Mexica religion

The Mexicas were originally one of the Nahua tribes and when they arrived in the Valley of Mexico, they brought their own beliefs and divinities. The most important of their divinities was Huitzilopochtli, whose name can be literally translated as left hummingbird, the left-handed hummingbird or hummingbird of the south.

Upon arriving in the Valley of Mexico or Valley of Anahuac, the Mexicas tried to incorporate the culture and gods of the most advanced civilizations that were already established, as well as those of older civilizations such as the Toltec; thus, they included Tláloc, Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcóatl.

However, some Mexica leaders (like Tlacaélel) modified the story to put their tribal god, Huitzilopochtli, on the same level as the other Nahua gods. As the Mexica began to conquer other peoples, they began to accept new gods and link their stories with those of the gods they already had.

Students such as Miguel León-Portilla suggest that, at the time of the conquest, the Mexicas were in a process of syncretization where all the gods would only be expressions of the powers of a main deity, Ometecuhtli/Omecíhuatl.

This is an ancient pair of gods; their names literally mean "Lord two, Lady two," but Ometéotl is usually translated as "our lord/lady of duality", which implies a god with both feminine and masculine characteristics.

This god is much older than the Nahua civilization, and according to some legends is the origin of all gods. The people hardly knew him, but among the upper classes he was given a kind of cult. Other names he received were: & # 34; The Lord of the Close and Together & # 34;, & # 34; The Inventor of Himself & # 34; and Tonacatecuhtli "The lord of sustenance". The purpose of life according to the Aztecs was to live to die by being sacrificed to Mictlantecuithly and thus end his cycle. Since they believed that the Gods had to be praised with human sacrifices

Metaphysical principles

Outside of popular religion^{[citation needed]}, full of gods with complicated^{[citation needed]} stories and relationships, product of the syncretism of the Nahua civilizations and of the Toltec heritage, the priests and the tlamatinime (wise men) developed a deep ^{[citation needed]} monistic vision^{[citation required]} (according to leading scholars such as Alfonso Caso and León-Portilla). Other researchers, such as A. R. Sandstrom, based on research on the Nahua communities of present-day Mexico, maintain that the conception was pantheistic^{[citation required]}, a position that is supported by Hunt, Markman, Florescano and Ortiz de Montellano.

The synthesis of these conceptions focuses on the figure of Téotl (q.v.), and his tr

Human offerings

The information that follows is merely speculative and is based on the study of codices intervened or created after the fall of Tenochtitlán, written in Spanish at the time. The Mexica culture is particularly idealized by the practice of human sacrifices; Offerings to Huitzilopochtli would be made to restore the blood he lost, as the sun was faced in daily battle. This would prevent the end of the world that could happen in every 52-year cycle. The dedication of the great temple in Tenochtitlán was reported by the Mexicas as referred to, with a sacrifice of more than 84,000 prisoners; However, this number was probably an exaggeration by the Mexicas themselves to instill fear among their enemies, since in the story they insist that the Tlatoani personally sacrificed all the victims in the course of 4 days. As a measure of comparison, in the final days of the Dachau concentration camp, with 24-hour modern technology, 4,500 victims a day could be disposed of.

The victims sacrificed to Xipe Tótec were tied to a post and were completely covered by arrows that were shot at them. Later the corpse would be skinned and a priest would cover himself with the skin. They represent the renewal of the earth to become fertile again. The Earth Mother, Teteoinnan, required flayed female victims. Tlaloc required male sick children.

The Mexica frequently waged wars—the so-called flowery wars—with the intent of capturing prisoners to use in sacrifices. There are multiple accounts of captured conquistadors being sacrificed during the wars of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, although only Bernal Díaz claimed to be a witness to it.

Sometimes, the Mexica killed the most aristocratic captives, notable for their courage in ritual combat: they chained the victim to the ground, who wore only a loincloth, gave him a fake weapon and shield, and was killed fighting a fully armed jaguar warrior. It is said that when a town was defeated, the Mexica priests selected from the captives the most outstanding warrior of the adversaries and threw him down the stairs of the Great Temple. At the end of his fall, the intestines were used for the beasts of the zoo, and the body was delivered to the warrior.

He boiled the body and separated the meat, keeping the bones as a trophy and breaking the meat into very small fragments that he offered to the lords, even from other towns. The lords intended to eat it, but according to some accounts, such as the Ramírez Codex, and the report of Nezahualcóyotl's grandson, the meat itself was considered worthless, so it was replaced by turkey meat. In exchange for this meat, the warrior received great gifts: jewels, rich feathers, fine blankets and slaves. This was a method to encourage successful warriors and help them climb the social ladder.

Tezcatlipoca required a voluntary sacrifice. Every year a young man was offered as a victim. For a year they would honor him as a god on earth, and then he would be sacrificed. Tlaloc required crying (sick) children. Xilonen required drowning two young men.

Despite popular accounts, the Mexica did not make human sacrifices every day. Sacrifices were made only on festival days. A holiday for each of its 18 months. Each month was dedicated to a different god. Animal sacrifices were also made, there were two breeds of dogs bred expressly for it, and people also made self-sacrifice, offering their own blood and suffering to their gods.

In the worship of the Sun of the Mexica, Inca and Maya religions, human sacrifices were common. The Aztecs celebrated a constant cycle of religious festivals with human sacrifices to their various gods, especially when they worshiped the sun-god Tezcatlipoca. In addition, in the festival to the god of fire, Xiuhtecuhtli (Huehueteotl), "the prisoners of war were made to dance with their captors and [...] they were made to spin around an intense fire and then they were it was thrown into the embers and raised while they were still alive to take out their still beating hearts and offer them to the gods."

Calendars

The forms and manifestations of the Sun are a central component of Mexica cosmogony. Therefore, it will not be surprising that their calendars were solar and were directly linked to various religious forms. The Mesoamerican calendar is made up of 18 months of 20 days each, plus 5 unlucky days.

Bibliographic references

• Batalla Rosado, Juan José and José Luis de Rojas (2008). The Aztec religion (1st edition). Editorial Trotta. ISBN 9788481649352. |fechaacceso= requires |url= (help)
• Boone, Elizabeth Hill, ed. (1982) The Art and Iconography of Late Post-Classic Central Mexico. Washington D.C.
• De la Garza, Mercedes (1978). Man in Nahuatl and Mayan religious thought (1st edition). Instituto de Investigaciones Filológica/Centro de Estudios Mayas/Serie Cuadernos (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México). |fechaacceso= requires |url= (help)
• León-Portilla, Miguel (1959). Nahuatl philosophy, studied in its sources, 2.a ed., Mexico, D.F.: UNAM.
• León-Portilla, Miguel (1961). The ancient Mexicans through their chronicles and singing. Mexico City: Fund for Economic Culture.
• León-Portilla, Miguel with Eduardo Matos Moctezuma and José Sarukhán (1995). Gods of ancient Mexico. Mexico, D.F. UNAM-Conalep-DDF-Tribasa Group.
• López Austin, Alfredo (1994). The rabbit on the face of the moon: essays on mythology of the Mesoamerican tradition. Mexico City: General Directorate of Publications of the National Council for Culture and Arts, National Indigenous Institute.
• López Austin, Alfredo (1980) Human body and ideology. The conceptions of the ancient NahuasMexico City, UNAM.