All about the ancient tribes
It was a question of survival for the Aztecs, and this was the primary justification for their practice of human sacrifice. In Aztec cosmology, the deity of the sun, Huitzilopochtli, was engaged in a continuous battle against the darkness; if the darkness triumphed, it was believed that the world would come to an end.
It was their self-sacrifice in addition to the blood from all of the other gods that led the Aztecs to believe that because the gods sacrificed the blood for the existence of humans, humans are in an unpayable debt to the gods. As a result, the Aztecs sacrificed human lives and blood in order to demonstrate how grateful they were to the gods. What exactly is the term ″human sacrifice″?
The Aztecs believed that the practice of human sacrifice was an essential political symbol because it allowed them to establish a social hierarchy between their own culture and the cultures of their adversaries who lived around the city. In addition to this, it served as a method for arranging the social structure of Aztec civilization itself.
A human being’s correct connection to the divine order can be established, maintained, or restored by the performance of a religious ritual known as a sacrifice. In this ritual, an object is presented to a deity as an offering. This multifaceted phenomena may be traced back to the oldest forms of worship that are known to exist and can be found in every region of the planet.
The Aztecs were known to appease their deities through the practice of human sacrifice in the hopes of receiving favors and bounties in return, such as a good crop. Those who were offered as sacrifices were not particularly moral individuals. People who owed blood debts or were known to be criminals were among them.
It was recently estimated by Woodrow Borah, an expert on the demographics of ancient Mexico who works at the University of California, Berkeley, that the Aztecs slaughtered a total of 250,000 individuals per year. This represented around one percent of the total population of the region, which was 25 million.
Dr. Harner contended that the frequency of human sacrifices had reached such a high degree that it could not be rationalized only by reference to religious motivations. He hypothesized that the Aztecs had to resort to cannibalism in order to satisfy their appetite for protein since they did not have access to large domesticated animals like as cattle or pigs.
The offering of a sacrifice enables us to better prepare to dwell in the presence of God. It is only through the offering of sacrifices that we may earn the right to dwell in God’s presence. The only way for us to have eternal life is to make sacrifices. A great number of people who lived before us gave up everything they owned.
Animals were slaughtered in ancient Greece and Rome as part of a ritual that served as a means of communication with the gods, heroes, and other celestial entities. These kinds of rituals were performed in order to placate the heavenly receivers, as well as to petition them for favors, protection, and assistance.
The image of the Aztec people, who governed central Mexico around the 15th century, as being cruel and bloodthirsty is widely perpetuated, and the recent discovery of a ‘tower of human skulls’ appears to have contributed to the perpetuation of this reputation.
The creation of mathematics, the canoe, the highly specialized Aztec calendar, and very effective types of medicine are just a few of the many achievements that may be attributed to the Aztec culture. Iron and bronze were not readily available to the Aztecs, so they relied on stone and wood for their implements and weaponry instead.
In accordance with the Aztec judicial system, criminals were subjected to harsh punishments. Although the death penalty was prevalent, other forms of retribution and punishment were also utilized, such as restitution, the loss of office, the demolition of the culprit’s dwelling, imprisonment, enslavement, and shaving the head of the perpetrator.
During the time that they were in power, the Aztecs farmed vast tracts of land. Corn, beans, and squash were the three most important foods in their diet. They added chiles and tomatoes to these ingredients. They also gathered a species of crayfish-like critter called an acocil, which is common in Lake Texcoco, as well as a type of algae called spirulina, which they baked into cakes.