The Maya, like all human societies, performed rituals and ceremonies to communicate with the forces that governed their lives. To the ancient Maya, the main purpose of ritual was the procuring of life, health, and substance. The rulers of Maya centers performed sacrifices of their own blood. These rulers are depicted as bloodletters, drawing blood from the foreskin of the penis, a ritual of seemingly obvious symbolic meaning for human fertility. The blood was apparently absorbed by bark-paper strips contained in pottery vessels, and burned as offerings.
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