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Aztec sacrifices human essay
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Human sacrifice is a global phenomenon which befuddles everyone around the world. We’ve all heard of it but we don’t actually know what it is or if it is still happening. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, “Human Sacrifice is the offering of the life of a human being to a deity. The occurrence of human sacrifice can usually be related to the recognition of human blood as the sacred life force.” (E.B). Human sacrifice was very prominent in the past in several different cultures. Mass human sacrifices were very popular in different cultures because they did not want to travel to the afterlife alone so they required their followers to accompany them. Different religions/cultures have various ways of performing human sacrifice.
There are several
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different ways to execute human sacrifice but if I were to name them all, it would take several pages. The main two types of human sacrifice that were practiced are the following: the slaughter of servants to ensure that they accompany their owner into the afterlife and the offering of a human to please a god. The slaughter of slaves was the most commonly practiced form of human sacrifice. Slaves were not “humans”; they were belongings. In Africa, human sacrifice was connected to ancestor worship and their descendants would be buried with the deceased to accompany them into the afterlife so they were not alone; just like they did in Egypt. In a like way, westerners in the 20th century and an innumerable amount of Indians practiced a different form on human sacrifice called Sati. Parilla in “The Practice of Sati in India”, states that there was a case where an incredibly brilliant young woman, Roop Kanwar, was coerced by others to be burned alive at her husband’s funeral pyre. It has been rumored that she was drugged and forced to do it against her will. Sati is originally a Hindu practice that is supposed to show how devoted the wife is to her husband. If you perform Sati, you and the seven generations after you are guaranteed a place in Heaven.This practice is so intricately woven in the Hindu belief system that it shows the misogyny that lies deep in the foundation of Hinduism. Furthermore into Hinduism now, sacrifice plays a very significant role yet human sacrifice is not common in the 21st century. Hindus use sacrifice to achieve “Moksha”. McKenzie states that sacrifice has a very vital part in tradition because it offers something new verses the everyday activity and worship. There are three different types of sacrifices; Vedic sacrifice, animal sacrifice, and human sacrifice. Vedic sacrifice is sacrificing grains and vegetables to the Gods. It helps preserve dhama and it is performed daily all around the world. Animal sacrifice is not as popular as it used to be due to the fact that Hindus believe in nonviolence. Animal sacrifice can vary from one animal to hundreds and it is to please the goddess Ghadimai. As of now, human sacrifice is not commonly found among Hindus. Over 200 years ago, there were daily sacrifices to the goddess Kali. Now these practices are thankfully regarded as homicide and treated as such. Another civilization that implemented the practice of human sacrifice was the Aztecs.
They prospered in Mesoamerica between 1345 and 1521. The Aztec society is well known for their countless bloody human sacrifices. According to the Aztecs, human sacrifice was a very strictly structured process which was only practiced to help honor the gods. It was only a small con to all the pros they received from the Gods. To change the topic, there was a civilization called the Olmec’s who were the first civilization to practice human sacrifice. Their sacrifices were made in payment to the Gods for helping create the universe. The sacrifices were committed in various ways. Numerous were chosen from the warriors that were captive. However, it could vary, if you fought exceedingly well then you could also be sacrificed because that would please the Gods. In the Aztec culture being sacrificed was an honor. The sacrifices included going up to a very noteworthy stone and cutting out the heart with a special life. The heart was then placed in a vessel and set afire. The sacrifices could differ between Gods. Some were to be skinned whereas others burned …show more content…
alive. Despite the fact that many cultures practiced human sacrifice there were a few whom did not.
The Romans, including Julius Caesar, were appalled at the human sacrifices that the Celts (Druids) practiced. Romans did not believe in human sacrifice yet they found great pleasure in feeding people that were alive to lions for their own entertainment.
