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Human sacrifice and the Aztecs
The beliefs of the people of the ancient maya
Human sacrifice and the Aztecs
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The Mayan gods were related to nature, but they had human characteristics. There was a hierarchy of gods and not all of the gods were good, so human sacrifice was practice to placate the plethora of gods. The Mayans also played games on a ball court and the losers were sacrificed to the gods. The game had religious meaning and is believed to have symbolized the struggle between light and dark with the ball symbolizing the sun.
The Mayans just have one religion called polytheism. They had multiple gods. The ultimate god that they believed in is the sun god/ corn god. They thought that the sun/corn god was the most powerful because they thought this god would be the reason why the sun came up everyday so that they could stay alive because they wouldn’t be able to grow their crops without the sun. In return they would sacrifice their own people and sometimes enemies instead of killing them. They also thought that the queen and king of the mayans would
The ancient Aztecs had many gods that were associated with lots of different things that were important to their culture and their survival. They also held lots of ceremonies to celebrate and appease the gods, who were temperamental. If you displeased the gods they would make you suffer. Alot of their ceremonies involved sacrifice, they were a gory civilization. A few of their more major gods were: Huitzilopochtli, Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca, Xipe Totec, Ometecuhtli/Omecihuatl, and a few more minor gods like Tlaloc. (The beginning story and god description paragraphs)
Society is defined as being “an enduring and cooperating social group whose members have developed organized patterns of relationships through interaction with one another” (merriam-webster). The relationship between men and women has played a large role in its culture; “gender hierarchy has been the implicit operating model for understanding … past societies.” (Stokett). As stated, gender hierarchy defines the relationship between the genders as unbalanced in respect to each other, typically placing men as the dominant gender compared to the roles females play. Although often seen as inferior; women have played a prominent role in defining cultures; such is the case for Maya, Inca, and Aztec societies.
In ancient Maya society, as their religion involved lots of elements like nature, astronomy, and rituals, people understood the relationship between natural and supernatural spheres to be a constant interplay of dynamic forces. In ancient Maya thoughts, they divided the cosmic space to three reals in vertical space: the upper-world, the middle-world and the underworld. And horizontal space was divided into four quadrants spreading from a central axis.
The Mayan interpretation of the cosmos included a plethora of gods: some benevolent, others malignant; some unattainable, others close at hand. Defining past, present and future, it concerned itself with death, the afterlife and reincarnation. Itzamna was a Mayan god that represented the earth and sky. This god was there to produce vegitables. The Aztec beliefs were very similar to that of the Mayan civilization. Both societies were very similar in their belief of gods, sacrificing, and wars. The ritual of human sacrifice was infulenced by the Toltec tradition. Praying, sacrifice, speaking in metaphors were all forms of speaking with dieties. The calendar was very accurate, more accurate then the calendars that we follow now. Europeans thought that Mesoamerican people were wild people because they were cannibals, believed in many gods, and "enjoyed sex".
The Maya religion required a highly complicated method of worship that demanded bloodletting and sacrificial rituals that were often fulfilled by the kings and queens. These efforts were necessary because it was believed to "feed" the gods. It was the sacred duty and responsibility of the ruler to often feed the gods with their own blood. The believed their rulers had the power to pass in and out body to the spirit world and acted as messengers to the celestial world.[109]
Both the Mayas and the Aztecs worshipped their gods through human sacrifice. The Olmecs were so dedicated to their gods that they transported 50 tons of boulders from the mountains to the shore. For the Mayas, even their games were related to their religion. The Aztec society was constantly at war for the sole purpose of making sacrifices to their many gods. Religion dominated the cultures of these Mesoamerican empires.
