Chapter 4 Of Carter’s Book Essay Example for Free

Chapter 4 Of Carter’s Book Essay Warren Carter’s book offers the necessary understanding of the Christianity’s initial stages. The books structure is such that it revolves around seven important events that had a great impact on Christianity in early times. They briefly include the following: the demise of Alexander , comparison between Jesus and Alexander, the translation’ process of scriptures from Hebrew to Greek, the Jerusalem temple rededication that analyses the Maccabean revolt and its contribution to Jewish identity and the occupation of Romans of Judea gives a description of the roman rule in Judea and the Christian’s response on it. The chapter also include: Jesus’s crucifixion as addressed in the fifth event and herein an explanation is given for his crucifixion, the next event is the writing of the texts in the New Testament and the final event is the process of closure of the New Testament Canon. In this book, Carter explores both social and historical contexts. He explores the significance of the happenings during development of Christianity in early times. Even though the book’s content is in an ancient context, that reflections are relevant in today’s times. Chapter 4 discusses the existence of Roman’s power in Judea and the cities around it by Pompey who was the commander and the traitor of Judeans King Herod. It also shows the historical events that Judeans went over during that early time. In chapter 4, it highlights the Roman occupation of Judea and the takeover by Rome as it maintained power. Carter notes that â€Å"when imperial power is asserted, winners and losers will always be there†. The biggest losers in this case were Hasmoneans and Judeans while the winners were Romans, King Herod and his sons Archelaus, Antipas, and Philip. In the chapter, Herod has kept a tight grip of Judea. As a leader, he is quite biased and exercise ruthless power over his subjects regardless of them being Roman or Jewish. His actions were ridiculous as he was willing to commit any crime in order to satisfy his ambition. He would punish and execute anyone objecting his way of ruling even close people such as his wife, children, and his mother in law. Also, he was willing to do whatever is needed to maintain and please his relationship with his Romans bosses because he realized that Rome’s empire had started. On the other hand, he was successful in maintaining a tight grip because of his development projects in Judea. Herod offered excuses for being such a vicious ruler such that Judeans were in constant negotiation with him. The approaches to negotiation were as follows: â€Å"some waited for God’s actions through the Messiah while others found justice in entirely different ways† . There was a mixture of different things that happened in the period, and others sought for independence and a secure future, and some were violent in an endeavor to be more appealing to the Romans. The locals thus had varying evaluation of the rulers with some applauding them and others rebuking them in totality. The Judeans chose different ways in which they negotiated Roman presence and power. According to Carter, these negotiations involved the faith they placed in the Messiah. This was such that they waited for the intervention of the Lord through the Messiah’s sending. In so doing, they were in constant prayer with the hope that everything will change to the better. Others consulted and explored it through different ways that entailed involvement in acts of violence. The Judeans believed that the Messiah would save them from King Herod’s oppressive rule as well as the desecrating Romans. Several approaches have been used in trying to represent opposition and accommodate them in studying the New Testament. This methodology focuses mostly on power of ideological power struggles between imperial and native forces. In the first century CE, chapter 4 discusses how the Roman Empire exercised political authority over Jewish authorities. The mark’s gospel represents a form of resistant literature. This resistant indicates that Jesus ‘portrayal is not an attempt to abolish the whole structure of Empire but replacement to the emperor with the true Lord. This Postcolonial criticism is clear attempts to explore how authors in the ancient tried to negotiate dynamic power as a subjugated group’s members. In this chapter, one is enlightened on the genesis of Christian movement and in so doing helping in the understanding of the New Testament. In this discussion, it lights many historical events that may not briefly showed or discussed in details in Matthewâ€⠄¢s Gospel in the New Testament. In addition, the diversity selection of stories chosen by Carter in the emergence of the New Testament plays a huge role in giving more insights into its development. The factual information provided on the development of Christianity plays a significant role of shading light on the situation of events. The socio-cultural happenings offer a new perspective on the New Testament. The several illustrations in the book and the textual aids play a huge role in making the reader understand the New Testament fully. In the chapters of Carter’s book, both social and historical contexts are well explored. He explores the significance of events in that time to the development of Christianity in early times. Even though the chapters content is in an ancient context, the reflections are relevant in today’s times. Warren Carter’s book offers the necessary understanding of the initial stages of Christianity. The book’s structure is to revolve around seven important events that had a great impact on Christianity in early times. This chapter thus plays a tremendous role in further understanding of the New Testament to modern day Christians. The historical happening put things in perspective and assists in the following of the stories revealed in the New Testament. References Carter, Warren. Seven Events that Shaped the New Testament World. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013. Source document

