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Aztec Dbq Analysis

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Human sacrifice has been a part of many religions, so why do historians only emphasize the barbarities of human sacrifice and not why people were sacrificed? The Aztecs were one of the many groups of people to use human sacrifice. The reign of the Aztec Empire was during the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries in Southern Mexico. The Aztec Empire had a huge population and was very influential in its time. Although influential and powerful the reign of the Aztec Empire came to an end in the year 1519 when Hernan Cortés, the Spanish conquistador, invaded the Aztec Empire and destroyed much of their culture. While the Aztec empire was flourishing they practiced human sacrifice for flower wars, political reasons, and other ulterior motives. Historians …show more content…

"Aztec rulers, priest, and nobility used the cult of war and large-scale human sacrifice for political purposes to terrorize their neighbors and subdue the lower class (Doc F)." The Aztec found a way to use the act of human sacrifice to their advantage, they were able to accomplish this by using intimidation on their rivals. The Aztec also made "independent territories resulting in deliberate policy that unoccupied lands remain for future "flower wars" (Docs A). The Aztec people were really smart in how they did that but extremely cruel. The Aztecs made sacrifice the main purpose of life of these people. Even though they had well executed plans to capture as many people for sacrifice it was no way to treat a person. Also, historians rarely talk about the ulterior motives of the rulers of the Aztec empire and where or not the sacrifices were just for the keeping the gods at ease. One "possible explanation is demographic. If central Mexico was as densely populated as we believe, then the sacrifices may have been a kind of population control (Doc F)." Although there isn't any tangible evidence it would only make sense why they might have used sacrifice as a population control in a society struggling to produce

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Olmec ball courts were also found in ruins in San Lorenzo and La Venta by archaeologists, who gathered only some of the fewest known artifacts and sources that tell of the game (Gale Group Doc. References and Primary Sources is used here to explain that although there were not many primary sources or much artifacts found other than the ball and courts, these few primary sources and artifacts can still support the religious and game domination by males). Ollamalitzli dramatized the religious purposes tied to the Olmec civilization. The human sacrifice at the game’s end related to worshipping the gods because it was said to fertilize the soil, and give energy to the sun with the captain’s blood. Throughout Olmecs time, sacrifices grew more common in numbers everyday because they wanted to ensure that the gods were content and not let down storms on their crops and lives.

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Worshippers would perform rituals and ceremonies to gain the god’s help, and an important part of these rites was human sacrifice. Shown here is a priest offering a heart taken from a living person and offering it to Huitzilopochtli and Tonatiuh at a pyramid temple, where this often took place (Aztec Britannica, 1).

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Aztec Sacrifice and The Darker Link explains what the Aztecs did in human sacrifices, but they talked about different reasons why they did it. My claim is that the Aztecs do Human Sacrifice to appease the gods. In these Articles, Aztec Sacrifice by, Ancient History Encyclopedia, and The Darker Link, by Washington Post, Human Sacrifice is to appease the gods while others say that it's to keep people in order. The first reason why they did human sacrifice to please the gods is for the repayment for what they did. In text, it says,“The idea of repayment was especially true regarding the myth of the reptilian monster Cipactli.

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Now that was one example of sacrifice and it wasn’t too extreme. In the books Poisonwood Bible and Things Fall Apart, just like us, the characters in the books are forced to sacrifice things in life to achieve their goals. When they do make these sacrifices they are revealing to us what they believe in and what they value in this life. Sacrifice can be defined by Merriam – Webster as the act of giving up something that you want to keep especially in order to get or do something else or to help someone. In the book Poisonwood Bible we are introduced to a character by the name of Nathan Price.

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Outsiders may look upon Aztec human sacrificial practices as disturbing, but to the Aztecs, it was a beautiful, worthy, and prideful thing to do. In fact, it was considered an honor to be a human sacrifice, and as described by one 17 year-old boy watching a sacrificial ceremony, he described that he felt “amazed by the physical beauty of the enemy warrior who was killed at the end of the festival.” In the time before one is sacrificed, he is given all the finest luxuries from the nobles' storehouses, including foods, clothes, teachers, women, and instruction. He walks among the Aztec people as “a living god.” There have been many works of art depicting the sacrifice, which are direct references that historians can refer to for Aztec culture and history.

