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How Did The Mayans Have Religion

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Like most civilization in the world Aztecs, Olmecs, and Maya were no exception to having religion play in their everyday life. Though their religion was a polytheism which means they believe in more than one god. The Aztecs alone had over one thousand gods. Three of the main gods were Huitzilopochtli their god of war and son of Coatlicue who was the god of creation of earth and its destroyer, and there’s Coyolxauhqui who was the goddess that was the moon. Basically, the people had a god for everything so it was like having security cameras to keep them in check and make sure that they would be kept in check. Maya also had hundreds of principal deities (197). The gods and goddesses had direct control of nature and their being as well. The peoples of Mesoamerica’s life’s was solely based on pleasing their gods and goddesses even though there were so many. …show more content…

So with the most controversial practice going first the Mayans and Aztecs did use human sacrifice to appease their gods but not nearly as much as the Spanish gave. Around 126 human remains were found in the temple Mayor. More common practices were offerings of corn, animals, and bloodletting. Bloodletting was when a priest or a high up in their society would either cut themselves or use cactus needles to pierce themselves and have their blood used to help please their gods. But more sacrifices of animals occurred than human ones. Although they did not have a word for sacrifice, and to them it was more as a payment. They felt indebted to their gods so that would be why they did anything they could to make the pleased. Another practice they had was religious wars for capture of new people for their

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