Corporate Culture Enhance Organisational Performance Business Essay

Corporate Culture Enhance Organisational Performance Business Essay Organization culture is a source of sustained competitive advantage; corporate culture plays a very important role in organisational performance. By reviewing existing documents of the organizational culture research, we make a study of the theoretic elements of organizational culture and analyse its effect on firms performance. The study in this paper gives us a better understanding on how enterprises get better performance and establish the foundation of the successful corporations. The Hewlett Packard case analysis from Kotter and Heskett (1992) had confirmed that strong corporate culture enhances organisational performance Key words Organizational behaviour, organizational culture, firm performance Competitive advantage, resources, synergistic effect Introduction A recent study (Fun Yun et al. 2003) has investigated that the development of modern management science has been through three stages: Classical Management Theory, Behavioural Science Management Theory, and Management Theory Jungle (Harold Koonty 1961). In early 1980s the fourth stage organizational culture has began, this phase focuses on how to apply the cultural research results to the enterprise management. Organizational culture as a modern enterprise management theory and management strategy are more and more sought after from the business community and the academic circles from whole world. Some scholars believe that the enterprise competitive advantage not only can be relied on its capacity also with its ability in the organizational culture. However, many studies have shown that, when determining unique characteristics of a company, culture can even be decided for which strategic to choose. According to the view of Barneys (1986), culture is the continuous strategy for enterprises to give them a competitive advantage of the resources. Achieve competitive advantage at least in part rely on capacity. Therefore, the enterprises research extends to the key ability and resources such as culture is meaning very important. This literature review is revolve around cooperate culture and to discuss the basic theory of organizational culture and corporate culture for the influence of enterprise performance. Literature Review 1 Organizational culture theory research evolution process of a brief review The concept of organization culture is acknowledged by Pettigrew (1979) in the article organizational culture research , and in 1982 attracted the attention of academic and business management circles mainly due to few books published: Ouchi (1981) theory z; Pascale and Athos (1981) the Japanese management art L6; Deal Kennedy(1982) corporate culture , Peters Waterman(1982) search of excellence. Since then, organization of culture has opened a new page and a lot of organizational culture research paper is constantly emerging by group of distinguished researchers as Ouchi, Hofstede, Sehein, Wilkins etc, they are excellent at the area of organizational culture in their respective areas of expertise and conducted successful research. After the 80s the academics and businesses were mainly studying the organization culture management that were based on the following elements, comparative management culture, factual study of the culture and management of the cooperate culture and other relative elements of the culture. Hofstede (1980) points out variation of manage practices, similarity or dissimilarity due to different culture or countries, and hance finding out the effect of culture on organizational performance. As Lincoln and Kalleberg (1990) In their reseach of the United States and Japanese enterprises explored the work attitude with emphasis on the culture, and they visualize culture as a management tool for the organization control. This is also further illustrated by Sekaran and Snodgrass (1989) with four counties (United States, Japan, Sweden, Yugoslavia) showing the effect of culture on the organizations efficiency difference. Some culture researcher like Schein (1990) and Kotter and Heskett (1992) were using questionnaire or empirical data as research method. They are studying aims to determine if there is a correlation between organization culture and enterprises long term business performance. Considerable attention has been given to leadership and organization culture. Also there are other researcher consider effectiveness between coalition of culture and other factor during the organization management. Ogbonna et al. (2000) claims that when the enterprise face to pressures from external environment, the leader style impact organization culture and then further impact to organisation performance. Leadership style cannot be directly affect organizational performance and can only through the organizational culture as a media to indirect influence performance. Corresponding is that competitive and innovation of Cultural characteristics directly affect performance. 