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The Aztecs were one of the most famous and successful early civilizations of the Americas that we know of, who ruled an empire in the modern day country of Mexico from 1350 to 1519. From their capital city of Tenochtitlan, now known as Mexico City, to their daily routines, the Aztecs had many achievements that they deserve recognition for. Two very important components in the history of the Aztecs are agriculture and human sacrifice. Although they both play huge roles in Aztec culture, historians should emphasize on their methods of farming. The reasons why historians should center their focus on the Aztecs' agricultural techniques are they affected the growth of their empire, were used on a huge scale, and were very unique in comparison to other

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Who wants human sacrifices which is not a good way to live? My first point is how the Aztecs were influenced in a good way by their government style/ structure. The Aztec society was composed of several social classes such as Nobles, Merchants,Commoners, and slaves. The nobles ran to government-owned land that the slaves worked on.

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The Aztecs, like most ancient civilizations, were practicing a polytheistic religion. The most well-known of those civilizations possibly being Ancient Greece. The similarities don’t end there; when most people think of the Aztecs and their religion, they think of their inimical ritual of sacrifice. Thousands of years before, in North Africa, the Carthaginians were sacrificing many of their people, even infants. Most researchers believe it was to appease their gods and even to control the population, which are also reasons Aztec experts believe to be true for the Mesoamerican civilization.

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But all of these sacrifices were not without cost and the Aztecs believed that it was their duty to repay these blood sacrifices to keep balance and prevent angering the gods which could result in natural disaster or even the end of the

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According to Harner, the main reason the Aztecs performed sacrifices was so that they could have an excuse to eat the victims.

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As some may conclude the Aztecs performed human sacrifice out of pure evil, the real reason behind the gruesome act revolved around the Aztec’s gods. The ritual of human sacrifice was ultimately to receive the god’s gifts, which gave them life. In document J the previous opinion is discussed saying, “…humans must sacrifice that which was most important to them – life – to receive the sun, the rain, and other blessings of the gods that made life possible”(Document J). If Aztecs looked at human sacrifice in this way it can be argued that they participated in this act for the sake of keeping the gods happy, who were the providers of everyday fundamentals such as the sun and rain. Ultimately, the Aztecs were determined to give the gift of life to the god’s.

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Ancient cultures in Mesoamerica have a reputation for practicing human sacrifice, much of which is dramatized and over exaggerated. The idea that many people have of human sacrifice is much more intense than it was, with rumors of the heart being ripped from the chest of an alive victim, decapitation, skinning and dismemberment. Although many of these things did happen, it was not a constant and everyday thing for the people of Mesoamerica. It is important to remember that for these cultures, sacrifice was an art and a religious practice, and was ritualized and was regarded as a valued part of religious practice and a major part of their culture. Many cultures in Mesoamerica practiced human sacrifice.

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Although the Aztecs were not the only early civilization to practice human sacrifice, they are still heavily criticized because they were more documented than the others. Aztec sacrifice is looked down upon so much, mainly because of Hernan Cortes and the Conquistadors. Before Cortes met the

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Mutilation has always been practiced by humans throughout history for purposes such as ritual, folk medicine, aesthetics, or corporal punishment and has always been a big part of human culture. Mutilation relates to The Lottery are the use of tradition as an excuse to commit it, usually, it is done to satisfy the mind of a thought not being a necessity to live, and is a big part of human history. People often give the reason of it is tradition to continue gruesome mutilations. A very great example is bullfighting which is a spectacle in which men ceremonially fight with and in the Hispanic tradition kill bulls in an arena for public entertainment,” However, people who enjoy this spectacle say it is a complex ritual vital to Spanish culture, even though it is heinous and gruesome mutilation of a

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People sacrificed their

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