The Aztecs were an influential group of indigenous people who serve great importance to the modern Mexican people. However, the average American knows little or a few accurate details as to why the Aztecs were mighty and how they serve great importance today. When Americans think of the Aztecs, they tend to associate this indigenous group with mercilessly, bloody thirsty sacrifice, huge, vast temples, and active warriors. While these associations are somewhat correct, there is still some flaws and lesser known details people know about Aztec religion, engineering/technology, and warfare. People seem to underestimate the significant achievements and influences the Aztecs left behind after their conquest. Even Hollywood over the years appears …show more content…
to have undervalued the Aztecs. For instance, in the 1950s, various films such as The Aztec Mummy (1957), The Robot vs.
The Aztec Mummy (1958), and The Curse of the Aztec Mummy (1957) seemed to portray the Aztecs in a horror fantasy/ sci-fi manner. While 1950s Hollywood films did not characterize the historical accuracy of the Aztecs, recent modern films such as The Other Conquest (1999) have tried to focus on historical accuracy. This film highlights the aftermath of the Spanish Conquest of Mexico told from the perspective of the indigenous Aztec people. This drama examines the religious, social, and psychological changes brought about by colonization of the New World. In 2006, Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto depicted the journey of a Mesoamerican hunter and his companion captured by an invading force after the destruction of their village, who must escape human sacrifice at a time when the Mayan civilization was declining. Although Apocalypto focused on the Mayan culture and not the Aztecs, the film does highlight what life was like in Mesoamerica. In my lesson plan, I want to use these two recent films to make my topic relevant to my students so that they can visually picture what life was like in Mesoamerica and try to understand the effects/aftermath of the Spanish
conquest. The two informal interviews I conducted shared similar conceptions of the Aztecs. My first interviewer, a 23 year old female, knew that all the indigenous natives of Mexico belong to the Aztec group. She also knew that the Aztecs practiced sacrifices, but did not know the reason why. I asked her to guess, and she stated, “To punish and kill their enemy’s.” Furthermore, she mistakenly assumed that all the indigenous people of Mexico were all Aztecs. She forgot about the Olmec, Maya and multiple other smaller indigenous ethnic groups. She did not know that the Aztecs were a collection of many ethnicities such as the Mexica (the dominant ethnic group ruling the Aztec empire) and not one ethnic group. Sacrifices were tied to Aztec religious practices to please their natural gods and would capture enemy natives and use them for their rituals. The second interviewer, a 34 year old male, discussed how he recognized many Aztec symbols when living in East Los Angeles. He noticed many colorful murals and classic cars with painted Aztec symbols or an Aztec warrior carrying an Aztec princess. He also associated the Aztecs with Chicano pride/Brown pride which created a sense of identity/culture for Mexican Americans/Mexicans. I asked him if he knew any specific details, but he could only tell me about the sacrifices and colossal temple ruins located in Mexico. While both interviewers knew something about the Aztecs, both of them could not come up with precise details. It is clear that their knowledge is somewhat inaccurate and insufficient for describing the Aztecs. Therefore, in my lesson plan, I want to emphasize the how the Aztec rose to power and how they declined by presenting students with accurate historical research and knowledge. To achieve this, I want to have students on the first day of my lesson plan and throughout the other days of my lesson plan to move beyond their prior knowledge of the Aztecs and discover through primary and secondary sources the true complicated Aztec narrative. Thus, I will be able to create a lesson plan that will help educate students on who the Aztecs were.
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,...
Inga Clendinnen's Aztecs:An Interpretation is an outstanding book dealing with investigations into how the Mexica peoples may have veiwed the world in which they lived. From the daily life of a commoner to the explosively, awe inspiring lives of the priests and warriors. Clendinnen has used thoughtful insights and a fresh perspective that will have general readers and specialist readers alike engaged in a powerful and elegantly written interpretation that is hard to put down without reflection upon this lost culture.
August 13th, 1521 marked the end of a diabolical, yet genius group of leaders. They were referred to as the Aztecs. They were an extremely advanced ancient civilization. The Aztec’s were overthrown by the Spanish, yet we still haven’t forgotten the Aztecs. But since their culture was so complex it’s hard to know what is the most necessary thing to study when it comes to them, especially when their were so many things that defined their culture. The Aztecs were highly religious and believed in human sacrifice. They also had a complex method of farming called chinampas. This grew an extremely large amount of food per year by using canals. This was extremely successful because of how complex it was. When asked if historians should emphasize agriculture
It is the 1450s. Foreigners have invaded your land, and they’re capturing the citizens living there for their lethal rituals. (Doc. A) You are unlucky enough to find yourself kidnapped, along with your family. Your mother is taken away quickly, but your father is forced to become a human sacrifice for the Aztec gods. What does this mean, exactly? According to The History of the Indies of New Spain by Friar Diego Duran, your father’s chest is severed, and his heart is taken out of his body. This is all while he is still awake, and before the time of pain medication. He slowly bleeds to death on the temple stairways - and you’re watching it all. This sounds terrible, does it not?