2 Influence corporate cultures on enterprise performance According to Kilman et al (1985) comment, there is three degree of impacts: (1) Cultural orientation, meaning that Cultural influence organizations operational direction correctively; (2) the permeability of culture, means the degree of consensus in the members of the organization for the culture. (3) Cultural strength means the degree of loyalty to culture by organizations members. Strong cultures have greater influence that means it has a wide range of permeability and far reaching impact on the strength of the entity. If the team member are provided with consistent targets and shared the same values, they will be satisfied with what they are doing and will be more focused with their tasks. However even if the culture of the organization is pointed in right direction but the members cannot understand or achieve it or be loyal to it, then this will be a weak culture with negative impact on the performance of the entity. Trice (1993) also indicates that a strong organizational culture also can reduce the cost of decision- making and make work specialization. Strong organizational culture has been recommended by Akin and Hopelain (1986) to the entire managers who wish to enhance their productivity or performance. The organization will receive great return from investments or marketing if they propagate culture and using it as the decision making tool. The organizations that do not propagate culture always get less return; it has been confirmed by Denison (1990). Regardless of companies strategy or culture being people or reliability or productivity orientated they all still compete for great profit and productivity. IBM CEO Tom Watson in 1962 delivered a speech at Columbia University, he said: related business operating performance, enterprises management thoughts, spirit and goals are much more important than technical resources, economic resources, enterprise structure, invention and random Decision. Of course, all these factors also greatly affect the performance of the business. But I think, all those factors are sourced from employees and how they extent of basic beliefs of enterprises ideas (Jack E. S. 2012). But at many enterprises, organizational culture has been viewed as subordinate, even they described it as companys slogan, they deem the organization culture is creating needless official documents and procedures, and organization culture cannot bring any value to the enterprise. Kets deVries and Miller (1986) argued that when the business face hardship due to factors that is beyond their control even the culture is not helpful and may affect the company s performance negatively. Some scholars have began to try or test the construction of culture-performance causal relationships, such as Peters and Waterman (1982) of excellent companies , all emphasize positive effect of organizational culture on organizational performance . All in all, comprehensive enterprise practices and scholars research results shows organizational culture is positive factor for enterprise to obtain the best performance, to make right decisions and also face and deal with external factors. Therefore, all the attention and practice researchers been that cultural pattern is commodity and culture and organizational performance are coupled (PetersWaterman 1982). Conclusion To sum up, in the 20 years of organizational culture research, great achievements have been made. Culture can be regarded not only as a Relative special management field; it can also create influence and change cultural reality. Although some scholars believe that thotre of lack of the organization turn the research category too widely, as if from soup to nuts (Alvesson, 1993)  ¼Ã…’This is mainly due to the organizational culture research lack of a clear Analysis framework and theory foundation for culture research orientation, which led to the blind man feels like results (Mirvis Sales, 1990). Therefore, this paper is based on the organizational culture of the evolution process. I have briefly reviewed and analysed the theoretical basis of organizational culture, and it link to enterprise performance. this paper discusses the organizational culture for the influence of so as to further study on culture as the foundation. The organizations of the future culture research must be around the competitive advantage it creates and maintains in wider and deeper level and strategic change, other factors such as technology innovation behaviour by combining research, for enterprises in the fierce competition process on top is a positive.

