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The purpose of Aztec blood rituals

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Montezuma
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« on: November 20, 2010, 01:18:30 am »




According to Burland (1975: 23), the main purpose of Aztec religion and blood sacrifice was to keep Aztec people in good health, secure plentiful crops and other foods, and to have total pleasure that were gained through the benefits in life.  The latter were given if there was a constant supply of sacrificial victims to keep the hierarchy of Aztec gods placated.

Three of the chief Aztec gods were; Huitzilopochtli [the hummingbird wizard] was native to Tenochtitlan and was the god of the sun and war; Tezcatlipoca [smoking mirror] was the chief god to the general public of the Aztecs and; Quetzalcoatl [sovereign plumed serpent]  was the god of civilization, the priesthood, education and was worshipped all over Mesoamerica (**** 1996: online).  Although there were copious amounts of lesser Aztec gods a few of them were most important to the Aztecs; Tlaloc the rain god; Coatlicue the earth mother goddess; and Xipe [the flayed one] the god of spring (Forman 1980: 39-58; **** 1996: online).  Duality was common in Aztec religions.

 

Their gods generally catered to dual purposes.  For example, they could be both male and female and although the Aztecs believed their gods to be good and kind they also saw a dual aspect in their gods because they saw them as harsh, cruel, vengeful and completely destructive (Berdan 1982: 111-118; **** 1996: online).  The latter was probably due to the constant need and purpose of sacrifice that is implied from the belief that if they did not sacrifice themselves and their blood, the sun would cease to shine and the fifth world (Berdan 1982: 111) would come to an end,therefore destroying all life as the Aztecs knew it.

 
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