Aztec and Maya

Centrality of Human Sacrifice

Onondaga Land Rights

• http://centralny.ynn.com/content/top_stories/518483/neighbors-of-the-onondaga-nation-hold-vigil/?ap=1&MP4

Mesoamerica

Primary Gods of the Templo Mayor

• Huitzilopochtli– Sun God/Aztec Deity

• Tlaloc– Rain and Fertility

God/Pan Mesoamerican Deity

Tlaloc: Aztec God of Rain

• Tlaloc--”he who is the embodiment of the land”

• Tlalocan– the home of Tlaloc

located in the underworld

Atlcahualo--Drought

• First Month – Before rainy season

(12 February)

• Child Sacrifice• Ritual map of Valley

of Mexico

Eating Landscape

• Earth was Tlaloc’s body, sites of sacrifice were his mouths– Demand was for human

blood in exchange for water

– Fruits of human body (children) were exchanged for fruits of the earth (agricultural products)

– Sacrifice--”payment of debt”

Mesoamerica

Maya (300 BCE- 1500 CE)

• Pacal’s tomb– Page 93

• Sacred Kingship– Sacred tree– Moment of death– Not a spaceship

• World Renewal

Auto-sacrifice and Vision

• Sheild Jaguar and Lady Xoc– Page 111

• Blood of Kings leads to sacred knowledge– “...female blood, shed in this

sacrificial manner opens the membrane between heaven and earth through which flow astronomical influences, the spirit of the ancestors and legitimate power for a ruler ascending the throne."[112]

Blood of Kings

• Primary responsibility of rulers was to let blood– Connection with

Xibalba, ancestors• Popol Vuh

– Story of Hero Twins journey to the underworld

I, Rigoberta Menchú

• Maya woman from Guatemala• 1992 Noble Peace Prize winner• “Every part of our culture comes from

the earth. Our religion comes from the maize and bean harvests which are so vital to our community.” (p. 16)

Mesoamerican Human Sacrifice

• Payment of debt• “We eat the earth and then the earth eats

us.”• “Religion” in exchange between human

and sacred beings

Indigenous or Native Religions

• Centrality of place– Locative

• Primacy of place• Crisis of contact with utopian traditions

– Mircea Eliade--the hierophany• Manifestation of the sacred• Distinctive qualities and presence of the sacred

Mesoamericans as Indigenous

• Religion as Habitation– Centrality of habitation– Centrality of the body

• Materiality of Religion– Engagement with material world– Distinctive from “belief” emphasis