Craig Waddell’s Perils of a Modern Cassandra and the Ehrlichs’ The Population Bomb :: Perils of a Modern Cassandra Population Bomb

Rhetorical Strategy in Craig Waddell’s Perils of a Modern Cassandra and the Ehrlichs’ The Population Bomb In Perils of a Modern Cassandra, Craig Waddell suggests that the Ehrlichs should revise their rhetorical strategy in The Population Bomb because it is ineffective in attracting readers to their argument. Particularly problematic are the Ehrlichs’ alienating attitude towards non-educated non-environmentalists in his audience, a lack of both an inviting ethos, and a lack of compassion for the reader. Since the goal of a book is usually to inform or persuade readers, the Ehrlichs’ book does not serve its purpose and is therefore ineffective. The same â€Å"ineffective argument† problem can be seen in Betrayal of Science and Reason, since many of the Ehrlichs’ key ideas on environmental problems (along with their contestable use of rhetoric) in The Population Bomb are mirrored in Betrayal of Science and Reason. The following passages were taken from Betrayal of Science and Reason to demonstrate what Waddell sees as problems in the Ehrlichs’ rhetoric:â€Å"†¦Paul began to appear on radio and television to condemn the behavior of human beings in general. The possible public response worried him less than his colleagues’ reactions because, as is the case for most scientists, Paul’s ego rewards come mostly from the approval of his peers† (Ehrlich and Ehrlich 8). This passage supports Waddell’s claim by showing that one of the Ehrlichs is lacking in compassion toward humankind. When reading this passage, the reader gets a sense of ethos that revolves mostly around Paul Ehrlich’s ego, and consequently, the reader feels that the entire environmentalist argument of the book was written to satisfy his ego. This is because Paul Ehrlich liked the approval of his educated, environmentalist peers, and therefore, he really did not need to care about others in his audience. â€Å"Anti-science as promoted by the brownlash is not a unique phenomenon in our society; the largely successful efforts of creationists to keep Americans ignorant of evolution is another example, which is perhaps not entirely unrelated† (Ehrlich and Ehrlich 12). This is a good example of how the Ehrlichs inadvertently alienate large sections of their actual, not invoked, audience. The Ehrlichs may have invoked an audience full of educated, environmentalist readers, but this is not the audience who is reading Betrayal of Science and Reason. There are also creationists who might happen to harbor some environmentalist sentiment and who might want to share a stronger environmentalist view given that the Ehrlichs’ argument is persuasive enough.

Stonehenge :: European Europe History

Stonehenge Stonehenge, one of the great Seven Wonders of the World, but what do we really know about it. What was its purpose, how was it built and by whom. Many different answers come up when asking the question "What was the purpose of Stonehenge", some say that it was a horrid place, which the Druids used for religious sacrifice, but most others have a more positive idea. A temple of the sun, a Pagan Cathedral, or a holy sanctuary in the midst of blessed ground, or maybe a clock or even a place to Predict Eclipses. No one really knows what it was used for; this is due to a great number of facts surrounding all of these ideas. Many ideas come up when talking about why this great structure was built along with an equal amount on who built it. The Druids is the most common response because the Druids inhabited most of the area in which Stonehenge is built. The Pagans are another common answer to this age old question because of the building structure of Stonehenge how it resembles a Pagan Cathe dral. Whoever built Stonehenge, they were an extremely advanced society either on purpose or by complete fluke. Many say that because of Stonehenge's exact solar and lunar alignment. That is was the most common thought is that it was built to predict eclipses for worshiping. The following essay is going to state the facts and myths about the great Stonehenge. By the end of this essay, hopefully a solid conclusion will be found to be the most plausible answer for Stonehenges construction. The moon, it has been a sight for all over time. Back long ago little was none of the reasons for an eclipses, it was thought to be a sing from the gods. In a society which worshiped gods for all the mysteries of the world, the eclipse must have been very special. The builders of Stonehenge must have been marveled at the sight of this holy event, which happened every four years. Most likely the great Stonehenge was built to be a prediction device for the eclipse. Many people have studied Stonehenge and many have found that the stones are mathematically placed to show when and eclipse might occur. "In favor of this solution - that the Aubrey holes were used as a computer are these facts: the number 56 is the smallest number that measures the swing of the moon with an over-all accuracy of better than 3 days, and lunar cycles provide the only method of long-range eclipse prediction related to the seasons of the year.

