Human Sacrifice of the Aztecs
Human
Sacrifice formed a major part of the Aztec culture and later influenced the
lifestyle and art of this culture in Mesoamerica. In these rituals of sacrifice, a human was
killed and the body was offered to the gods.
Being a polytheistic people, the Aztecs practiced human sacrifice
quite.
These
sacrifices were offered to one of the many gods to keep them ‘happy’ so he
keeps doing what he should. For example,
if one year there was a great harvest of corn, but the next nearly all crops
withered and died. The primary thought
of the Aztecs was that the god of corn was ‘angry’ and wanted a sacrifice. The result was the Aztecs offered several
people, usually young adults and virgins, and hoped to fulfill the hunger of
the god.
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Form of the sacrifice; Sacrifices were performed
by special people, somewhat like priests, and they were performed usually to
young adults, children, and virgins. The
best “quality” of people were offered in hopes to gain liking of a god.
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These were often performed in terrible and
inhumane ways; examples:
§
Heart torn out; the victim had a cavity carved
into his or her chest, and the performer of the sacrifice would tear the
victim’s heart out of the chest, all while the victim is still alive. Also, this was the most common among the
Aztecs
§
Beheading; Not much explanation needed, the
victim was tied and beheaded with a sword like weapon
§
Weeping boys, skinned alive; For this ritual,
children were the victim. They were
sometimes shot with arrows beforehand, but remained alive at the time they were
skinned. The more the victim suffered,
it was thought the more effective the offering was.
This image shows the sacrificial ceremony held in honor the
Aztec gods. The heart was torn out of
the body while the victim was still alive, in order to make the victim suffer
and make the sacrifice more efficacious, as was the belief at the time.
This apparent cartoon shows all the main gods to whom
sacrifices were probably offered.
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