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Aztec Religious Beliefs and Practices

Aztec Religious Beliefs and Practices. Historical Background. Aztec civilization was part of Mesoamerica Included present-day Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and most of Mexico Included multiple diverse civilizations Aztecs = Great civilization with 15 million people

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Aztec Religious Beliefs and Practices

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  1. Aztec Religious Beliefs and Practices

  2. Historical Background • Aztec civilization was part of Mesoamerica • Included present-day Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and most of Mexico • Included multiple diverse civilizations • Aztecs = Great civilization with 15 million people • Most Aztecs were urban, living in the city of Tenochtitlan • Present-day Mexico City • Aztecs migrated to Mesoamerica later than other civilizations

  3. Quetzalcoatl • 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

  4. Aztec COSMOLOGY: The Fifth Sun • 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

  5. Human Body as Axis Mundi • 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

  6. Religious Significance of Language • Aztec language = Nahuatl • Religious power in mastery of language • Specialists could communicate with gods and make offerings through language (alternative to sacrifice) Example: iuhoquichiuque in tocolhuan in tachtonhuan (Thus did our ancestors – grandfathers and great-grandfathers) macamoxiquimilcahuacan in mimiccatzitzintin in otechcauhtehuaque (Do not forget the dead who have left us behind.)

  7. New Vocabulary • Syncretism = A phenomenon that occurs when elements from diverse religious traditions blend

  8. Aztec Culture and Catholicism: Syncretism • 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

  9. Aztec Culture and Catholicism: Syncretism • 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

  10. Religion and RESISTANCE • 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 • Re-claim PRIDE in indigenous/Mexican roots and culture; promote UNITY • Protect and promote Chicano rights; create community building

  11. Video: Mexican-American Studies Ban in Tucson, Arizona • http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-april-2-2012/tucson-s-mexican-american-studies-ban?xrs=share_fb • How does the ideology of the Chicano Movement continue to be important today?

  12. “Mestizo Head” by Victor Ochoa

  13. Video: Peruvian purification ritual • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6kEruLbYdY&list=PLAB99AC812007FE57&index=49

  14. Essential Theological Terms • 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

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