Origins of World War II :: World War II History

Origins of World War II World War II was much more than battles, statistics, politics, and opinions. The things that contributed to its beginning, what happened during the war, and the effects of the war are still being debated and discussed. Patrick Finney assembles some of the best writings for a number of subjects relating to World War II. First the reader is introduced to the basic views, where they originated, and why they are still discussed today. The truth is, even fifty years after the end of the war, it is still very much part of our lives. Finney's first collection of readings are written on the subject of what contributes to the war. Two of the authors have very different opinions on Chamberlain, and they focus on his actions preluding the war. There is also an writing describing the French during this period, and finally there are two authors whom debate about the state of Germany at this time. After the conditions of Great Britian, France, and Germany have been addressed, Finney explains the goals, economics, strategies, and policies of the countries that contributed to the breakout of war. The last section addresses the topics of the Spanish Civil War and its effects on World War II, what happened at Munich and how it effected Hitler in the long run, the strategies and policies regarding a German attack on Poland, and finally the major points of the war and the post-war effects. The selection of essays and writings were excellent for supporting the theme Finney was aspiring to fulfill. His goal in writing was to represent the major powers World War II and keep the attention balanced between all of the involved countries. The credibility of the writers involved in this book appeared to be very good. Simply by listing their credentials in Finney's commentaries, one can assume that they are respectable. Most of the authors have written extensively on the topic that Finney publishes in his book, therefore you know that they researched more than what was written in Finney's book. Since most of Finney's commentary consisted of interpretations and explanations of the readings that would follow, there was not a great deal of facts to be misrepresented by Finney himself. The commentaries were a excellent was to start off the readings. Finney provided an understanding of what the writer was going to say, not only in support of what they were going to say, but also provided some comments on opposing opinions.

Nabakov and Orwell: The Politics of World-Building Essay

Nabakov’s primary point in â€Å"Good Readers and Good Writers† is to embrace the notion that the best writers create new realities out of chaos in their writing. Good readers, then, must abandon traditional notions of history and socioeconomic theory, and approach works with a sense of imagination and a well-honed sense of aesthetics. Orwell’s famous â€Å"Politics and the English Language† bears certain similarities to this, and may well have been a precursor to Nabakov’s theories. Orwell believes that politics led to the over-complication of language, from flowery metaphors to indecipherable scientific jargon. This seems readily apparent during election season, when candidates hide true perspectives and platforms behind a bevy of blinding buzzwords. However, it is important to note that what Orwell excoriates, Nabakov celebrates—after all, Nabakov insists that a good reader will have a good dictionary, the better with which to map out this new world that their favorite author is shaping. This is certainly true in a college education, where one cannot simply advocate simplicity and refuse to learn any complexity. In Orwell’s defense, he was not attempting to offer criticism on a literary level, but wished to comment on the political rhetoric of the time, which then (as now) sought to use inflated phrases to inflate candidates who, in reality, were downright hollow inside. Nabakov advocates something closer to a cause/effect structure—he does not denigrate the (often complicated) politics embedded within literary fiction. Rather, he urges good readers to enjoy the stories they read as fantastic literature first, and political screed second. Orwell would be unlikely to agree with this view, as his two most famous works (Animal Farm and 1984) serve as political warnings against Communism, and the stories wrapped around these warning are, for all intents and purposes, ornamental only. To extend the metaphor further, Nabakov’s theory stresses the necessity of the ornaments in order to appreciate the whole tree; viewing a story with a pre-packaged idea of what it means was just as unseemly to Nabakov as the reuse of political slogans was to Orwell: it is nothing more than an excuse to avoid original thought, which is necessary to good writers, readers, and politicians.

