The Aztec People
The
Aztec Empire consisted of migratory people, and several ethnic groups who spoke
the Nahuatl Language and dominated the immense parts of Central Mexico in 14th
to 16th centuries. People from Aztlan (the Mexicas) moved to Central Mexico and built alliances together with
the true inhabitants of Texcoco and Tlacopan, the two principal states of
Tenochtitlan. Tenochtitlan is known today as Mexico City. This triple Alliance eventually
became a huge empire with a rich culture, sophisticated religious beliefs and
wide political dominion over the valley of Mexico and several city states of
Mesoamerica.
Archaeological evidences suggest that the Aztec people had highly remarkable
achievements in terms of architecture and art. Spanish clergymen and literate
Aztecs had described the culture and history of Aztecs through written documents, native
bark paper codices were also found as archaeological evidence, as well as
eyewitness testimonies from Spanish conquerors.
The Aztec Culture
The
primary language spoken by Aztec people was called N’ahuatl. Their alphabet
system is picture writing wherein they draw symbols and pictures of nouns.
These were joined together to form sentences, to write their stories and keep
records. Aztec picture writing was difficult to learn. The system was primarily
done by priests and scribes who were the only ones capable of reading the
pictures.
The Aztecs were fond of poetry and they had books called codices. Their
books or codices are in the form of long strips of paper that were folded like
an accordion, covered with a piece of wood on both sides. Graphics and symbols
were written on both sides of the papers and can be read from either top to
bottom or left to right.
In
terms of Art, Aztecs were fond of stone carving, painting pictograms, pottery and
making head dresses out of feathers. Statues were carved by stone workers out
of wood, rock and bones. Pictograms were drawn by scribes and priests and they
use vegetables, insects, shells, minerals and oils to color them. Pots were
carved and painted by the bare hands of Aztec potters, and headdresses were
elaborately made out of tropical birds by feather workers.
Their Religious
Beliefs
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| Aztecs' Gods and Goddesses |
The
Aztec People had several religious beliefs. They believe in the power of the
sun to fought darkness and save mankind .
Back then, they believed the world is flat. They believed in the existence of
13 heavens and 9 hells.
They believe in the practice of offering their sun God
with human blood and heart, hoping that it would rise and food will grow
abundantly.
They
also believed in life after death. They believed that offering themselves to
the gods would lead them straight to heaven, that the way you die determines
your destination afterlife. If a person died a normal death, his or her soul
would go to the dark dismal underworld, passing through the nine lives of the
underworld before reaching Mictlan, the land of the dead. However, if a person
died in a battle or from giving birth, he or she would go straight to the sun
God, to the heaven.
The
Aztecs had worshipped many Gods including Huizilopochtlid,
god of war and god of sun, Tlaloc, the rain God, Tezcatlipoca,
the God of Magic, and many other Gods.
Because
of their great love for religion, they used human sacrifice had as a way to
please their gods.
"The Practice of Human
Sacrifice"
Human
sacrifice was a significant part of Aztecs' religious beliefs. This ritual was
performed by priests dressed as supreme Gods on the nights of the O’Nothing
Days. On top of a dead volcano, the priests would wait for the evening star to
reach the top of the sky. Then they would place the human captive over an altar,
or a special table. The fifth priest would stab the captive’s abdomen with a ceremonial
knife made of flint. He would slice open up to the diaphragm and grab the
captive’s heart while it was still beating. The heart would be placed on a
special bowl held high to the statue of their God as an act of offering. The
dead body would be laid on temple stairs, body parts are destroyed by feeding
them to the animals while the head would be displayed in the temple.
Others forms of human sacrificing performed by
Aztecs were human skinning, self-sacrifice and blood offering in which they offer maguey thorns tainted by their own blood from their tongues, ear lobes or genitals. Blood offering was practiced by most Maya Kings.
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