It's always interesting to me how repulsive many Westerners find the cultures of Native Americans (Aztecs, Incas, etc) to be. At times we are so quick to pass judgement on past and current societies without really giving thought to historical context, geographic realities, etc. At any rate, I would like for you to read a very astute article written by a very astute historian by the name of William Prescott that offers some commentary on the subject. PLEASE READ THIS ARTICLE because I feel it makes some excellent points that must be made. You can read it by clicking here. When you have finished reading this article, I'd like you to discuss the following: What special features of Aztec civilization must be explained? Are they really distinctive? What explanations are most persuasive in terms of historical sensitivity and contemporary standards? In your opinion, are there features of 21st century society that are similar to those of Aztec civilization and that later generations will need to explain? Your thoughts...
Thursday, November 6, 2008
An In Depth Look at the "Troubling" Civilizations of the Americas
It's always interesting to me how repulsive many Westerners find the cultures of Native Americans (Aztecs, Incas, etc) to be. At times we are so quick to pass judgement on past and current societies without really giving thought to historical context, geographic realities, etc. At any rate, I would like for you to read a very astute article written by a very astute historian by the name of William Prescott that offers some commentary on the subject. PLEASE READ THIS ARTICLE because I feel it makes some excellent points that must be made. You can read it by clicking here. When you have finished reading this article, I'd like you to discuss the following: What special features of Aztec civilization must be explained? Are they really distinctive? What explanations are most persuasive in terms of historical sensitivity and contemporary standards? In your opinion, are there features of 21st century society that are similar to those of Aztec civilization and that later generations will need to explain? Your thoughts...
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It looks like the Aztecs could have many reasons to have human sacrifices. It could have been for religious reasons, to insight fear in their neighbors, or even to lower the population. We will never know because the Spanish burned all the Aztec histories. Me personally think that it was for religious purposes because religion has a way to make people do things against their will. I guess intimidation is reasonable but religion is the most likely
Hm, I really didn't think about the chance that sacrifices could be used as population control. That would actually be pretty smart in an overcrowded city, but I doubt that would be the only reason. There would have to be some kind of religious reasoning, that may have been made up, behind the excessive sacrifices in order to get the rest of the society to go along with it. But then again, didn't the Incas have a large population as well? Granted, they did expand quite a bit, but wouldn't they be doing the same with such a large population? Thing is, they sacrificed domesticated animals versus human beings. So maybe the reason for the sacrifices would be more religious than anything else. Religion, as we've seen thus far, has made people do some crazy and completely out there things.
I think the Aztecs had sacrificial rituals for their religion, becuase why wouldnt they just expand more if they had population pressure.
The special feature of the Aztec empire was the fact that they were sacrificing humans. As they article mentions they were not so distinctive from the practice of sati. I found the most persuasive explanation still the one that says human sacrafices keeps the world going. It might have also been a way to keep the priests elevated above the others. I sure wouldn't mess with someone who had the power to tear out my heart.
Abortion might also been an issue that will be discussed in later generations as they study The Aztecs and then compare them to our generatoion. Atleast the Aztecs knew what was coming for them.
The human sacrifices the Aztecs used probably wasn't all for religion and had a little secret that wasn't told to us because we couldn't get the hard evidence. Well, one motive is that the sacrifices were gruesome and was used to scare the citizens to pay tribute, and also use it to scare off the other civilizations.
It's smart and much like societies we saw in the Afro Eurasia. But I know that they knew the world was coming to an end. It's kind of strange how the Spanish came at this period. I know it could have been for population control for the rapid sacrificing, but still how many could you sacrifice a day? Getting rid of so many people by sacrificing, they couldn't have killed thousands a day, and these numbers would only present significant numbers enough to control the population? We wouldn't know because of the Spaniards killed them all off. Still we could never know but only guess.
it seems that the most controversial feature of the aztec culture was human sacrifice. i tend to think that it was for religious reasons because, as we've seen in other early civilizations (i.e. china), ruling by force works for a while, but eventually leads to rebellion, which was not a huge issue in the aztec empire. with religion, however, the people would be too afraid to rebel and would keep sacrificing. i think that the ideas of sacrificing for political and population control was made up by the europeans since they thought of these people to be so barbaric and "uncivilized". unfortunately the oh, so sophisticated spaniards burnt all the records so now we will never know...
