Few objects could claim to elicit such varied responses as the stone statue of Coatlicue. Found in 1790 in the former Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, the object depicted the ancient mother goddess of childbirth and warfare. Nahuatl for “Serpent Skirt,” Coatlicue wears a skirt weaved of snakes. However, that is not the only place on the statue that features the serpent motif. In fact, her head itself is removed, giving way to two spouts of blood that are represented as snakes. Serpents are known to be sacred in Mesoamerican culture, and they are often associated with water and fertility. Other animal parts include the claws on her feet while her hands are blades, ready to pierce through bodies. While this corresponds to the human skull, hearts, …show more content…
and hands in her mid-section as part of the sacrifice ritual, they stand in stark comparison to Coatlicue’s own severed head. Thus, the statue points to the goddess’s dual roles as both executioner and executed and of her being the patron deity for both life creation and war, making use of another Native American motif of doubles. During pre-Columbian times, Coatlicue was generally seen positively as a strong figure embodying Mesoamerican ideals. However, after sustained European contact, cultural conflicts have led to the disdain, glorification, contempt, and praise of the statue. The renewal of interpretations on what Coatlicue means and represents have followed the tides of politics. To each political agenda, the ancient goddess was born anew and molded into another form that would then be used as a symbol for another cause. A common mistake of everyday people and even some scholars is that Native American cultures have been unchanging and static until Europeans arrived.
However, that is not true. Just like all human cultures, there have been struggles for power, great wars, and flourishing arts. One such example was the conquest of neighboring civilizations by the Aztecs. For most civilizations of the Valley of Mexico, Coatlicue was already a central deity in their lives. However, for the Aztecs, she was special in particular for being mother of Huitzilopochtli, the patron god of Tenochtitlan and also god of the sun and war. While mainly the Aztecs worshiped Huitzilopochtli, his connection with Coatlicue became his main origin story because of how conquered civilizations would respond favorably with what deities they are familiar with. The story goes that Coatlicue was impregnated with a feather. Her 400 sons and her daughter, Coyolxauhqui, sought to kill their mother for this before Huitzilopochtli burst forth in full armor to defend her. In this story, Coatlicue is represented as vulnerable and needing to be saved, but this also demonstrates how the Aztecs respected her and honored her for being the one who gave birth to their most beloved god. In fact, the stone statue of her was found at the Templo Mayor, which housed a temple of Huitzilopochtli. Further evidence of this relationship is found in the Florentine Codex, which was the work of the Spanish friar Bernardino de Sahagún. This codex
demonstrated how the Aztecs viewed themselves and their beliefs. One panel depicted the tale of Coatlicue and Huitzilopochtli. It shows the goddess being defended by her son (Sahagún). However, this depiction is quite different from that of the statue, which portrays her also as fierce and with many weapons on her body. Compared to many of the surrounding civilizations, the Aztecs that had been conquered by the Spanish were more patriarchal. For the Aztecs, the stressed importance on their god Huitzilopochtli was a show of superiority of their culture. After they became a hegemony in their region, they “burned their records in the painted books in order to clear the way for a full-scale revision of the past” (Franco 205). Coatlicue was venerated as a link so that conquered Native Americans would be more willing to accept Huitzilopochtli. However, at the same time, Coatlicue was lessened to appear weaker and more fragile. Just as the Temple Mayor was built for two male deities, it was also built on a place that was once a sacred snake hill, which meant that it was associated with femininity and fertility. The Aztecs had portrayed Coatlicue as a lesser deity of being still honorable but less influential all for the purpose of fully establishing their superiority over the surrounding regions.
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,...
A well-known Meso-American deity, Huitzilopochtli, is the Aztec god of war and human sacrifice. It is written that he had a constant battle with evil within himself and required human sacrifice for nourishment. It is believed that Huitzilopochtli’s mother, Coatlicue, an Aztec earth goddess, conceived him after she kept a ball of hummingbird feathers in her bosom that had fallen from the sky. Huitzilopochtli’s sister, Coyolxauhqui, plotted to kill her mother after discovering the shameful way she had become impregnated. When his mother was decapitated, Huitzilopochtli burst from the womb and killed his sister Coyolxauhqui ...