The history of the Western hemisphere is full of war and conquest. One of the most significant and defining of those conquests is the downfall of the Mexica/Aztec Empire. While there are many other events to choose from, this one stands out since it was one over one of the largest empires in Central America. It is also important to look at because of the immense cultural impact it had. The story of this takeover reads like a movie script, a small band of Spaniards single handedly takes down the most powerful empire in Central America. It was an epic battle, which unfortunately led to the destruction of a magnificent culture. As in any major historical event there are many underlying themes and storylines that come together to make the event happen. The Spanish conquest of the Aztec is no different. Three major themes are seen in this struggle. One of them is the incredible advantage that the Spaniards technology gave them over the Aztecs. A second major theme is the greed that fueled the conquests in the New World. The last major theme was the effect of the political divisions and rivalries within Montezuma’s Central American Kingdom. As this historical event progressed each one of these themes began to intertwine until they became an almost unstoppable force.
The film I will focus on is the Men of Atalissa by Kassie Bracken. The significant limit of the rights that these disabled men faced was the right of a livable wage. The film depicted how the men were dedicated workers and wanted a good life for themselves. However, because of being disabled, they were not paid a fair wage for their work. The people in the town would refer to them as the boys (Bracken, 2014). This illustrated that they were devalued and seen as less important. In addition, when they were seen as the boys it could have been an excuse to devalue their work and pay them less. I choose this as most significant because all the men were promised a lavish retirement if they worked at the turkey farm. They strived for this lifestyle,
For centuries, Mexican Americans have dealt with an enormous amount of hardships that date back to their early Aztec roots. The source of many problems in Mexican American history can be traced in the pre-colonial period, before the United States of America was even conceived. Major problems of this era in history not only affected the Aztecs, but also the following generations of Aztec and Mexican descent, and continue to have an impact on their descendents in contemporary American society.
...asts today how the Aztecs lived in their society and how devoted they were to their Gods. But it has also, only recently become extremely popular in the mainstream media. It will only become more and more popular as the years go by and more discoveries and the more research that will be done on the civilization and culture.
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...
In schools, students are being taught wrong information. “Our gods were vanquished after the fall of Tenochtitlan as were our traditions. Our warriors and nobles were eradicated, our children starved and our women ravished by the white conquerors and their allies.” (157). In books across America, the Spaniards were said to be good people, but the way that Huitzitzilin described what happened, shows the complete opposite of how the Spaniards actually were.
The ancient Aztecs, who most likely originated as a nomadic tribe in northern Mexico, arrived in Mesoamerica at approximately the beginning of the 13th century. For a long time, the nomads wandered the land of Mexica, countlessly resettling into new areas in a constant search for land that was fertile and that they could call their own. Before the founding of their capital city of Tenochtitlan in 1325, the Aztecs had to work for various cities and small empires that were more powerful than them in order to gain military experience and come out as the dominant force in central Mexico. Through developing an intricate social, political, religious and commercial organization, it was by the 15th century that the empire brought many of the region’s city-states under their control.
Fearless warriors and pragmatic builders, the Aztecs created an empire during the 15th century that was surpassed in size in the Americas only by that of the Incas in Peru. As early texts and modern archaeology continue to reveal, beyond their conquests and many of their religious practices, there were many positive achievements such as the formation of a highly specialized and stratified society and an imperial administration, the expansion of a trading network as well as a tribute system, and the development and maintenance of a sophisticated agricultural economy, carefully adjusted to the land (Mexico).
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 search for identity in Mexico has been a continuing exploration of many different cultures and realities. Although Mexico has an established democratic political system, cultural uniqueness has been in flux since the invasion of Spain in 1492. The Aztec culture was well instituted and was a direct decedent of the Olmec civilization that formed the Mexican identity over a thousand year reign. However over a two year attempt at genocide by the Spanish conquers the Mexicans have been struggling with an inability to recapture their roots ever since.
The film Apocalypto directed by Mel Gibson is a depiction on how the Mayan and other mesoamerican tribes conflicted throughout time. The movie opens with Jaguar Paw the main protagonist who is on a hunt with his fellow tribesmen for food. Throughout this sequence they show teamwork and acrobatic skills showing off the dynamics of hunting. After they hunt they encounter a passing tribe whose village was just raided telling Jaguar that they are coming creating fear which is essentially the theme of the movie. Upon return we see a warm family like feel that everyone in the tribe has. Everyone knows and loves each other expressing the love between family, that night they feast and pray that fear does not exist and no one should be afraid. The next