Why is farming so important to the myans?

Answer 1

Mayan population was very hard working and dedicated. The Mayans were polytheists (they worshipped many gods). The most important god was the sun god. However almost every aspect of life had its own god. There was a maize god. They took up agriculture as their main occupation.

Maya agriculture was the foundation of civilization. Populations in densely forested regions, such as El Petén, "The cradle of the Maya civilization", in Guatemala, often rely on slash-and-burn agriculture. At first glance, this might seem like the approach the Maya used, but NASA archeologist Tom Sever doesn't think so. "In slash-and-burn agriculture, people clear the land to plant corn, for instance," he said. "They get 100 percent productivity the first year, 60 percent the next year, and something less than that afterwards. So in three to five years, the land is basically useless, and they have to move on." In a sparsely populated region, slash-and-burn agriculture might work, but Mesoamerica around 800 A.D. was one of the most densely populated areas in the pre-industrial world. The simple "Slash and burn wouldn't have enabled a population to grow to that size," he said. Sever believes the Maya took a different approach to farming: effective water management. "The biggest threat we face doing fieldwork in this region is dying of thirst," Sever explained.