During 1325 a newly homeless Aztec tribe who were chased away by the angry ruler/father of a princess they sacrificed to the sun god, were traveling through swamps . they saw a small island with an eagle perched on a cactus eating a snake. This was told to be a sign of where the tribe was to create their new home. This new city was named Tenochtitlan. Soon this will become the capital of the Aztec empire. Tenochtitlan started out with only a temple to worship the war god Huitzilopochtli, and huts for the tribesmen.
Aztecs were tribe. In Chronicler’s Account talked about Spaniards with Aztecs from 1519 to 1521.When the Spaniards arrived in Tenochtitlan, and they bought horses, guns and also smallpox that killed a lot of people there. A Text from the Chronicler’s Account saids “ at about the time that the Spaniards had fled from Mexico….there came a great sickness, a pestilence, the smallpox. It …. spread over the people with great destruction of men.” The Aztec chronicler was trying to be objective in what happened at that time. Aztec Chronicler wrote about struggled in
They had at least 128 gods, including but not limited to the divine beings of “rain, fire, water, corn, the sky, and the sun.” They were honored in numerous ways: ceremonies and festivals, dances and feasts, and by having humans sacrificed to them. (Background Essay) Read those last few words again. As said in the popular children’s show Sesame Street, “one of these things is not like the other”. The integration of human sacrifice into Aztec culture was not nearly as subtle as written above, though: The most important Aztec deity in their whole religion, Huitzilopochtli, was the sun god. According to Aztec creation myths, Huitzilopochtli required a great deal of power to raise the sun every morning and keep the night from overpowering day for too long. This strength was drawn from regular consumption of human blood and hearts. This in turn caused the Aztecs to strongly believe in needing to give these things to him. According to the Aztecs, sacrificing people to Huitzilopochtli was the ideal way to provide him with these
The statue was important to not only the Aztecs but to the Spanish as well for Catholics seen she as being related to Mary, the mother of Jesus. The Coatlicue is seen as wearing a serpent skirt given the name of her meaning of the serpent skirt. Serpents meant childbirth and blood to the Aztecs which is why it is important that she wears a serpent skirt as it represents the childbirth of Huitzilopotchi and the blood from the decapitation of her head from the two serpents. In the Aztec culture, man trained to for battle while woman were the child bearers. Those who died during childbirth were believed to have become goddesses which relates to the Aztec myth. The Coatlicue’s face has been carved in many monuments to keep in touch with the earth since she was the goddess of earth and fire. The Aztecs were the largest army in Mesoamerica and took in many prisoners of war. They believed in ritual sacrifice so that their god would not desert them and their world would not come to an end. Thought to have been through four different worlds already, they believed to have lived in the final world that the gods sacrificed themselves for. The prisoners captured by the Aztec were mostly
In an essay by Carrasco titled “The Exaggeration of Human Sacrifice," the purpose of nextlaoalli seemed logical, as it was believed that the gods had died in order to create the lives of plants, animals and humans, and that a ritual sacrifice of plants, animals, and humans offered a way to transmit the energy of these beings back to the gods. These types of sacrifices arguably played a minute role in the actual rituals performed to appease the gods, but rather it was in combination with the regalia and practices of the priests which contributed to the overall “barbaric” atmosphere Daz experienced in these sacrificial rituals. Although viewed by the Spaniards as cannibalistic and obscure in nature, these rituals formed a pivotal function in the religious culture of both Tenochtitlan and the Aztec empire. The true purpose of nextlaoalli was misconstrued because of the numerous biases present among the collective Spanish mindset, and therefore these rituals became a target for the Spaniards to denounce the established religion under pretenses that it was paganistic, and therefore false.
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 ...
