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Should Historians Emphasize Human Sacrifice Or Agriculture

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What Should Historians Emphasize: Human Sacrifice or Agriculture?
What if: Your town was invaded by the Aztecs and they took you prisoner. You are taken out of your cell and the Aztecs tell you that you are going to be treated like a living god. You are going to be treated like royalty… but there’s a catch. After one year you are going to be sacrificed. You are not given a choice to say yes or no so you go with the guards. This is such a good year that you forget that you are going to be sacrificed. A lot of the young women have become attached to you. One day you are just wandering the streets and you hear something… Chanting. You turn around suddenly remembering the deal you made one year earlier. You are to be sacrificed. You turn around to see posters and out of nowhere you are being led to the chanting. Before you know what’s happening to you, you are with the priest at the top of the temple. The priest says somethings and it is quiet. Next thing you know the priest is swinging the knife down at you and there is a sharp pain in your chest. Then everything goes black and silent. The crowd starts cheering but some of the young girls …show more content…

The final reason for emphasizing Human Sacrifice is their motive for war and expansion. The Aztec Empire at its height was twice the size of Ohio. When the Empire was smaller they wanted to get bigger. On the unequipped land the Aztecs would have “flower wars”. The flower wars gave the Aztecs more land and also gave them “flowers”. Flowers were the Aztecs future sacrifice victims. “Independent territories on the map were sometimes the result of a deliberate policy that unoccupied lands remain available for “flower wars”.”(According to the map in document A) This evidence supports emphasizing human sacrifice because the Aztecs needed to get more sacrifice victims and that drove them to conquer more land. How they got their land and sacrifice victims is a very important aspect of the Aztec

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The short story “The Cold Equations” by Tom Godwin explains sacrifice throughout the story. In the beginning, Maryland made a sacrifice to see her brother who she hasn't seen in awhile “...I haven't seen him for so long, i didn't want to wait another year when I could see him now…” when she said this she had realized that she had broken some kind of regulation.

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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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687 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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613 Words | 3 Pages

There are many different ways the Aztecs sacrifice people. Some are inhumane, some are beyond imagination, and some can just be nothing at all. One example of a horrifying sacrifice was to honor the god Huehueteotl. The captured people that they wanted to sacrifice were usually drugged, then they would remove their hearts that were still pumping right out and then the bodies were thrown on top of the fire pit. Equally important, people voluntarily bloodletting were the little yet common sacrifices done through the Aztecs.

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775 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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450 Words | 2 Pages

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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528 Words | 3 Pages

Aztecs believed that sacrifice to their gods was important. They sacrifice people for the sun god and war god (Doc D). They would sacrifice 2,300 people or more at a time nevertheless when they needed more people to sacrifice they would sacrifice people from independent territories (Doc A/D). This is a lot of sacrifice or death. For example this could be close to 460 families of five being

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595 Words | 3 Pages

The Aztecs were great workers who ruled an empire in tenochtitlan from 1350 to 1519. From the Capital city of Mexico. Presently the site of modern day Is Mexico City, the Aztecs had many achievements two things most known for include their farming method and use of human sacrifice. However, historians should emphasize the role of human sacrifice in Aztec culture. "First of all, it was the led of the Aztecs expanding their empire because, the Aztec civilization which flourished Mesoamerica between 1345 and 1521 CE has gained an infamous reputation for bloodthirsty human sacrifice with lurid tales of the beating heart being ripped from the still-conscious victim, decapitation, skinning and dismemberment.

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846 Words | 4 Pages

As in “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas,” little children were being sacrificed. In their society many citizens were cruel and “One of them may come in and kick the child to make it stand up (LeGuin,3).” Keeping the child, “ In a basement under one of the beautiful public buildings of Omelas (LeGuin,3),” kept the citizens from worrying about was there still someone being sacrificed to help benefit them. In “The Lottery,” people were entered in d drawing and they were chosen randomly. There was so specific person that had to sacrifice themselves.

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Historians believe that the Aztecs sacrificed their people for many different reasons. Most historians think it was for the Aztec religion. The article states," Many scholars have seen it as a religious act central to the Aztec's belief that humans must sacrifice that which was most precious to them - life - to receive the sun, the rain, and other blessings...." This shows that they did this

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1279 Words | 6 Pages

The Aztec system of human sacrifice has drawn the attention of historians and ethnographers for more than a century. Traditionally, Aztec human sacrifice has been understood as having a religious basis, in which a constant supply of humans were needed for sacrifice to the god of the sun. Conversely, some scholars argue that Aztec human sacrifice served a primarily social function that maintained stratification and bestowed great political power to certain classes. Until recently, however, the scholarly world’s understanding of Aztec human sacrifice has largely revolved around literal interpretations of primary sources written by leaders of both the Aztec Empire and Spanish conquest during the fourteenth to sixteenth century. Through examining and interpreting less well-known features of the Aztec Empire at its height, such as ecological needs, the ideology behind Aztec human sacrifice has become less clear and risen to be a topic of scholarly debate.

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181 Words | 1 Pages

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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1149 Words | 5 Pages

Sacrifice is often intertwined with religion, politics, and social hierarchy, and serves as a means of reinforcing these structures. The violent act of sacrifice is not only a way to appease the gods, but also a way for those in power to assert their dominance over others. Through sacrificial practices, societies often justify the oppression and marginalization of certain groups, and reinforce the status quo. Thus, the study of sacrifice provides insights into the larger cultural and societal structures that shape and are shaped by this practice.

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562 Words | 3 Pages

The Aztecs had a market so big and full of people that they could be heard about 3 miles away from the market all the way to the soldiers. They had to face many sacrifices and repercussions like they would have these beautiful festivals, but in the end they would sacrifice an enemy warrior. The seasoned warrior becomes the living god, they get treated so well like royalty and they also get the best of everything. After a year, they take the seasoned warrior to the Chalo and he gets torn apart in pieces in front of everyone after the Aztecs have become so close to him for a long year. The killing of their living god was the hardest on the women of the Aztecs because they had been so close to the god.

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