Aztec And Mayan Culture Human Sacrifice

Seasonal rituals have existed for centuries, in many ancient civilizations they were a means to please gods to ensure that a good agriculture season happens or a means of reflection on oneself. In “The Lottery” the ritual that we see is an agricultural one; done every year. By the end of the ritual, one member of the community is stone to death by his or her fellow community member. This ritual represents one form of a ritual process, a sacrifice. A ritual that ends in sacrifices is a cruel practice that many old cultures followed; two notable cultures that considered human sacrifices essential to their success are the Aztec and Mayan civilizations. “The Aztecs the act of sacrifice… was a strictly ritualized process which gave the highest possible

honour to the gods and was regarded as a necessity to ensure mankind’s continued prosperity” (Cartwright). Like “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson this is done as a means of survival, they believed by doing this they would prosper and have a good season. Eventually the tradition of sacrifice faded in these cultures, just like in the short story people started to question the Lottery and other communities stopped doing it.
“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson follows the events of one community’s annual tradition of the Lottery, in which the “winner” is stoned to death by his or her fellow community members. The selection process for this is the same every year with some variants regarding the item in which they get selected; which shows the community’s disinterest in following the ritual exactly the same year after year. First the head of each family picks a piece of paper from the box, whoever has the paper that is marked, their family then continues in the process, each member of the family then draws, and finally whoever has the marked paper is then the “winner”. The cruel irony in the word “winner” in this story is the winner’s prize is death. The story – fictional of course – shows what civilizations do in order to survive. They practice these cruel rituals because they believe it’s the right thing to do and because their ancestors did it, so they follow it without question, though as time goes by many people soon begin to question why it is that they do it. In the story, it mentions that some other communities have stopped following the tradition and more plan on doing so.
The short story “The Lottery” only shows a community doing a small-scale ritual, but in civilizations like the Aztecs and Mayans these rituals were on a large scale, “The Aztecs did, however, take sacrifice to an unprecedented scale… it is thought that hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of victims were sacrificed each year at the great Aztec religious sites” (Cartwright, "Aztec Sacrifice").

They did this in payment to their gods, “In Mesoamerican culture human sacrifices were viewed as a repayment for the sacrifices the gods had themselves made in creating the world and the sun” (Cartwright). “Seasonal rituals assume that life is a "series" of leases that must be renewed each year” ("Seasonal Rituals"). They also did these practices like in the lottery to ensure a good harvest. “…the sacrifice was performed to the gods in hopes of rain and a good harvest. To the Maya, blood gave life” (Bresloff). “Seasonal ritual is always directed to securing the well-being of both the community and the individual” ("Seasonal

Rituals").
Human sacrifice was not the main ritual ancient cultures performed in order to have a good harvest season. “Needing rain for their crops, people in agricultural societies tried evoking magic in the form of imitation. Where frogs came out when it rained, witch doctors might croak like frogs to suggest to their gods that they should start the rain” ("Population Growth, Harvest Gods and Sacrifices"). They did anything they could to ensure that a good agricultural season might happen. Animals were also things that they would sacrifice, “It was believed that killing someone or an animal sent that creature, in the form of spirit, to the invisible world of the gods.” “Animals that were sacrificed in great numbers included crocodiles, iguanas, dogs, peccaries, jaguars, and turkeys” (" Maya Human Sacrifice"). Like in The Lottery these rituals have changed, now sacrifices are no longer done on humans, but more so on animals, “Even today some Maya practice the sacrificial rituals, but not on humans. Chickens are known to be the usual victims” (Bresloff). With more changes, the tradition will fade, just like it is every year in the communities of the Lottery.
Seasonal rituals are not only confined to agricultural or hunting purposes.

For example, the Christian Lent-Easter Cycle is a seasonal ritual; it “reflects the renewal of life that is inherent in seasonal rituals” ("Seasonal Rituals"). It follows the basic outline of a ritual, which is broken down into four rites. The first being the Rite of Mortification: “fasting and repentance as a means of preparation for the coming of the new” ("Seasonal Rituals"). In rite is represented in Ash Wednesday, “a time of mortification and repentance in which individually and collectively sin is confessed and one enters into a time of self-examination” (“Seasonal Rituals”). Churches hold services on this day which involves “ancient Biblical traditions of covering one's head with ashes, wearing sackcloth and fasting” ("Lent"). Purgation is the next rite, “sacrifices of expiation to rid the individual and community of guilt” (“Seasonal Rituals”). Purgation, of course, being the most common one in agricultural societies; The Lottery most likely follows the Purgation rite, by riding their community of a member, then they would reach a good outcome. In the Lent-Easter cycle, the Purgation is the 40 day period of Lent, in which people fast, and to “rid oneself and the community of sin and guilt” (“Seasonal Rituals”). This rite is then followed by invigoration: “the community attempts to renew the lease of life through rituals that affirm the social order and spiritual well-being.” This event is

Holy Week, in which people would reenact the last week of Jesus on earth. Lastly is Jubilation rite, “rites that celebrate the renewal of the lease on life.” Here we see people celebrating the renewed life that came with Jesus’s resurrection.
To conclude, Seasonal rituals were major aspects of agricultural societies and religions. Agricultural societies did them as a means of survival, they believed by doing these rituals they would be able to have a good harvest or hunting season, they performed these rituals in the Aztec and Mayan as a mean of repayment to their gods, thanking them for creating them and their world. They practiced these rituals in the sacrificial form, “For Mesoamerican peoples, offering human blood in sacrifice was a religious duty, necessary to sustain the world by maintaining the fertility of the land and the power of the ruler. It was also vital for satisfying the gods” (Phillips, 2006, p. 62). Just like the Mayans and Aztecs the people in the communities that still held the Lottery, thought that holding it every year was “necessary to sustain the world” by doing this they would prosper and have a good year. In time, these rituals faded in Aztec and Mayan cities, with fewer people believing in the power of what sacrificing people or animals might do. Within time, the people of the Lottery will continue to question the Lottery and deem it unnecessary to do and then call it barbaric, just as other towns have done. Soon more towns that still participate in the Lottery will let it fade from their memories. Just as the Aztec and Mayan rituals of Human Sacrifice.