accuracy was important for the elaborate rituals and ceremonies of the Mayan religion, which was based on a pantheon of gods. Ritual blood¬ letting, torture, and human sacrifice were employed in an attempt to pro¬ pitiate the gods, ensure fertility, and stave off cosmic chaos. At the height of its Classic period, Mayan civilization included more than 40 cities of 5,000-50,000 people. After 900 the civilization declined rapidly for unknown reasons. Descendants of the Maya are now subsistence farmers in southern Mexico and Guatemala. See also Chichen ItzA; CopAn; Lacan- don; Maya codices; Maya language; Quiche; Tikal; Tzeltal; Tzotzil; Uxmal.
Maya Codices Books in Mayan hieroglyphic writing that survived the Spanish conquest. They are made of fig-bark paper folded like an accor¬ dion, with covers of jaguar skin. Though most Mayan books were destroyed as pagan by Spanish priests, four are known to have survived: the Dresden Codex, probably dating from the 11th or 12th century, a copy of earlier texts of the 5th-9th century; the Madrid Codex, dating from the 15th century; the Paris Codex, slightly older than the Madrid Codex; and the Grolier Codex, discovered in 1971 and dated to the 13th century. They deal with astronomical calculations, divination, and ritual.
Maya languages or Mayan languages Family of about 30 American Indian languages and language complexes, spoken by more than three million people, mainly in southern Mexico and Guatemala. While some have few remaining speakers, Yucatec in Mexico and K’iche (Quiche), Kaqchikel (Cakchiquel), Mam, and Q’eqchi’ (Kekchf) in Gua¬ temala count speakers in the hundreds of thousands. Maya languages were recorded in an indigenous script (see Maya Codices; Mayan hieroglyphic writing), as well as in colonial documents in a Spanish-based orthogra¬ phy, including the Popol Vuh and the Yucatec prophetic texts known as the Books of Chilam Balam.
Mayakovsky \m3- I y3-'k6f-ske\, Vladimir (Vladimirovich) (b.
July 19, 1893, Bagdadi, Georgia, Russian Empire—d. April 14, 1930, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.) Russian poet. Repeatedly jailed for subver¬ sive activity, he began writing poetry during solitary confinement in 1909. On his release he became the spokesman for Futurism in Russia, and his poetry became conspicuously self-assertive and defiant. He was the lead¬ ing poet of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the early Soviet period, producing declamatory works saturated with politics and aimed at mass audiences, including “Ode to Revolution” (1918) and “Left March” (1919) and the drama Mystery Bouffe (performed 1921). Disappointed in love, increasingly alienated from Soviet reality, and denied a visa to travel abroad, he committed suicide at age 36.
Mayan VmI-on\ hieroglyphic writing System of writing used by people of the Maya civilization from about the 3rd century ad to the 17th century. Of the various scripts developed in pre-Columbian Mesoamer- ica, Mayan writing is by far the most elaborate and abundantly attested: about 800 signs have been inventoried in more than 5,000 instances (see Maya Codices). Signs—some representational, some quite abstract—are either logographic, representing words, or syllabic, representing consonant-vowel sequences. Typically, up to five signs are fit into tight square or rectangular clusters, which are further arranged into rows or grids. The language of Classic Period writing (c. ad 250-900) is gener¬ ally thought to be Cholan, ancestral to several modern Maya languages; later inscriptions were in Yucatec. By the 1990s scholars had an accurate grasp of 60-70% of Mayan inscriptions, with some texts almost com¬ pletely readable and some still quite opaque. Most inscriptions record sig¬ nificant events and dates in the lives of Mayan rulers.
Mayer, Louis B(urt) orig. Eliezer Mayer or Lazar Mayer (b.
July 4, 1885, Minsk, Russian Empire—d. Oct. 29, 1957, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.) Russian-born U.S. film executive. He immigrated to Canada and then the U.S. with his family and worked in his father’s scrap-iron business from age 14. He bought a small nickelodeon near Boston in 1907, and by 1918 he owned the largest chain of movie theatres in New England. He founded a film production company in Hollywood in 1917 and merged it with other companies to form MGM in 1925. Under his leadership, MGM became Hollywood’s largest and most prestigious studio, aided by his artistic director, Irving Thalberg. Mayer had under contract many of the outstanding screen stars of the day, including Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, and Judy Garland. He was considered the most powerful Hollywood executive until his forced retirement in 1951. He was the chief founder of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Mayer Vml-arX, Maria (Gertrude) orig. Maria (Gertrude) Goeppert (b. June 28, 1906, Kattowitz, Ger.—d. Feb. 20, 1972, San
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Diego, Calif, U.S.) German-born U.S. physicist. She immigrated to the U.S. in 1930, where she taught at various universities. She worked on the separation of uranium isotopes for the Manhattan Project. Her work in theoretical physics led to the explanation of properties of atomic nuclei based on a structure of “shells” occupied by protons and neutrons. For her work she was awarded a 1963 Nobel Prize, which she shared with Hans Jensen (1907-73) and Eugene Wigner.
Mayerling affair See Rudolf
Mayfield, Curtis (b. June 3, 1942, Chicago, Ill., U.S.—d. Dec. 26, 1999, Roswell, Ga.) U.S. singer-songwriter and guitarist. He became a vocalist and guitarist with the Impressions in 1957. Together with Sam Gooden (bass) and Fred Cash (low tenor), Mayfield (high tenor) devised a much imitated vocal style. Mayfield was a self-taught guitarist, and when he tuned his instrument to a natural chord, he achieved a subtle lyricism that was also influential. Mayfield’s songs, including “It’s All Right” (1963), “People Get Ready” (1965), and “Choice of Colors” (1969), were inspirational and humanistic. The high point of his solo career (from 1970) was the influential soundtrack to Superfly (1972), and he became a major force in the development of the musical style known as funk. He was paralyzed when a lighting tower fell on him during a concert in 1990.
mayflower See trailing arbutus
Mayflower Compact (1620) Document signed by 41 male passen¬ gers on the Mayflower before landing at Plymouth (Massachusetts). Con¬ cerned that some members might leave to form their own colonies, William Bradford and others drafted the compact to bind the group into a politi¬ cal body and pledge members to abide by any laws that would be estab¬ lished. The document adapted a church covenant to a civil situation and was the basis of the colony’s government.
mayfly Any insect of the order Ephemeroptera, found around streams and ponds. The approximately 2,000 species are up to 1.6 in. (4 cm) long, have triangular membranous forewings, smaller round hind wings, and two or three long, threadlike tails. Wings are held vertically when at rest. Chewing mouthparts in the aquatic larvae are vestigial in the adult, which lives just long enough to mate and reproduce. Males “dance” in large swarms to attract females. The adult’s entire life span is usually only a few hours (though at least one species lives as long as two days), and poets have used the mayfly as a symbol of life’s ephemeral nature.
mayhem Crime of willfully and permanently crippling, mutilating, or disfiguring any part of another’s body. Some jurisdictions do not distin¬ guish between mayhem and other types of battery. Japanese law treats all batteries similarly; Indian law divides bodily harms into “hurts” and “grievous hurts.” In most U.S. states mayhem is encompassed by assault and aggravated assault.
Mayhew, Henry (b. 1812, London, Eng.—d. July 25, 1887, London) English journalist and sociologist.