Some Practices in Society

Men among the Mayas were the providers, the fathers, and the sustainers of power with a delegated role in their society.

On the other hand, women were the generators of life and the ones in charge of preparing meals and feeding their beloved families. They should sustain effective relationships with them and be aware of most household duties. Since they were three years old, women should learn different tasks at home, like helping their mothers to assist their families and pleasing Mayan gods.

Among all Mayan families, sons left their parents' homes at the age of twelve to live in communal houses and get trained in the art of war and religion. They used to stay at those homes until their parents took them out to marry them to a wife who had already chosen them since they were children. Marriage was a matter of interest and power.

Men and women had to celebrate their civil unions separated to fulfil their lives and destinations. That was the balance of their cosmogony and personal relationship with their gods.

For the Mayan society, there was no antagonism between feminine and masculine genders or a struggle of competition or inequality between both genders. The practice of sexuality among Mayas, regardless of their homosexual, heterosexual, or bisexual identities, was an inherent part of their identity without any rank or social distinctions.

On vases or murals, some of the most common erotic practices regarding recurrent sexual freedom among the Maya showed they were part of a social and emotional balance.

In Uxmal during the Mayan Classic period, rain was represented by monumental phalluses carved in stone. It is highly absurd to accept those tribute carvings are pornographic or are lascivious symbols. They were considered disgusting by the Spaniards during the colony.

The Rain element is totally associated with God Chaac, symbolized in these phalluses. They suggest an intrinsic relationship between semen and the fertilizing effect of the rain on the earth. At the pre-Columbian city of Uxmal, there is a structure called "Temple of the Phalluses" with many of them.

On the other hand, the Maya showed captive men carved in sculpted figures or painted in frescoes exposing their genitalia to ridicule them when captured as war prisoners, painted in murals of the archaeological site of San Bartolo, Guatemala.

It is also possible to observe in murals and iconographies, the deformations of the penis in which sisal or stingray thorns were used, within specific rituals, without falling into fetishism, since these were practices for selected personalities.

From the bottom of the Sacred Cenote of the pre-Hispanic city of Chichén Itzá, some wooden penises were discovered and used as sex dildos for women, as another example of Sex & The Maya®.
In this ancient city, a site known as "Old Chichén" reserved for elite families, has a multi-chambered structure dedicated to the male genitalia called the "Palace of the Phalluses" named for its numerous phallic decorations. This area recently opened its doors to the public.
The ancient Mayans believed that sculptured phallus allowed grounds and harvests to get fertilized by Chaac, the God of Rain.

In other sites of the Yucatan Peninsula, known as the Maya zone of Mexico, there are records of more than 100 phallic figures.

Unlike men, in the case of women, their sex organs were not exposed other than emphasizing their breasts, nipples, and areola with dotted drawings. There are representations of elder women with hanging breasts who had breastfed their children for generations and, in their role, as caregivers or birth attendants.

In the Classic Maya period, the gods always played an essential role in the life and sexuality of the Mayan communities.

For example, old male gods showed a pronounced sexual impulse toward young gods or young men in portrayals of orgiastic scenes. In these sexual practices, old and young men ingested a fermented sisal liquor called "Chih" through enemas.

In the Late Classic, relationships between men and gods are allowed through sexual intercourses between Yum Kaax, the God of Corn, and mourner maiden shown in complacent erotic postures surrounded by allegories with costumed musicians.

The Mayans had sexual practices very similar to our contemporary world, however, some of their ancient sexual practices were totally different from the ones from our present historical time, as Mayans maintained a consummate and mythological sexual relationship between humans and gods.