If you look back 5,000 years, you would see that human sacrifice was not as prominent as it was in the recent past. Farmers used to sacrifice their tools and insert pieces of human offerings to offer them to the Gods. Overall, human sacrifice has always existed but over the years it has gotten much more intense. Although most human sacrifices are for religious reasons, Parker-Pearson states that the religious belief is not necessary for human sacrifice. It is not just for pleasing the gods; it covers every situation where a human life is given for a greater
cause. Regardless of human sacrifice being frowned on in modern day society, it still practiced in corners of the world. It is still highly active in Africa despite the African Charter on Human and People’s rights that provide their citizens with respect for their life. Many of the rituals tremendously secretive and go undetected. The participators in these rituals deny their involvement. There have been multiple reports that the wealthy provide doctors with payment to conduct sacrifices in their favor. As a matter of fact, politicians have been known to participate in killings to advance their chances in elections. Many healers have spoken out against this and stated that these killings are “a disgrace to the history” (Salisbury & Roberts). I, personally, do not understand human sacrifice. What would cause these people to commit murder to their fellow human beings in order to receive something from the Gods? I would love to know who the first person to bring this up was and what was going on in their head. I sincerely doubt their Gods would want them to commit a sin like murder in order to receive for example, a wonderful harvest. I believe that these people were deluded. In conclusion, human sacrifice is a terrifying thing that sadly still goes on in some hidden places around the planet. Human sacrifice was predominantly done in order to please the Gods so they could provide them with various things. In order to stop human sacrifice we must educate those who practice it.
The religion and culture of the Aztecs played a role in the way the way they thought and fought. They worshiped the war-god Huitzilopochtli. He was identified with the sun and was called "the Giver of life" and "the Preserver of Life" (xxxix). The religion carried some ridiculous rituals such as human sacrifice along with using magicians and wizards to cast spells. In war conditions, human sacrifice played a big role because the Aztecs would not fight to kill,...
Although there are good reasons for emphasizing human sacrifice, there are even better reasons for emphasizing agriculture. An example is the Aztecs' exceptional use of their surroundings, such as the willow trees for anchors, and reeds for frames. Human sacrifice can be also emphasized for the Aztecs' belief that the Gods needed blood, but the spotlight is on agriculture.
To understand the practice of human sacrifice one must look at the reasons why the culture did such practices. There are three main ways of examining a cultural practice from an anthropological perspective.
Sometimes, those practicing the Aztec religion sacrificed just one person. At other times, hundreds or even thousands of captives were sacrificed at a time. Each Aztec sacrifice, however took place the same way. The captive or captives were taken to a pyramid or temple and placed on an altar. The Aztec priest then made an incision in the ribcage of the captive and removed the living heart. The heart was then burned and ...
The perspective of another society is always subjective, especially when two completely different cultures interact for the first time. In Bernal Diaz del Castillo’s The History of the Conquest of New Spain, the first-hand account illustrates a barbaric and pagan society where sacrifices are pervasive in everyday life. However, David Carrasco’s essays titled “The Exaggeration of Human Sacrifice” and “Human Sacrifice / Debt Payments from the Aztec Point of View” shed a significant amount of insight into the religious roles that human sacrifice played in Aztec society, rather than the cruel and barbaric connotations which Daz heavily implied. Based on the readings of Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Carrasco’s essays offered an outside perspective into the ritualistic practices of human sacrifice and in doing so, introduced the concept of nextlaoalli as well as the commonality of the ritual human sacrifice in Aztec society.
The Aztecs were a Mesoamerican people that lived in the area of central Mexico in the 14th, 15th and 16th century. It is said that Aztecs came from a place called Aztlan. Aztlan was the Aztec's homeland, nobody knows exactly where it was, but it is believed that Aztlan lies somewhere to the north of Mexico. Some experts claim that Aztlan is a mythical place. According to Aztec legends Huitzilopochtli, their god of war and of the sun, told them to leave Aztlan and to wander until they saw an eagle on a cactus budding out of a rock and eating a snake. The Aztecs traveled many years to find the legend that Huitzilopochtli had told. They left Aztlan in the 12th century. They built their settlements in the Valley of Mexico by Lake Texcoco. There were other Indian tribes living in the area when the Aztecs arrived. The Aztecs called their settlement Tenochtitlan. By the time they settled after two centuries of voyage they called themselves by a different name, the Mexica, but the term Aztec has been used as a ...
A major element of Aztec life was religion, as often is in the case in ancient civilizations. The Aztecs were a polytheistic people, and they often made use of human sacrifice to please their gods. Diaz often makes reference to the blood-stained walls of the Aztec temples in his account of the conquest. In reference to the success of Cortes and his soldiers, an anci...
To get the sacrifices the Aztec went to war with other tribes in Mexico to get these human sacrifices (Conrad & Demmest 47-49) . With each conquest more sacrifices and more land was added to the Aztec kingdom. The Aztec were a strong civilization who were familiar with organized large scale war, had specialized war chiefs, and a well organized system of territorial levy in which large armies could be amassed in a short time (Age of Reconnaissance 124-125). They may have been well organized for war, but they were not prepared for internal changes in there civilization. When expansion was no longer an option there system crumbled.