When the Europeans first came to Mesoamerica they had never seen anything like what they were seeing before. What they found to be most distinctive was the ritual of torture and human sacrifice. But in this document it says that these same practices took place in the Old Testament. Apparently these Christians weren't keeping up with their own religon! They also questioned the type of government and their political thinking.
The Perception of the Europeans was different than what was really going on. They are outsiders who make judgments before they really understand the reasons for the Aztecs and Incan ways. It was interesting reading about the other possibilities of sacrificing. Scaring others off by sacrificing would be pretty smart. i know that i wouldn't want to go near an empire that kills people and rips out their hearts in a way of a type of threat. creepy stuff! The idea of sacrificing because of over population i think is a bit much. I think they should have come up with a more humane way of doing it since the people don't give themselves up willingly and since there isn't a purpose.
Sacrafice was apart of their religion, but the reason they used humans can be explained in many ways like the article depicted, also since the Aztecs did not have the same technology as the Europeans they looked down on the Aztecs as savages despite their accomplishments. Also since they were not Christians, being that Christianity is a universal religion they felt it thier duty to condemn the practices of human sacrifice in order to convert them to Christianity.
I think the Aztecs had sacrificial rituals for religous purposes to please the sun god. But there are some other good ideas that were stated in the documents.
The Aztecs really depended on human sacrifices for a lot of things. And i guess they were also cannibals as well...? I'm not sure because once i sa the part that says a "cannibal kingdom," then i just lost track of what i was thinking..it just disgusts me very much. Other then that i guess i have to say that i do understand why they do sacrifices. It's just like giving money to a church or something..just in a different way or form. And the sacrifices probably did keep the world going. It was part of their religion, so it was normal to them. It seems that it also connected the empire as well. Too bad we only know so much because the Spanish burned so many books but three (i think).
We may never really know about the ancient american culture. It seems like in all of the cases, all of the documents were either abandoned, or the spanish destroyed all of them. All we have to go on is the Spanish interpretation of the cultures, which is full of prejudices, as shown in this article.
I think that they had human sacrifices to pacify their gods. I don't really think it's because of population pressures or anything. When you take their religion into account, the human sacrifices dont seem AS barbarian as they did if you just think their doing it because they enjoy it.
he did spend a lot of the article offering different explainations of human sacrifice. my opinion? human sacrifice, though similar practices have been seen in other cultures, like indian situ, is very much a distinctive feature of early american society, but it has been made such by foreign historians and those watching the process out of context. i think that the aztecs and incas could have sacrificed humans for any number of purposes, but i don't think that we would know the real reason even if the writing hadn't been burned, for whenever rulers do something potentially controversial, the use the mask of religion to justify it to the people. therefore, any writings having to do with sacrifice would most likely give religion as the sole reason, even if that weren't strictly true.
The Aztecs could have used human sacrafices as population control or because they did not have animals to sacrafice like the Incas did in there region, so they had to use what they had. The sacrafices could have been partly religious and in order to scare the people into paying their tribute.
besides it being part of their religion, it kinda seems like they did human sacrifices for surivival purposes. they believed they had to do it for survival, especially when they knew something bad (spanish invasion) was gonna happen. it's also like when they talk about population control or cannabalism. it wasn't done for cruelty but for survival. you already sacrificed them, why not get the protein.
human sacrifice is part religious and agricultural. not too much of population control i dont think, more of people are too scared to piss the gods off and bring bad weather to thier crops and land. This quote states perfectly their reasoning for human sacrifice:
"Many scholars have seen it as essentially a religious act central to their belief that humans must sacrifice that which was most precious to them, life, in order to receive in return the sun, rain, and other blessings of the gods that make life possible"
This says that without human sacrifice, they cant live. So they die in order to live. Makes perfect sense.
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