Deities

Throughout the civilization of the Mayans, the people believed in deities and the afterlife.  They associated these gods or deities with animals.  But why did they use animals as figures for their gods?  I am puzzled by this fact.  Also, why do the Mayans have specific animals for specific things that these gods symbolize or worship?  What was interesting about the Mayans is that they believed in life after death.  This was especially interesting with the story of Pakal and how the Mayans designed his tomb to allow him to travel to the afterlife.  In my opinion, I am believe the same this that Ricky believes when he taught us about the conspiracy theory about Pakal flying into space on a spaceship.  That is really interesting in how we depict these different theories about the Mayans.