One friend kills another. Speeches are presented. A war breaks out. This is the story of Julius Caesar, the emperor of Rome who was killed by Brutus and a group of conspirators. Many argue that Brutus was a patriot, and many argue that he was a betrayer. People argue that he was a betrayer because he betrayed Caesar’s trust and gave a speech against him. However, when you think of Caesar’s personality, arrogant and slightly reckless, he could’ve made bad decisions and caused Rome a great deal of trouble. Brutus was a patriot to Rome since he did what was best for the country and even took his own life instead of running away. He put his own feelings aside to do what was right.
Hesiod’s Theogony and the Babylonian Enuma Elish are both myths that begin as creation myths, explaining how the universe and, later on, humans came to be. These types of myths exist in every culture and, while the account of creation in Hesiod’s Theogony and the Enuma Elish share many similarities, the two myths differ in many ways as well. Both myths begin creation from where the universe is a formless state, from which the primordial gods emerge. The idea of the earth and sky beginning as one and then being separated is also expressed in both myths.
Xipe Totec or “Our Lord the Flayed One” in Náhuatl, was a Mesoamerican god whose origin is uncertain. Xipe Totec might have descended from God VI in Olmec culture or from the Yope civilization in the southern highlands of Guerrero. Xipe Totec was also known as Tlatlauhca, Tlatlauhqui, Red Tezcatlipoca, and Youalahuan. The goddess Xilonen-Chicomecoatl was the female equivalent of Xipe Totec. The first depictions of Xipe Totec first appeared near Teotihuacán in Xolalpan and Texcoco. The deity most likely became a prominent Aztec god during the 15th century due to the Aztec conquest of the Gulf Coast under the reign of Axaycatl. Xipe Totec was a major Aztec god also worshipped by Tlaxcaltecans, Zapotecs, Mixtecs, Tarascan, and Huastecs. Xipe Totec was protector of day Cuauhtli and the trecena that starts with 1-Itzcuintli in the Aztec calendar. The Aztec civilization was one that was founded on religion and relied on art to portray their beliefs. Rituals played an important role in keeping their surrounding world thriving and paying homage to their ancestors was key. Xipe Totec was only one of the various gods that the Aztecs honored.
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.
The Rise and fall of the Aztec Empire is possibly the most important area of study in the modern world. Of all of the nomadic tribes who migrated into Mexico, the Aztecs were one of the last. At first driven away by established tribes, the Aztecs slowly began to develop an empire of immense wealth and power by the late fifteenth century. Due in large part to the accomplishments of their ruler Itzcoatl, the empire expanded to include millions of people from a number of different tribes, including the Cempoala, who would later aid the Spanish in defeating the Aztecs. Because of the "melting pot" within the empire, the Aztecs had a very diverse culture. However, this immense Aztec Empire would soon be brought to its knees by the doings of one man and his army.
Democratic is when citizens vote for all elected officials. Many had defied political system as it was, and thrived towards to create a democratic system that will be beneficial for America as a whole. Andrew Jackson was one of those individuals who challenged the government’s views, and whose name is tied closely to democracy. This essay will focus on the aspects that made this president so great and how democratic was he in actual fact.
The dead hummingbird which hangs around her neck is considered a good luck charm for falling in love in Mexican folklore. An alternate interpretation is that the hummingbird pendant is a symbol of Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of war. Meanwhile, the black panther is symbolic of bad luck and death and the monkey is a symbol of evil. The natural landscape, which normally symbolizes fertility, contrasts with the deathly imagery in the foreground. Rivera gave Kahlo a spider monkey as a gift, thus suggesting that it could be a symbol of Rivera, especially since he inflicts pain upon Kahlo by tugging the thorn necklace hard enough to make her bleed. Alternately, the thorn necklace could allude to Christ’s crown of thorns, thus likening herself to a Christian martyr, and representing the pain and anguish she felt after her failed romantic relationships. In line with this interpretation, the butterflies and dragonflies could symbolize her