Too few people saw director Mel Gibson’s stunning 2006 film Apocalypto, which is very violent (it’s Gibson, after all), but as an adventure and suspense movie, is terrific. We do not need to believe that the conquistadores were saints - they certainly were not - to recognize this. That is something to be grateful for, and indeed proud of. When you hear people condemning the Spanish conquest for what it did to the native inhabitants, think of the fact that within a decade of the Spanish conquest, human sacrifice ended. This flame would then be used to light all of the ceremonial fires in various temples throughout the city of Tenochtitlan.Ī Harvard historian has more information about Mesoamerican human sacrifice. The victim’s heart would be ripped from his body and a ceremonial hearth would be lit in the hole in his chest. During the festival priests would march to the top of the volcano Huixachtlan and when the constellation “the fire drill” ( Orion’s belt) rose over the mountain, a man would be sacrificed. Xiuhtecuhtli was also worshipped during the New Fire Ceremony, which occurred every 52 years, and prevented the ending of the world. The sacrifice was considered an offering to the deity. Motolinía and Sahagún reported that the Aztecs believed that if they did not placate Huehueteotl, a plague of fire would strike their city.
To appease Huehueteotl, the fire god and a senior deity, the Aztecs had a ceremony where they prepared a large feast, at the end of which they would burn captives before they died they would be taken from the fire and their hearts would be cut out. Xiuhtecuhtli is the god of fire and heat and in many cases is considered to be an aspect of Huehueteotl, the “Old God” and another fire deity.īoth Xiuhtecuhtli and Huehueteotl were worshipped during the festival of Izcalli. For ten days preceding the festival various animals would be captured by the Aztecs, to be thrown in the hearth on the night of celebration. Here is what sacrifice two other Mesoamerican gods was like: Other forms of sacrifice were sometimes used at times the victim was cast into a firepit and burned, others had their throats cut. Before this sacrifice, the victims were taken through the streets as a warning to others. Among this group, those who stole gold or silver were sacrificed to Xipe Totec. Xipe was a patron to all metalworkers (teocuitlapizque), but he was particularly associated with the goldsmiths. These ceremonies went on for twenty days, meanwhile the votaries of the god wore the skins.Īnother instance of sacrifice was done by a group of metalworkers who were located in the town of Atzcapoatzalco, who held Xipe Totec in special veneration.
#Apocalypto heart removal skin
The flayer then made a laceration from the lower head to the heels and removed the skin in one piece. After the victim was shot with the arrows, the heart was removed with a stone knife.
The spilling of the victim’s blood to the ground was symbolic of the desired abundant rainfall, with a hopeful result of plentiful crops. The sacrificial victim was bound spread-eagled to a wooden frame, he was then shot with many arrows so that his blood spilled onto the ground. “Arrow sacrifice” was another method used by the worshippers of Xipe Totec. At the end of the Tlacaxipehualiztli festival, gladiator sacrifice (known as tlauauaniliztli) was carried out by five Aztec warriors two jaguar warriors, two eagle warriors and a fifth, left-handed warrior. A white cord was tied either around his waist or his ankle, binding him to the sacred temalacatl stone.
As a weapon he was given a macuahuitl (a wooden sword with blades formed from obsidian) with the obsidian blades replaced with feathers. “Gladiator sacrifice” is the name given to the form of sacrifice in which an especially courageous war captive was given mock weapons, tied to a large circular stone and forced to fight against a fully armed Aztec warrior. The flayed skins were often taken from sacrificial victims who had their hearts cut out, and some representations of Xipe Totec show a stitched-up wound in the chest. Various methods of human sacrifice were used to honour this god. Xipe Totec was widely worshiped by Aztecs at the time of the Spanish conquest. The ritual was seen as a way to ensure fertility and regeneration,” according to the AP. … “Priests worshipped Xipe Totec by skinning human victims and then donning their skins. The discovery is being hailed as significant by authorities at Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History because it is a whole temple, not merely depictions of the deity, which have been found in other cultures. Mexican archaeologists have discovered what they say is the first temple of a pre-Hispanic fertility god known as the Flayed Lord who is depicted as a skinned human corpse.
0 kommentar(er)