They were militaristic people, always ready to wage war on neighboring regions to earn and demand respect. The emperor, being a powerful king, was the one who would declare war. When Aztecs went to war it was to capture prisoners and pay tribute to their gods. Many young Aztec boys believed becoming a warrior was a glorified position and would enlist with great pride. Aztec warriors lived by the sword, and died for it. Capturing a prisoner was part of the initiation of becoming a warrior. The more prisoners the warriors caught, the more they were rewarded with land, and social rank. Similarly, Maya warriors could also move upward in rank and class through service in the military. The difference between the Aztec and the Maya military was that the Aztec military was led by their powerful emperor, whereas each Maya city-state had their own military which was led by a military leader, the halach uinic. The military leader not only controlled the city-states government but also had religious control over them. Maya city-states would fight one other for destruction of rival states, for dominance and to capture prisoners for sacrificing. The capturing of high-ranking officials were considered a priority and sacrificed immediately as supreme offerings to the gods, whereas commoners were forced into slavery, publicly humiliated, and weren 't sacrificed until one was needed. The Aztecs and the Mayas both
They provided this ritual for the son god. The most gruesome ritual was, when four priests would take the offering and hold both ankles, and all angles. While they held the person another priest would slice into the mans torso, break apart his ribs, and hold his still beating up like a trophy for all the crowd to see it. It was a way to show the god they were loyal. They then took both hands, and feet from the cold dead body, and sent it down the steps for the community to consume. During that part of the practice the remaining parts were throw into a vat of slit tongue snakes to feast on. On an average 50 thousand main arteries (hearts) were given to the sun god. The priests also purchased babies for the same ritual.
According to their own history, the Aztecs, who called themselves the Tenochca or Mexica, started as a small nomadic tribe originating from a place called Aztlan. Aztlan existed somewhere in the southern part of California or the north west of Mexico. At this time they were Nahuatl speaking. During the twelfth century they started a period of wandering and in the thirteenth century they came across Mexico's central valley. There they decided to settle.
The primary religious rituals of Israelite religion involved sacrifices and offerings. The ritual system within the Israelite cult evolved around gifts and offerings that were presented before Yahweh. In examining the book of Leviticus, the sacrificial system of the Israelites can be identified. It is this sacrificial system that was handed down by God through Moses that allowed the people of Israel to cross over the gap between their own weaknesses and corruption to the expectations presented by God. Sacrifices symbolized an acknowledgement of guilt and a need for divine grace and forgiveness.
The Aztec civilization was a very complex society that was feared and known well for their various gory sacrifices done to please their many gods in their polytheistic religion. The much feared civilization began by the exile of one of the two Toltec leaders, which lead to the decline of the Toltec state that was later replaced by Mexica, or the Aztecs. According to the Aztecs, the land chosen to build their main city was chosen by the portrayal of an eagle perched on a cactus with a snake in its mouth. Through military might, the Aztecs managed to become the most powerful civilization in the mid-fourteenth century. They maintained their power through military might and the fear they caused other civilizations because of the human sacrifices they performed on their captured victims. In the mid-fourteenth century, the Aztecs used the method of human sacrifices to uphold fear in their neighbors by using the method year round to please the gods and ensure their survival.
Carrasco shows that sacrificing was key to the Mesoamericans. Their entire belief is through world renewing, world making, and world centering. Both Aztecs and Mayans revolved their society around structures that they thought was centered around the universe. Each one believed that their society revolved around the universe. Sacrifices such as autosacrifice, removing the heart while the person was still alive was a daily ritual with the Aztecs, and Mayans. The purpose for public sacrificing was to feed the gods and make the them happy with their people. The type of people sacrificed was the beautiful and the captured warriors after a war. The beautiful was sacrificed because the gods didn't give any distinct quality to be remembered for such as a disfigured face.
Some cultures in the Spanish Caribbean participate in sacrificing and they also hold clergy to a different standard than those in the United States. Some of the religious practices they have also involved monotheism although polytheism is more customary. Some often look at their sacrifice as odd, disgusting and inhumane. When in reality most of us come from cultures that historically made sacrifices and were