Human Sacrifice In The Aztec

The Ritual of Human sacrifice in Aztec : World History Research Paper
Aztec citizens are well known as being a vicious type of humans that would go to extremes for their Gods’ including Human sacrifice and Cannibalism. Human sacrifice was not new when the Aztecs started, the act of Human sacrifice actually began in the Olmec Civilization. Although, the Olmec civilization started the ritual, most people think of the Aztecs as being the innovator of Human Sacrifice. This thought began because of how often the Aztecs would Sacrifice, the vast amounts of those sacrificed and how planned the sacrifices would be. The Aztec actually had a lunar calendar that planed the whole years Human sacrifices and there celebrations. Aztecs would have a calendar

that booked sacrifices like a citizen today would book an appointment at the doctor’s office. A great amount of these appointments were carried out in the capital of Tenochtitlan. It is believed that the Aztecs alone carried out hundreds maybe even thousands of human sacrifices (Aztec Human Sacrafice ).
Before, the sacrificed were executed they would be treated as if they were “God Impersonators” or as if they were the manifestation of God until the time of their death when they met their maker (Cartwright).

The future victims would be dressed as a specific God before and during the sacrifice. The victims at Xipe Totec were forced to dance in front of a crowd and their captors before they were scarified. Some candidates were talked into sacrifices as a way to be reborn. Also, death could be seen as a mystical death by the candidate. If the candidate was male, they would have a female entourage to escort them to the temple in which they will be executed. Some victims would be honored with dances and flowers. Females were rarely used, only participating in about six designated sacrifices a calendar year

(Slibermann).
The ritual of human sacrifice has numerous explanations to why it is carried out. Aztecs beliefs played a huge role in the sacrifices. Aztecs believed that they owned everything and that human sacrifices’ was an extension of that. They also believed that the supernatural and natural forces in Aztec could not be neglected or there would be deadly consequences. Like, if water was not taken care of, they thought the skies would dim and they would cease to exist on Earth. Also, human sacrifices could be viewed as part of the death and growth in food, life and energy (Aztec Human Sacrafice ).
Many Gods or tribal deity were the base to human sacrifice. Human sacrifice could also be seen as a repayment to the Gods for the citizens many blessings. Some of the Gods were Huitzilopochtli, Tezcatlipoca, Huehueteotl, Tlaloc and Xipe Totec.
Huitzilopochtli was a tribal deity and warfare of God. The victims would be sacrificed on a stone while a Priest would cut through the abdomen with an obsidian or flint blade. Tezcatlipoca was the God of night, sorcery, destiny and the North. Those captives were killed in a Gladiatorial contest. Huehueteotl is the God of Fire and a senior deity. Large feasts were held after sacrifice for Huehueteotl. The victim’s heart would be cut out and they would die by the use of fire. Xipe Totec is the God of the East and water. Victims’ skin was worn as protection for men. No matter which God was sacrificed for, the overall belief was that the Gods’ would bring the citizens’ prosperity and an overall balance to the civilization.
Tlaloc is the God of Rain. The victim of sacrifice is a child, the sacrifice is done to appease the Rain God. The belief is that the tears of the child brings rain which brings a wealth of crops to the Aztecs. The Aztecs believed that the more the child cried the more rain would be brought to them. In some child sacrifices, the parents would volunteer their child. After the child is sacrificed, the parents would join the sacrifices in eating the remains. Which is a very surprising and emotionally charged event to think that their belief was so strong they would not only give up their child but eat that child, too. Taking cannibalism to a whole new level.

Most of the sacrifices were of slaves and wartime captives. Wartime captives were made to fight in a Gladiatorial Contest. Gladiatorial Contests were when the single victim was made to fight a group hand-picked well-trained men. Those men carried razor-sharp Obsidian swords while the single victim used a feather club (Cartwright) .Obviously, the victim would have no chance to survive this brutal ordeal. In, some cases the victim would be tied to a stone. Another, form of sacrifices was the Flaying of Men (Slibermann). Once, the skin of the men was flayed off of their body, young Aztecs wore the skin though out the city. When wearing the skin some of the young Aztecs would fight in mock battles or they would collect gifts from inhabitants of the city. Also, the bodies of those skinned would be thrown down the steps of the pyramid. The bodies were taken to the captors’ home where they dismembered and proceed to cook the victim. In this method the thigh of the victim would be sent to then ruler Moctezuma (Slibermann) .
Human sacrifices could be executed multiple ways.

One way, is that the victim would be taken to the top of a temple with five men. Four of those five men would both grab an arm or a leg to stretch out the victim over a special stone (Cartwright).In some cases the final man would be a Priest that would take an Obsidian and drive it through the chest of the victim, taking out the heart. The heart would be placed inside of a stone vessel in a Chacmool (Cartwright). After that was done, the offerings would be burned as an offering the Gods’. The victim could also be decapitated and dismembered; this was typical for Female victims.
A different method that was used was that the victims would be tied to a frame. Once, attached the victim would be shot at with arrows and darts. In the perhaps the worst of all methods, the victim would be thrown in to a fire repeatedly thrown into a fire until death.
(Figure

1)
After death there was various ways the Aztecs would display their conquest. One of those ways was to take the

Skulls of victims and line them up side by side. They would slowly add more and more skulls till they became architectural pieces that are still around today. Figure one shows how that looked back then and must have been an intimidating to potential rivals. This one is atop of Tzompanti Alter temple (Gonzalez). The heads would also be shown on top of a vertical stake.
Also, they would celebrate a sacrifice with a feast and prayer. Some feasts and celebrations would last days (Slibermann). Included, in those feasts would sometimes be the consumption of the victims flesh. Most of this was consumed by the Priests and/ or the members of the ruling elite. If the captors ate the flesh it would be like them eating their own flesh.
With all of these very fatal human sacrifices there was nonfatal sacrifices. One of these, nonfatal sacrifices was the act of bloodletting. Bloodletting was the ritualized self-cutting or piercing of an individual's body that served a number of ideological and cultural functions within Aztec (Cartwright). If a ruling elites partakes in the act of bloodletting, it is for crucial maintenance of sociocultural and political structure. A vastly different type of sacrifice was when a citizen would voluntarily give up precious goods like precious metals for the Gods’ to enjoy.
The whole process of Human sacrifice, the stretching of a persons’ body, the eating of that persons flesh or even wearing that flesh has to be the most brutal event that could happen to a human being. In an odd way though, this very brutal act seems like the Aztecs way of serving their Gods’ to the fullest extent they know possible. This is based off of the fact that so many different Gods’ are involved in the act. Also, it feels that everything and every action taken in a certain way is to serve the Gods’. The sheer number of human sacrifices also proves their faith and trust that human sacrifice would get them what they desired. By no means is human sacrifice a wholesome thing that should be done now or ever, but the faith that they had in their Gods’ is something that can be taken into daily lives now.