Long before the Eastern World was discovered by the Western World, the Aztecs were sacrificing people to their Gods. During the changing of seasons, the Aztecs gave thanks to their God, Tezcatlipoca. The time of Toxcatl was a great festival and the Aztecs turned a captive warrior into Tezcatlipoca for an entire year.
The Florentine Codex was written decades after the Spanish Conquest, by the Spanish priest Bernardino de Sahagun. The Aztec boys were the main writers of the Festival of Tezcatlipoca. Aztec boys were trained by Franciscan missionaries to adapt Spanish phonetics and the Latin alphabet to Nahuatl. Bernardino de Sahagun had the writings of the Aztec boys translated so that the Spanish people could understand the life and history of the Aztec people. The Aztecs took a captive warrior and turned him into the God, Tezcatlipoca, for an entire year. The ritual started by selecting one man out of ten to become Tezcatlipoca. The selection period was to make sure the man picked had to have a lean body. The man had to have a perfect body, there should be no defect or marks on his body. The man must learn how to blow his flute, smell the flowers, and smoke his pipe. No one wanted to see the man fat, however if he gained weight then the Aztecs would brine the man until he body was slim like Tezcatlipoca. The captive warrior lived as Tezcatlipoca for a year. He would play his flute and be Tezcatlipoca each day out of his year. The captive warrior had eight followers. Four of the eight men had haircuts like no one else in the Aztec culture. The four constables had haircuts that were spiked in the front. The Moctezuma loved the captive warrior because he was impersonating their God, Tezcatlipoca. The Aztec people brought the impersonator gifts in respect for Tezcatlipoca. The captive warrior dressed very detailed to impersonate Tezcatlipoca. The impersonator wore a crown of popcorn flowers, shell necklace, white seashell ornaments over his chest, and curved golden shell pendants hung from his ear. The impersonator had a thin lip pendent made of snail shell and down his back hung a cord bag called icpatoxin. On his upper arms, he wore golden bracelets and on his wrist he wore turquoise bracelets taking up his forearm. When the impersonators year was almost up, he married a woman during the time of Uey tocoztli.
The Aztec gods and goddesses, not only wanted blood, they wanted living human hearts. The living hearts were considered to nourish the gods and goddesses. All hearts were good, but the bravest captives were to be best nourishing to the gods as a result, widespread warring took place. The Aztec people sought to bring captives back to the Aztec temples for sacrifice. They would sacrifice people in name of the gods.
The religion and culture of the Aztecs played a role in the way the way they thought and fought. They worshiped the war-god Huitzilopochtli. He was identified with the sun and was called "the Giver of life" and "the Preserver of Life" (xxxix). The religion carried some ridiculous rituals such as human sacrifice along with using magicians and wizards to cast spells. In war conditions, human sacrifice played a big role because the Aztecs would not fight to kill,...
... will”, which gives Cortes all the power of the kingdom. Plus, Moctezuma is willing to give all the gold to Cortes without interfer. After all the lecture, Moctezuma take off, Cortes and his soldiers rest. All this was recorded during the presence of the great Moctezuma and the conquistador Hernan cortes, which later on would conquer Aztec’s empire, a thing that Moctezuma was afraid.
... A few photos of Tenochtitlan and warriors headdresses, clubs and obsidian blades would increase the pleasure 10 fold. Also in places the author tends to divert to other Ameriindian cultures and use their ritual practices as examples. These comparisons can bring the ritual practices of a 500 year extant culture into modern day belief.
They always try to come up with a way to make it sound like they are blood thirsty or they are cannibals for chopping a bunch of people. The reason they do this is because it’s part of their rituals that they believe in. In the book it says “The central act was the sacrifice of a captive warrior chosen for his perfect physical features” (Carrasco, 2014, p. 109). It makes it sound like they sacrifice people only because they have perfect bodies in this ritual. That they only capture perfect people and they kill the people who are not perfect. The reason they do this though is for it can represent itself as god because only a god can be perfect it cannot be imperfect. Also some of them do it because they believe by doing this they can ascend to the heavens where the gods are. Diaz del Castillo from the book makes it sound like the Aztecs are crazy people, and they enjoy killing people. In reality it is part of their rituals where they believe that they will ascend so that they will last forever like the
In 1510, Montezuma turned his attention to a series of revolts and revolutionary flare-ups in the Aztec territories. These battles only increased the size of the Aztec Empire. The Aztecs also continued their Flower Wars with the Tlaxcatlecans to provide human sacrifices to their god Huitzilopochtli. Around the same time, Montezuma’s oracles passed information that there were strangers in the midst. In fact, his astrologer priests foretold of the coming of Quetzalcóatl, a white bearded god who was believed to eventually reclaim their empire. Reputed claims of Whit...
In an essay by Carrasco titled “The Exaggeration of Human Sacrifice," the purpose of nextlaoalli seemed logical, as it was believed that the gods had died in order to create the lives of plants, animals and humans, and that a ritual sacrifice of plants, animals, and humans offered a way to transmit the energy of these beings back to the gods. These types of sacrifices arguably played a minute role in the actual rituals performed to appease the gods, but rather it was in combination with the regalia and practices of the priests which contributed to the overall “barbaric” atmosphere Daz experienced in these sacrificial rituals. Although viewed by the Spaniards as cannibalistic and obscure in nature, these rituals formed a pivotal function in the religious culture of both Tenochtitlan and the Aztec empire. The true purpose of nextlaoalli was misconstrued because of the numerous biases present among the collective Spanish mindset, and therefore these rituals became a target for the Spaniards to denounce the established religion under pretenses that it was paganistic, and therefore false.
