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Family life - part 1

60 second histories

This video covers:  An overview of life for an ordinary Maya family; work, school, child punishments!

Like most ordinary Maya families I live on the outskirts of the stone city in a simple thatched hut with my husband and children. My extended family all live close by within our compound. There are a few workshops here where we make pottery and we also have our ancestor’s tombs here as well as a shrine where we worship. We women all work together to tend our vegetable plots and prepare a meal twice a day. My daughters are all learning to cook and they carry out chores around the compound, while my son is following in his father’s footsteps, as all boys do. My son is so clever he’d love to go to school. Sadly though, it’s only rich noble children who can to go to school where they’re lucky enough to learn wonderful subjects like mathematics, science, astronomy and medicine. Thankfully my children are mostly well behaved which is just as well really, because if they were disobedient they would be punished. One of our child-punishments is to have your skin pricked or to be held over a fire to make them inhale the smoke from burning chilli peppers, gosh it really makes their eyes sting, but it teaches them a lesson.
Eras: 
Ancient Maya
Topics: 
Religion
Domestic Life
Farming & Food
Character: 
Maya Woman
Key words: 
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