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The origins of Maya civilization lie shrouded in time, but, like great civilizations the world over, those origins are linked to the cultivation of a plant crop and the emergence of an agrarian society. In Mesoamerica, the all-important crop was maize, the foundation of Maya Civilization and a staple of the Guatemalan diet to this day. Some scientists believe maize was first cultivated in the Guatemalan highlands, which may thus have been the cradle of all American highlands, cultures that came to rely on maize.
According to the “Popol Vuh,” a Maya-Quichè Manuscript which relates many legends of the Maya, the gods actually created the first men from corn dough, after two failed attempts to make them with mud and wood. Toda`s Maya farmers work year-round at clearing, plating and harvesting inheir milpas, or corn fields, as their ancestors have done for millennia in Guatemala.
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