Transcript Aztec Religious Beliefs and Practices

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Aztec civilization was part of Mesoamerica
◦ Included present-day Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica,
and most of Mexico
◦ Included multiple diverse civilizations
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Aztecs = Great civilization with 15 million people
Most Aztecs were urban, living in the city of
Tenochtitlan
◦ Present-day Mexico City
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Aztecs migrated to Mesoamerica later than other
civilizations
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Believed the god Quetzalcoatl
(Feathered Serpent) created and
ordered the world
Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl (Our Young
Prince the Feathered Serpent) = the
god’s earthly devotee
◦ Provided Aztecs with the perfect role
model
◦ Waiting for him to return to earth
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5 suns and their ages exist in Aztec cosmology
Believed 4 previous suns and their ages had
been destroyed
Living in the 5th and last sun’s age
◦ Similar fate awaited the 5th sun
◦ The only way to delay the end of the age was to
continually nourish the sun with human
sacrifices
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The human body was believed to have 2 divine
forces in the head and in the heart
◦ Regarded as an axis mundi due to the potency of
these forces, connecting the earthly realm to the
divine
◦ Nourishment for the sun
and cosmos
◦ Heart – offered to sun
◦ Head – offered to sky
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Aztec language = Nahuatl
◦ Religious power in mastery of language
◦ Specialists could communicate with gods and make
offerings through language (alternative to sacrifice)
Example: iuh oquichiuque in tocolhuan in tachtonhuan
(Thus did our ancestors – grandfathers and greatgrandfathers)
macamo xiquimilcahuacan in mimiccatzitzintin in
otechcauhtehuaque
(Do not forget the dead who have left us behind.)
Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl
had disappeared from
earth long ago but was
expected to return in
1519
Fall of Tenochtitlan in
1521 to Cortés and his
army
Fall of Aztec empire but
Aztec culture lives on today
Spanish leader Hernán
Cortés arrived in
Mesoamerica in 1519
wearing a feathered
helmet
Aztec king Moctezuma II
believed Cortés was
Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl
and welcomed him
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Syncretism = A phenomenon that occurs
when elements from diverse religious
traditions blend
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Veneration of the Virgen de Guadalupe
◦ Dark-skinned apparition of the Virgin Mary
appeared to Juan Diego, an Aztec convert, on
the outskirts of Tenochtitlan in 1531
◦ The hill (Tepeyac) she appeared on was
considered the sacred place of Tonantzin, the
Aztec mother goddess
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DÍa de los Muertos
◦ Celebrated by many Catholics to remember/venerate
the dead and to join the living with the dead
◦ Based off of Aztec rituals and beliefs
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Aztec/Mesoamerican religion and culture =
important to the Chicano Movement
◦ Began in the 1960s and 70s; its ideology remains
politically, religiously, and academically important
today
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Re-claim PRIDE in indigenous/Mexican roots
and culture; promote UNITY
Protect and promote Chicano rights; create
community building
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http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/monapril-2-2012/tucson-s-mexican-americanstudies-ban?xrs=share_fb
How does the ideology of the Chicano
Movement continue to be important today?
Video: Peruvian purification ritual
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6kEruLb
YdY&list=PLAB99AC812007FE57&index=49
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Cosmology – An understanding or theory of the
nature, origin, development, and eventual fate of
the universe
Transcendence – A state of being that has
overcome the normal limitations imposed by the
human condition of physical existence (such as
through meditation, prayer, and visions)
Axis Mundi – The axis or center of the universe
Syncretism = A phenomenon that occurs when
elements from diverse religious traditions blend