When Spaniards first set foot on Mesoamerican shores in the early sixteenth century, they encountered not the godless mass of natives they believed they found, but a people whose rich spiritual traditions shaped and sustained them for thousands of years. These diverse spiritual practices legitimized nearly every aspect of Mesoamerican daily life, from science and architecture to art and politics (Carmack 295), in many of the same ways Catholicism did in Spain. The collision of these cultures in the Great Encounter and the resulting Spanish colonial state mixed not solely two different peoples—Indian and Spanish—but thousands of variants: elites and slaves, peasant farmers and traders, priests and traders, organized and local spiritual customs, all with different degrees of diversity in their respective religious practices. This diversity set the stage for the syncretic religious traditions that emerged in Mayan society and remain a vital part of that culture today.
The major Mayan gods and goddesses all have common characteristics and, according to “features which they share in large part with the gods of neighboring people of Middle America” (Thompson, 198). One of these characteristics is that Mayan gods and goddesses have “features which they share in large part with the gods of neighboring people of Middle America” (Thompson, 198). The majority of the gods and goddesses take a form that combines animal and human features. For example, rain and earth deities often have characteristics derived from crocodiles and snakes (Thompson, 198). The Mayan deities also have a duality complex in which they could be both benevolent and malevolent, but this duality could also apply to age and sex such as a god or goddess being portrayed as youthful or aged or a masculine god sometimes being portrayed as feminine (Thompson, 199). Worship of animals, such as the Jaguar, was present (Thompson, 200) and numbers were seen as deities as well (Thompson, 239). Each deity corresponds to a number. For example, the sun god is the god of the number four as well and the moon goddess is the goddess of the number one. Inanimate objects had spirits, like animals and numbers, which had the ability to achieve the rank of de...
Itzamna: is considered the sun god and is the Mayans earliest hero and leader. Legend says that he let a migration from beyond the ocean and through a pathway the would magically open ocean waters. He was also the creator of the universe. He emphasized opposites of world( ex. Light and dark, male-female) He is credited with bringing writing and technology to the Mayans. He is pictured as an old man. He is associated with the moon, medicine, birth, heaven, and underworld.
The Mayan civilization believed that the shedding of blood was crucial because of its association with rains and agriculture. According to Mayan priest, the gods had shed their own blood to water the earth and nourish crops of maize, and they
The Dark Ages were a time of great loss in regards to the lack of any grand achievement being made in Europe. After the fall of Rome, it was as if European society paused, and resumed during the Renaissance. This was not true for the Mayans, however. While the Europeans were squandering trying to subsist through the fall of the Roman Empire, the Mayans were building great pyramids, making substantial discoveries in astronomy and mathematics, their culture was rich. The Maya stood out for its sophisticated culture and society, which is eventually overshadowed by Europe’s monumental resurgence during the Renaissance period. It’s salient that the Maya never had a time period in which their culture was lost, despite the mysterious abandonment of
Today we would look at this ritual and claim these people are immoral. Why should the winning team of a game be the ones to get sacrificed? Being that it was the highest honor to receive, the Mayans knew that winning would be their reckoning day and they embraced their fate. Today, we would look back at this ritualistic behavior as immoral. These men that participated in the games didn’t deserve to die because they won a game.
The Maya civilization is a very important culture that has left a great impact on our world today. They are known for their written language, art, mathematical system and astronomical system. The Maya territory includes Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize, and southern Mexico. In these areas the Maya thrived in their religious practices, politics, and their use of the territory.
...The Mayans were polytheistic and they believed in many manifestations of their one God Kunabku and these manifestations looked over everything. Priests were appointed not only through their religious commitment but also thought their literacy level. The Halach Uinic was also referred to as the K’uhul Ajaw which refers to Holy Lord/ Ruler which demonstrates the close association between the king and God and in turn State and Religion. The Mayans also believed in ancestor worship and communication performed by the Halach Uinic and priests during their hallucinations. Bloodletting was also an activity practiced by the Mayans as a means of sacrifice towards their God and as worship. It was drained from captives in war and prisoners but a nobles’ blood was especially treasured and used on special occasions