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The rise and fall of the Aztec civilisation
What was the role of religion in the aztec civilization
The rise and fall of the Aztec civilisation
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The Aztec
The Aztec was a culture that dominated the Valley of Mexico in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. All the Nahua-speaking peoples in the Valley of Mexico were Aztecs, while the culture that dominated the area called the Tenochca. At the time of the European conquest, they called themselves either "Tenochca" or "Toltec," which was the name assumed by the bearers of the Classic Mesoamerican culture. Sadly, the many of the Aztec didn't survive after the arrival of the Europeans. But during the earlier years, the Aztec became one of the most advanced civilizations because of their religion, war, and agriculture.
In the Aztec religion, they performed human sacrifices for the gods daily. Sacrifice was one of the main events in the Aztec religion. They believed that the people being sacrificed, were their messengers to the gods. In basic ceremonies, slaves or victims of war were used to sacrifice. But in more important ceremonies, people of higher rank, especially warriors, volunteered themselves. Since there were many gods, the sacrifice depended on what god they were worshiping. Sometimes, the death was drowning, burning, or beheading. In a coarse of a year, the death toll was about several thousands. Human sacrifices were offerings to the sun and earth so that food would grow.
The Aztecs respected their gods very much. They put their greatest efforts into making strong, beautiful temples to please their gods. Their arts had a part in their religion. They drew pictures that told about their gods. They recorded religious events with hieroglyphics and even number symbols. The Aztecs worshipped about 1,000 gods! But they worshipped the sun god the most. Religious ceremonies took place in a temple called a teocalli. This temple had sacred pools for ceremonial cleansing, gardens, living quarters for a priest, and racks to hold the skulls of victims. Religion played a great part in Aztec life.
Although religion was an important motivator in Aztec life, farming was the common activity. Much of Aztec life was built around farming, which was extremely necessary to keep up with the growing population. Since the land that the Aztecs farmed was not fertile enough to grow enough food to support the population, the Aztecs were forced to invent methods to increase productivity. These methods included irrigation, fertilizer, and even building terraces on hills that were previously not farmable. The truly original idea, however, was chinampas. Chinampas were floating gardens built on swamps.
At the root of these interesting rituals, were the beliefs that the gods needed to be nourished by human beings. This was accomplished through human blood. They did this through a practice called bloodletting. Bloodletting is intentionally harming and drawing blood from the body. Those who were higher in status within the Aztec religion were expected to give the most blood during these Aztec rituals.
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,...
They had at least 128 gods, including but not limited to the divine beings of “rain, fire, water, corn, the sky, and the sun.” They were honored in numerous ways: ceremonies and festivals, dances and feasts, and by having humans sacrificed to them. (Background Essay) Read those last few words again. As said in the popular children’s show Sesame Street, “one of these things is not like the other”. The integration of human sacrifice into Aztec culture was not nearly as subtle as written above, though: The most important Aztec deity in their whole religion, Huitzilopochtli, was the sun god. According to Aztec creation myths, Huitzilopochtli required a great deal of power to raise the sun every morning and keep the night from overpowering day for too long. This strength was drawn from regular consumption of human blood and hearts. This in turn caused the Aztecs to strongly believe in needing to give these things to him. According to the Aztecs, sacrificing people to Huitzilopochtli was the ideal way to provide him with these
The Aztec believed that they were the chosen people by the gods. They were also polytheistic. They too had many gods. They sacrificed humans to please the gods.
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...
Two of the biggest and greatest civilization in the Americas were the Aztecs and Incas. These two civilization were both said to be conquered by the Spanish, but it wasn’t just the Spanish who conquered them. These two civilizations both fell from a combination of a weak government, lack of technology, new disease introduced by the invaders, and not being prepared for the invaders. For many centuries the Aztec civilization revolved around a ideological, social, and political system in which expansion was the cornerstone. Expansion was the cornerstone of their whole civilization, because their religion requested that a large number of human sacrifices where to be made to the gods.
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
When honouring the gods that they believed helped them pursue life, it took no limit to satisfy the gods. Egyptians had a way in which they had preist and their Pharaohs to communicate with the gods using rituals and ceremonies to doll like figures or idols that they treated like real people. Aztecs had a different idea when it came to honouring the gods. They believed human blood was the most precious item you could give to a god in which
According to their own history, the Aztecs, who called themselves the Tenochca or Mexica, started as a small nomadic tribe originating from a place called Aztlan. Aztlan existed somewhere in the southern part of California or the north west of Mexico. At this time they were Nahuatl speaking. During the twelfth century they started a period of wandering and in the thirteenth century they came across Mexico's central valley. There they decided to settle.
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. According to Aztec legend, the first world was created by a dual god- meaning that it was both a female and male- called Ometeotl. The Aztec pantheon included hundreds of gods, all who originated from Ometeotl himself. The Aztecs also believed that the gods represented forces of nature, such as rain, and also human characteristics (Benson 504). Prior to the current world the Aztecs believed that there were four other worlds, all which ended with a major catastrophe.
Both the Mayas and the Aztecs worshipped their gods through human sacrifice. The Olmecs were so dedicated to their gods that they transported 50 tons of boulders from the mountains to the shore. For the Mayas, even their games were related to their religion. The Aztec society was constantly at war for the sole purpose of making sacrifices to their many gods. Religion dominated the cultures of these Mesoamerican empires.
Although there are good reasons for emphasizing human sacrifice, there are even better reasons for emphasizing agriculture. An example is the Aztecs' exceptional use of their surroundings, such as the willow trees for anchors, and reeds for frames. Human sacrifice can be also emphasized for the Aztecs' belief that the Gods needed blood, but the spotlight is on agriculture.
This idea can be seen in document A. In document A Peter N. Steams says that the Aztec’s obtained much of their land by force. The Aztec’s can then use all of this land for farming. It’s easy to see how the Aztecs were able to stay in power for such a long time because of their method of gaining land. The idea of obtaining land and the vast size of their land is then revisited in document B. Document B shows the complexity of the Aztec’s farming system. It involves the method of chinampas. Diego Duran informs the readers that chinampas use rectangular areas of land used to grow crops. This shows how the Aztec’s were able to stay in power because this complex system is able to create up to six crops a year. Using this information people can see that the Aztec’s farming system was one of the main reasons that they were in power for so long. They stayed in power because they were able to sustain enough food to feed everyone. No other person or group of people that could come into power would be able to create a system that could help almost everybody in the land fed. The Aztec’s were agricultural
Why did the culture and customs require human blood to survive? How did high Aztec society view these sacrifice? These answers are easy to obtain using anthropology and archeology and historical documents from the time such as the infamous letters of Cortez. To the first question o why did the Aztecs practice human sacrifice to understand the reasons one must understand their epic religious beliefs. The Aztecs thought the world would end if they did not sacrifice human blood to their gods. The Gods were always locked in an epic battle and needed human blood to keep the universe from being destroyed. According to Aztec mythology, this world was the fifth and last universe so human blood was needed to continue the universe and prevent its destruction. The world had been destroyed four times before by the gods and it was up to the Aztecs who thought they were in the center of the world to stop its