How Do Historians Emphasize Human Sacrifice In The Aztecs

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The Aztecs were a civilization that have created a remarkable world-class society in the Americas, during the time period of the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. While being known for ideas that were revolutionary and before their time, with every light there is a dark shadow. Human sacrifice was a terribly large part of Aztec culture. Three key points, being their religion, necessities of life, and society and cities, all support the claim that historians should emphasize human sacrifice in Aztec culture. A major part of Aztec life, centered around religion. The Aztecs believed in a polytheistic, animistic religion. There were about 128 major deities, including gods of rain, fire, water, corn, the sky, and the sun, which showed you how large of a scale their religion was. When it comes to Aztec religion and culture, it becomes crucial to …show more content…

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. These artworks, depicted many drawings of the human sacrifice. Only the important traits or events are written down, especially in ancient civilizations; scribes wrote and drew about the human sacrificial practice, clearly emphasizing and referencing the importance of human