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Aztec creation myths
Aztec creation myths
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Aztec creation myths
Aztec creation myths
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
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.
The Aztecs religious beliefs The Aztecs of Mexico City had very unique beliefs. They worshiped in the temple which is in the middle of the exhibit. The Aztec temples were almost always offering mounds, the priest of the Aztec religion would use these temples to worship and pray. They also used it for offerings to the Aztec Gods. The way the Aztec’s way of worshiping was praying and sacrificing.
While many worldviews exist, The fall of the Aztec empire was unavoidable. The Aztec’s were a group of people who were very religious and lived in Mexico for hundreds of years but one day a group of Spanish people arrived and executed all of the Aztec people. Many of them died from diseases the spanish brought with them like small pox. The others were killed by the spanish and some were taken to spain as slaves. This was led by an explorer named Hernan Cortes.
While the Aztec empire was flourishing they practiced human sacrifice for flower wars, political reasons, and other ulterior motives. Historians
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.
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.
The Aztecs performed brutal and gruesome human sacrifices towards volunteers and members of other tribes who were captured during war. Document G illustrates how the Aztecs would take "flint knifes and hastily tear out the palpitating heart that with the blood, they present to the idols in whose name performed the sacrifice." As a part of the ritual, the victim would be painted and placed on a slab. Once on the slab, the victim’s
Plato’s Allegory of the cave represents life/death/rebirth. Life/death/rebirth is a popular archetype that most authors use in fictional books. Plato’s Allegory of the cave begins with people that are locked in chains inside of a cave. The people inside the cave see shadows on the wall of animals and creatures that they think represents their life. This cave is an illusion of life that the people are experiencing.
Mexican people’s view of Catholicism differs from European that is why it is important to compare it with the verses from the Bible, understand their interpretation and find its motives in the novel. The author of “Pedro Paramo” Juan Rulfo raises Mexican Christianity elements all over the novel. According to Christianity, a deceased person goes to Hell, Heaven or purgatory after death. The purgatory is a place, where souls, that are sinful for Heaven, but too pure for Hell, go to be purged of their sins (de Chaparro 2007, 13; Espinosa 1910, 407).
The Aztecs thought that the sun was weakening and needed sacrifices, and especially those of human blood, to be able to follow its course and not destroy the world. Human sacrifices were made on a large scale. The sacrifices were carried out on top of huge pyramids, to be closer to the sun, so that the blood spilled down the steps. The book: The Broken Spears, shows us how the king had no mercy for his people. Motechuzoma said to a messenger “You may rest now.”
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
Death is an aspect of life that all cultures must reconcile with, but how cultures reconcile with it varies. American culture tends to sterilize death and remove it from general conversation. The topic of death and the physical remnants of death are usually enclosed and kept as far out of sight as possible. In Mexico, on the other hand, death is both displayed and celebrated. Mexicans embrace death in both their spiritual and cultural lives.
Have you ever read The Angel of Death? If not, save yourself some time and find a new book to read. The Angel of Death, written by Alane Ferguson, is a forensic mystery where the main character’s-Cameryn’s-former teacher was suspiciously killed in his home. Cameryn must find and solve the clues that trace back to the murderer of Brad Oakes. The Angel of Death has its ups and many downs, but there were still some good things, bad things, there some relatable parts, and I will give recommendations on if others should read this book.
Each every creation myth is unique in its own way. Of course, creation myths have their similarities, but each of them has at least one detail that separates them from every other myth. The question is how those similarities came about, considering for some of these groups that didn’t even know that each other existed. It would have nearly impossible and extremely unlikely for them to communicate with each other let alone, share their stories with each other. Yet, despite this there are some extremely common themes and events throughout these myths.
One of the myths was the “completion” which portrayed the idea that the indigenous people were completely overtaken and were easily converted to catholicism. When the reality was that it took a lot of strife and battles to make the Aztecs finally submit to catholicism. “When the battle of Cholula was finished the Cholultecas understood and believed that the God of the white men who were His most powerful sons, were more potent than their own (pg 48).” This quote demonstrates how the Cholultecas believed in catholicism as well as deemed the spaniards as gods themselves. However, Restall reiterated in his book that the indigenous people knew that the spaniards were not divine, but ultimately confirmed and submitted to save their lives and entwined catholicism into their culture rather than being completely overtaken by it.