Uk’ib (drinking cup) depicting inebriated youths,

550–700 CE

Maya elite men spent their adolescence sequestered together in the royal houses of foreign courts. There they learned the skills and decorum expected of noble adults. The youth experimented with inebriation; on this vessel we see boys vomit and brawl under the influence of chij, a fermented agave beverage. Separated from women to safeguard against unwanted pregnancies, the young men may also have explored their burgeoning sexuality with one another and with the older men who oversaw them. This may be suggested subtly by the image of an older man caressing the knee of one of the fighting youths. Many fine uk’ib are labeled as the possessions of ch’ok (sprouts), a term used to describe young men. They likely were produced as a sort of commemorative “graduation” present given to males at around the age of twenty, when they were considered ready to marry and become full-fledged members of elite Maya society.