WHI-Chap6/21-obj6

Explain Aztec and Incan religious beliefs and practices

Aztec-

The Aztec had gruesome religious ceremonies. One of them was sacrificing people to Huitzilopochtli, the sun god. A heavily drugged man was brought up to the top of the temple and was held down on a stone table. The priest then cut out the victims heart with a knife and put it into a ceremonial casket. The body of the victim was thrown down the stairs and the ritual was complete. The reason for this gruesome ceremony was that the Aztecs thought that their gods needed blood sacrifices. Huitzlopochtli was the most important to sacrifice to because the Aztecs thought that, if they did not sacrifice blood to him, he would not bring the sun up again.

Incan-

The Incas believed that a person could die two deaths. The first one is the biological death, which is inescapable. The second death was a social death in which if you were forgotten, you basically died again. This belief caused the Inca to mummify their previous rulers and every now and then bring them on a parade around town. They believed that the rulers were descendants of the sun god, Inti, giving the Inca all the more reason to remember their past rulers.

By Clay Eckman