...aniards, Mexicans, and Americans. The Aztec unlike the Kiowa warned their enemy before attacking them. When they decided to attack a city, an ambassador was sent to offer protection in turn for gold or a precious stone. The Aztec gave them about 20 days to make a decision. If the city refused, the Aztec sent more ambassadors and told the city leaders about the destruction of their city if they refused. If the city still refused, the Aztec would start a war against the city and destroy it. In these wars the Aztec took prisoners for sacrifice and precious stones or gold.
The Aztecs were a Mesoamerican people that lived in the area of central Mexico in the 14th, 15th and 16th century. It is said that Aztecs came from a place called Aztlan. Aztlan was the Aztec's homeland, nobody knows exactly where it was, but it is believed that Aztlan lies somewhere to the north of Mexico. Some experts claim that Aztlan is a mythical place. According to Aztec legends Huitzilopochtli, their god of war and of the sun, told them to leave Aztlan and to wander until they saw an eagle on a cactus budding out of a rock and eating a snake. The Aztecs traveled many years to find the legend that Huitzilopochtli had told. They left Aztlan in the 12th century. They built their settlements in the Valley of Mexico by Lake Texcoco. There were other Indian tribes living in the area when the Aztecs arrived. The Aztecs called their settlement Tenochtitlan. By the time they settled after two centuries of voyage they called themselves by a different name, the Mexica, but the term Aztec has been used as a ...
A major element of Aztec life was religion, as often is in the case in ancient civilizations. The Aztecs were a polytheistic people, and they often made use of human sacrifice to please their gods. Diaz often makes reference to the blood-stained walls of the Aztec temples in his account of the conquest. In reference to the success of Cortes and his soldiers, an anci...
The Aztecs believed they owed the gods everything for creating them and the world around them, therefore the gods needed to be fed or nourished daily. To honor their gods and show their gratitude they performed human sacrifices by offering hearts and blood. In doing so, they believed human sacrifices would ensure their existence to the world, and in turn help them in their after life. Aztecs also saw these rituals as a way to send a political message to control their own citizens and instill fear in their foreign neighbors. These sacrifices were performed by a specialized priest at the great temple, the Huey Teocalli, at the very top of the pyramid for all to witness. The heart was cut out while the victim was still alive. The still beating heart would then be burned in offering to the chosen god. Afterward, the body was thrown down the stairs of the pyramid where the head was then cut off and placed on a skull rack, known as a Tzompantli, displayed for all to see. (Ancient History
The Aztec civilization was a very complex society that was feared and known well for their various gory sacrifices done to please their many gods in their polytheistic religion. The much feared civilization began by the exile of one of the two Toltec leaders, which lead to the decline of the Toltec state that was later replaced by Mexica, or the Aztecs. According to the Aztecs, the land chosen to build their main city was chosen by the portrayal of an eagle perched on a cactus with a snake in its mouth. Through military might, the Aztecs managed to become the most powerful civilization in the mid-fourteenth century. They maintained their power through military might and the fear they caused other civilizations because of the human sacrifices they performed on their captured victims. In the mid-fourteenth century, the Aztecs used the method of human sacrifices to uphold fear in their neighbors by using the method year round to please the gods and ensure their survival.
The Aztecs cosmology was a unique combination of mythology. Their beliefs about themselves and their purpose were not something they took lightly. “The mystic-militaristic approach characteristic of Aztec religion…felt that the purpose of man’s creation was to provide blood for the maintenance of the Sun’s life” (Leon-Portilla, Aztec Thought & Culture, 122). With this perspective of themselves, the Aztecs believed that human sacrifice was not only justified but necessary for the lives of civilization. Simply put, mankind was “food” for god.
To begin with, the Aztec's cruel tribute system allowed Cortes to act as a liberator. The process of human sacrifice was extremely common and was feared by the majority of the common people. The Aztecs as a nourishment for the Sun and all other gods needed human sacrifice. The Aztecs sacrificed between 10,000 and 50,000 victims per year. As the majority of those who were sacrificed were war captives who opposed the Aztecs, they obviously greatly feared the brutal tribute system. However not only war captives were sacrifices, common adults and children were also sacrificed at times. Cortes himself was disgusted at the thought of human sacrifice, this allowed him to gain Indian allies as well as gain respect among Mexican tribes that feared and opposed the Aztecs. The majority of the population feared the process therefore making Cortes, whom despised the process, an appealing alternative. Many followed Cortes as they shared the same views on the 'human sacrifice' topic.
The children which were the stars and Coyotxauhqu became jealous and feared that now they would no longer be as important to her and decided the murder her. The children decapitated the Coatlicue which cause the new born child Huitzilopotchi to be born in armor and seek vengeance upon his siblings. He threw his sisters body down the mountain and tossed her head into the air to become the moon. This myth was used by the Aztecs as a metaphors as to why the sun, moon, and stars are how they are now, but also to show how Huitzilopotchi became the sun god telling how the sun and moon came into place. The Aztec people traveled until they found a cactus with an eagle nesting obeying Huilzilopotchli command and settled there which is now known as Tenochtitlan. After the fall of the Aztec, the work was found by Christians and reburied because of the assumption that it represented something evil. The art was not supposed to be viewed as evil but to show the Coatlicue as part human, part earth animal, and animal that represented life and death. The goddess played a