The Aztecs Essay Research Paper When the

The Aztecs Essay, Research Paper

When the Spaniards under Hernan Cortez gazed upon the Aztec capital of Tenochtitl.n in Mexico in 1519, the scene before them amazed them. There, in the middle of a wide lake was a shimmering city with bright white walls of vast buildings sitting on an island in the middle of a large lake with causeways linked to it. The astonishment of those first Spanish visitors soon turned to horror when they saw the vast scale of ritual sacrifices made by the Aztecs.

Even today, it is hard to comprehend the extent or rationale for this ritual sacrifice. It is estimated that the Aztec royalty sacrificed approximately 20,000 people per year. Captives were taken to the top of pyramids where, upon a ritual flat stone table, they had their chests cut upon and their hearts ripped out. Then the bodies of the victims were tossed down the steps of the pyramids. The scene to both the Spaniards of that time and to us today is truly gruesome. But it was not mere thirst for blood that motivated the Aztecs to engage in this mass ritual sacrifice.

Critical to understanding the motivation behind the ritual sacrifices is the concept of ”tonalli,” which means: “animating spirit.” The tonalli in humans was believed to be located in the blood, which concentrates in the heart when one becomes frightened. This explains the gods’ hunger for the heart. Without this sacrifice, all motion stops, even the movement of the sun. So when the Aztecs made their sacrifices, as far as they were concerned, they were keeping the sun from halting in its orbit.

Particularly thirsty for blood was the war god, Huitzilopochtli. On the other hand, Quetzalcoatl was a kinder, gentler god. Quetzalcoatl only demanded the sacrifice of animals such as snakes and butterflies.

The victims of these ritual slaughters were usually warriors captured by the Aztecs in battles or tributes from vassal states in the form of humans offered up for sacrifice. This is why the Aztecs never fully conquered many of the surrounding states. They needed a steady supply of ritual sacrifice victims. If they used their own people for sacrifice then it could cause an uprising.

There was another reason for these ritual sacrifices—cannibalism. After the hearts were removed and the bodies tossed down the temple steps, the limbs were removed and later cooked. As repugnant as cannibalism is to us today, back then to the Aztecs, cooked human bodies were looked upon as great delicacies which explains why only Aztec royalty, not the common people, were allowed to engage in cannibalism. The favorite parts for the Aztecs to munch on were the hands and thighs. The Aztec emperor, Moctezuma, was reported to have been partial to cooked thighs served with tomatoes and chili pepper sauce.

This scene might turn our stomachs but it must also be remembered that the Aztecs had no domestic livestock so the body leftovers (the hearts given to the gods were the main course) from the ritual sacrifices was a way for the Aztec royalty to obtain proteins and fats. Thus in the Aztecs we can see a mingling of religion and nourishment which resulted in human sacrifice.

The Aztecs: Ambivalence and Beauty

The Aztecs were also known as the Tenocha or the Mexica and the name Mexico comes from this. They were the dominant peoples of Central America at the time of the Spanish conquest in the early 1500s. Read The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz for an absolutely gripping account of this by a conquistador who was there.

The center of Aztec culture was the city of Tenochtitl.n [Teh-noche-TEE-tlahn- 'place of the prickly pear cactus'] in the Valley of Mexico. This was on the location of the present day site of Mexico City. It is estimated that at the time of the Spanish conquest Tenochtitl.n had in the region of 200,000-300,000 people and it was apparently a beautiful sight. It would have been larger than any European city of the time. It contained more than forty finely decorated pyramids, large residential areas, and six major canals which acted as transport routes along which the inhabitants traveled by canoes.

Family life was important to the Aztecs. When babies were born, a midwife assisted the delivery. Midwives were highly regarded professionals. As Aztec women married when they were as young as fifteen the first birth was often to a teenage girl of a young age. The midwife would cut the umbilical cord, wash the baby, and then offer a prayer to Chalchiuhtlicue ["Jade-Her-Skirt"]. Baby boys were told that life was difficult and full of suffering and that they were likely to die in battle or as sacrifices. The umbilical cord of boys was given to warriors to be buried on the battlefields. Boys were educated at home by their fathers until they were about ten when they started school. The umbilical cord of a girl was buried next to the hearth. The domestic role was seen as the most important part of a woman’s life. The women generally stayed within the home and cooked and made clothing. When girl babies were born the assisting midwife told them that they were to the house as the heart was to the body. Girls stayed in the home with their mothers and began their “training” when they were four. By the age of twelve they were accomplished weavers. The women dressed in wraparound skirts and sleeveless blouses. Women often colored their faces in a pale yellow ochre p