The Mayans

[pic] By Chandler Anschutz Standard to be covered by this project: Describe the diverse characteristics of early American Civilizations and societies in North, Central, and South America by comparing and contrasting the major aspects (government, religion, interactions with the environment, economy, and social life) of American Indian civilizations and societies such as the Maya, Aztec, Inca, Pueblo, and/or Eastern Woodland peoples. [pic] Rise and Fall of the Mayans The Maya people lived from 11,000 B. C. to almost 1500 A. D. At 11,000 B. C. he first hunter-gatherers settle into the Maya Highlands. According to Mayans Long Count Calendar the creation of the world takes place in 3114-3113 B. C. In the year 2000 B. C. the Olmec civilization is on the rise, the root of many traditions in the Mayan Culture. 700 B. C. Maya people form a written language of a form of hieroglyphics. The Mayan script is logosyllabic combining about 550 logograms (which represent whole words) and 150 syllabog rams (which represent syllables). There were also about 100 glyphs representing place names and the names of gods.Only about 300 of these glyphs were commonly used. In 300 B. C. the Mayans adopted the idea of a hierarchical society ruled by nobles and kings. The city of Teotihuacan is founded in 100 B. C. and becomes the center of culture, religion and trading in Mesoamerican for centuries. The Mayan people learned to farm the harsh tropical land. As populations grew, they adopted more intensive methods of cultivation including composting, terracing, and irrigation. They filled in swamps to creating fields and used silt and muck from bottomlands to fertilize enclosed gardens.Artificial ponds gave a place to hold fish, and corrals held deer and other game flushed from the forest. Their settlements grew into large city-states and with the city-states came large palaces and temples. They were very artistic; they made ceramics, murals, and sculptures. They understood the concept of zero and formed a very extensive hieroglyphic form of writing. Their year had 365 days to it and they even had made the leap year correction. They predicted solar eclipses, watched the stars, and even had their temples built so that at a certain time of year they’d face the sunrise or sunset exactly.The Mayans were led by Maya Kings, who got their power from the gods. They were both priests, interpreting religion and as leaders in times of peace and war. These kings would perform public rituals giving metaphysical meaning to the movement of the heavens, changing calendars, and even royal succession. Besides the spiritual rituals the Maya cities functioned just as a normal city would trading, fighting, making alliances, and gaining/losing land. Waka, a Maya city had become a large center of trade. Goods like jade, obsidian, and pyrite even made it to the Mayans.Waka also had a tributary to the San Pedro, it was sheltered and had room to lodge large canoes. The Mayans also invented a type of flak jacket. It was a cotton vest, stuffed with rock salt. A guy by the name of Fire is Born led an army toward Waka in means to gain reinforcements. Fire is Born was sent to conquer Tikal. With his new found reinforcements from Waka it took him a week to reach Tikal and conquer them. Fire is Born became the cities new overlord. Following Fire is Born’s take over of Tikal, Tikal itself started to expand. In the year 800 A. D.Cancun was overrun by invaders. These invaders took 31 royal hostages into the court yard, probably members of the royal family, and systematically decapitated every one of them. The king of Cancun was not spared, nor was his wife or children. The invaders took none of the riches or valuable items of the city, instead they defaced all of the monuments and toppled them face down. Almost every city was met by its end in this way or simply faded out of existence. Nobles abandoned palaces; even the homeless who had come to live in the palaces event ually abandoned them.The downfall of the Maya civilization can not be put of one simple yet terrible event. The collapse is due to many possible problems that could have damaged the empire. Resources grew scarce; kings with religious rituals lost their luster, leading instability and