Mayan Weapons and Religion

September 11, 2007- http://library.thinkquest.org/TQ0310200/mayawp.html. Unlike the Aztecs, the Mayans were not a warring tribe. They were fought mainly over territory but not often. This shortage in warfare gave them the time to advance in cultural acheivements. Of course, whenever the need arose for war Mayan people were eager to defend their land and pride. When I researched I found out that their weapons were so decorated that they did not even look like tools of death but more like decorations. The Mayans used weapons such as spears, knives, Atatl (Spear thrower), and the club. Every native american tribe was involved in some type of physical violence. I am starting to question if they were as brutal to each other as the Spaniards were to them. I've read about how the how some tribes were very evil to other tribes and their cruelty could not be much different than the Spaniards. Such as the Aztecs, they tore out people's hearts as sacrifices to the gods! They did that for the love of their gods just like the Spaniards conquered the native americans for love of their religion. So how do you compare the Spaniards motive for enslaving many Indians to the Indians own crualty towards each other. Besides weren't Indians savage and unlawful. Weren't they unorganized bands of people with no government? If they were then what the conquistadors did was a good thing by bringing organization to those wild savages. Well, that just my opinion I was just trying to see things from multiple perspectives. The picture below is a temple of the mighty Mayan warriors. The temple looks interesting and I am guessing it was built around 900AD-1200AD. That is because around that time the Mayans became increasingly hostile and became involved in more wars.