Transcript aztecs - SORII2010

Origins of the Universe
• Their creation story is that the dual God
Ometecuhtli/Omecihuatl created itself.
This God then had 4 children which came
to represent the 4 directions north, south,
east and west.
• This God represents good and bad, chaos
and order and male and female.
• These 4 Gods began to create water and
other Gods.
Origins of the Universe
• The four God’s created a sea monster called
Cipactli.
• While the God’s were creating the world,
creations would fall into the sea and be eaten by
Cipactli.
• The four God’s defeated the creature and pulled
it in four directions. From this the universe was
created.
• All the 13 heavens stretched into her head. The
earth was created in the middle, and her tail
reaches down to the underworld.
Principal Beliefs
• Aztec beliefs were based in their
perception of nature, its time space, and
cycles.
• The beliefs were varied and vast.
• They believed in heaven and hell, in fact
they believed in multiple heavens and
hells.
• They believed that the sun wrestled with
darkness each night.
Afterlife
• Their belief in the afterlife was strong.
• Their belief was that how you died
depended on where you went.
• For example; If an individual died in a war,
they would immediately go to the sun God.
• If an individual died for a reason that was
no specified, they would have to travel
through the underworld before reaching
the resting place of the dead.
Supernatural powers and deities
• The Aztecs worshipped nearly 1000 God’s.
• The most prominent of the Gods was the sun
God.
• The Aztec’s praised their Gods extensively.
They would sacrifice tens of thousands of people
to please the Gods.
• One of the most celebrated religious days is the
O’Nothing Day where priests would get dressed
up as the Gods and go to an extinct volcano and
perform human sacrifices.
Aztec Gods
• Aztec rulers were seen as the embodiment of the Aztec
Gods.
• The three main Gods were Huitzilopochtli, Tlaloc, and
Tezcatlipoca.
• Other Gods include;
• Atlacoya -- goddess of drought
• # Chiconahui – a domestic fertility goddess
• # Citlalicue – a creator of the stars
• # Cipactonal – god of astrology, sorcery (witchcraft)
• # Oxomoco – goddess of astrology
• # Xochiquezal – goddess of female sexuality, prostitutes,
pleasure
• # Patecatl – god of healing and creator of peyote (a
hallucinogenic)
Aztec Rituals
• Each ritual and ceremony helps the Aztecs
come closer to the Gods.
• If rituals aren’t done properly then direct
consequences will be enforced.
• Some rituals include human sacrifices,
tongue piercing
fhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvGngrBIkRw
Human Sacrifice
Human Sacrifice
• The process starts with a priest cutting the
persons chest and taking out their heart.
• They put the heart in a vessel and hoped
that it please the Gods and that the world
would keep on going.
Tongue Piercings
• Tongue piercings was a traditional Aztec
and Mayan ritual
• The priests would pierce tongues then
they would draw blood from it or pass
rough cords through the hole to inflict pain
• This was done to honour the Gods
Influence on the society
• Cultural and political aspects of Aztecs
society is based around their religious
rituals
• Their ruling class was based on both
ability and birth, a legal system and a
strong moral code that gave great
importance to family and community life
• There are 2 major aspects to the Aztec life
cycle
• The first, is that they developed sophisticated
methods of agriculture
• They believe that the Gods could ensure them a
plentiful harvest if they performed rituals
• The second, is that they were warring people,
seeking victims to sacrifice to their blood-hungry
gods.
• Warriors were among the elite of Aztec society
• Eagle warriors were adorned with feathers and
Jaguar warriors wore the skin of ocelots
The human search for meaning
• Their religious beliefs justified war and
provided unity to their society
• Religion dominated politics and therefore
determined their economy
• There was a lot of human sacrificing going
on so then they had to make sure that they
could expand on their empire
fhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc-XgOR0pbA
Aztecs and their music