desperation to fuel destruction warfare. These problems may have been the cause of the fall of the Mayan civilization. There is not one exact known reason for the end of the Mayans and is for now still a mystery. |  [pic] |[pic]   |  [pic]   [pic] | |  IMIX |  IK' |AK'BAL |K'AN | |ee mesh |eek' |ok bol   |k' on   | |waterlily, world |wind |night-house |maize | |  [pic] |  [pic] |[pic]   |  [pic] | |  CHIKCHAN |  KIMI |MANIK' |LAMAT | |cheek chon |kee me |ma neek' |la mot   | |snake |death |  hand |Venus | |[pic]   |  [pic] |  [pic] |[pic]   | |  MULUK' |OK |  CHUEN |  EB | |mul ok' |ak   |chew in |eb | |water |dog |monkey |tooth | |  [pic] |  [pic] |[p ic]   |  [pic] | |BEN |IX |MEN |KIB | |ben   |eesh   |men   |keeb   | |reed |jaguar |eagle |soul | |  [pic] |  [pic] |  [pic] |[pic]   | |KABAN |ETZ'NAB |KAWAK |AHAW | |kah bon |ehts' nob   |kah wok   |ah how   | |earth   |flint, knife |storm |Lord |These symbols were the symbols the Mayans used to represent the 20 days of their month. With each symbol are their Yucatec names, pronunciation and approximate translation. These are the Mayan words for units of time: Day = Kin (keen) Month of 20 days = Uinal (wee nal) Year of 360 days = Tun (toon) 20 Tuns = K'atun (k' ah toon) 20 K'atuns = Baktun (bock toon) [pic] This is a picture of Hunab Ku. He is the supreme god of the Mayans religion. He is also the creator god. He is the Mayan equivalent for Greeks Zeus. Hunab Ku has power over the other gods. [pic] This is Cizin, the Mayan god of death. He would be a darker equivalent of the Greeks Hades.He requires a brutal sacrifice such of decapitation. Some of the religious rituals Maya Kings performed were sacrifices to this god to keep his wrath at bay. [pic] Kinich Ahau, the Mayan sun god. He brought the sun across the sky. He was an important god to the Mayans; they needed the sun to grow their crops. Sacrifices were also made to this particular god so he’d continue to bring the sun out. [pic] The Mayan god of rain and lightning, Chac, was also very important to the Maya. He brought rain to water the crops. Sacrifices were made to him to continue bringing the rain and to not use lightning against the Mayans. Chac played an important role in the Mayan religion. [pic]This is an ancient Mayan temple in Cancun. From the Mayan Classic Period, 300-900 A. D. this temple was used as a site for religious rituals. These rituals, performed by the king of the city, would have been sacrifices to the gods. Many gods were sacrificed to for the Mayans believed that the gods would be kind to them and help them if they had been sacrificed in return. [pic] This is a map of where the Maya Civilization lived. This part of the world is the southern end of Mexico and Guatemala. The sites shown on the map are locations of Mayan cities and villages. There were many of cities in Central America. [pic] This is a Mayan Ruins site. It’s the site of Tikal, a great city.Fire is Born conquered this city just a week after gaining reinforcements at Waka. This city later went on the offensive and expanded. [pic] These are the ruins of Chichen Itza. Chichen Itza was a large city of the Mayans. The temple would have been of great religious importance. Many a sacrifice would have taken place within those walls. [pic] This is a temple from Uxmal, an ancient Mayan city. This temple would have been used as a religious place used for rituals and sacrifices. Mayans sacrificed people to the gods in return for peace and aid with whatever happened to be the problem at the moment. Bibliography †¢ â€Å"The Mayan Civilization Timeline. † Mexconnect. 01 Jan 2008. Web. Jan 2010. . †¢ Criscenzo, Jeeni. â€Å"The Maya. † The Maya. Web. 8 Jan 2010. . †¢ Ager, Simon. â€Å"Mayan Scipt. † Omniglot. Web. 8 Jan 2010. . †¢ â€Å"The Mayan Calendar. † Web Exhibits. IDEA, Web. 8 Jan 2010. . †¢ â€Å"The Mayas. † Minnesota State University. Web. 8 Jan 2010. . †¢ â€Å"The Mayas. † Civilizations in America. Web. 8 Jan 2010. . †¢ â€Å"Mayan History Timeline. † One World Journeys. Web. 8 Jan 2010. . †¢ â€Å"The Mayan History. † Mayan Indians. Web. 8 Jan 2010. . †¢ â€Å"The Rise and Fall of the Mayan Empire. † Science at NASA. Web. 8 Jan 2010. . †¢ Gugliotta, Guy. â€Å"Maya Rise and Fall. † National Geographic. 01 Aug 2007. Web. 8 Jan 2010. .