloodletting), math, astronomy, and complex calendars. They made up a portion of the total inhabitants during the pre-Columbian America 300 BCE- 900 CE. They belonged to the lowland settlers of the Mesoamerican regions and they shared similar ideologies on agriculture and medieval industrial traditions.
However, amidst these parallelisms, the Mayans diverged from one unified egalitarian social and political civilization to a complex political hierarchy. It is not similar to the political state of the Toltecs where two kings shared the ruling power or that of the Ancient Rome where a centralized bureaucratic system ruled. In the Mayan civilization, there were no empires, no single authority, no bureaucracy, but there were independent city-states. Archeological facts claim the existence of over 46 independent cities within the entire Maya site. Pieces of archeological evidences ranging from hieroglyphics, emblem glyphs, and site surveys support the subsistence of elite lineages, territorial rulers, town administrators, war captains, and priesthoods in each city-state. All these facts answered how was the Mayan political state organized—through self-governing political hierarchies of city-states.
As an explicit evidence, in the town of Piedras Negras—a particular city name, an artifact was discovered during the eighth century, depicting a stature of the Piedras Negras seated on his central big throne with kneeling figures. It is also believed that the city region ranking depended on the size of the Maya state. This also denotes political boundaries.
Researches disclosed economic differences of inhabitants in each city-state through pieces of evidences on the dissimilarities in house remains. Those in the elite lineage acquired larger domiciles than the supposed commoners. Because of their economic status and prestige, social stratification developed and their lineage maintained its ranking all throughout. This phenomenon became the basis of control by the elites in the political and religious processes of the city-state. As the city-state expanded, the political hierarchy developed as well. Then there came the concept of chiefdoms. The chiefdoms were also selected from the same elite lineage but instead of governing the land territory, the chiefdoms govern members of the city-state. They usually governed in warfare, trade, feats, and other social gatherings.
In conclusion, although the Mayan civilization decentralized and weakened during the onset of Aztec Empire, the Mayan’s sociopolitical way of life land discoveries contributed well to the evolution of ancient civilization. Observantly, all of us can draw a conclusion that for the most part of the present-day world, our contemporary political states resemble that of the ancient Mayans’.