User:Smm323/Aztec religion

Article Draft
The Aztec religion is a polytheistic and monistic pantheism in which the Nahua concept of teotl was construed as the supreme god Ometeotl, as well as a diverse pantheon of lesser gods and manifestations of nature. The popular religion tended to embrace the mythological and polytheistic aspects, and the Aztec Empire's state religion sponsored both the monism of the upper classes and the popular heterodoxies.

The most important deities were worshiped by priests in Tenochtitlan, particularly Tlaloc and the god of the Mexica, Huitzilopochtli, whose shrines were located on Templo Mayor. Their priests would receive special dispensation from the empire. When other states were conquered the empire would often incorporate practices from its new territories into the mainstream religion.

In common with many other indigenous Mesoamerican civilizations, the Aztecs put great ritual emphasis on calendrics, and scheduled festivals, government ceremonies, and even war around key transition dates in the Aztec calendar. Public ritual practices could involve food, storytelling, and dance, as well as ceremonial warfare, the Mesoamerican ballgame, and human sacrifice.

The cosmology of Aztec religion divides the world into thirteen heavens and nine earthly layers or netherworlds. The first heaven overlaps with the first terrestrial layer, so that heaven and the terrestrial layers meet at the surface of the Earth. Each level is associated with a specific set of deities and astronomical objects. The most important celestial entities in Aztec religion are the Sun, the Moon, and the planet Venus (as both "morning star" and "evening star").

After the Spanish Conquest, Aztec people were forced to convert to Catholicism. Aztec religion syncretized with Catholicism. This syncretism is evidenced by the Virgin of Guadalupe and the day of the dead.

Myth Embodiment
An important aspect of Aztec ritual life was the teixiptla, which can be understood as a kind of "substitute" or embodiment of a godly being. Priests or otherwise specially elected individuals would be dressed up to achieve the likeness of a specific deity. Along with various rituals and offerings, dressing up was thought as a way to respect the gods worshiped. It was considered an honor to impersonate a god.[citation needed] The person selected to do so was venerated as an actual physical manifestation of the god. This would sometimes end in the impersonator's death, such as in the many ritual sacrifices tied to certain deities. [see below] Other times the impersonator would survive, such as in a ceremony where a priest impersonated the water goddess Chalchiuhtlicue to welcome the water brought to Tenochtitlan by an aqueduct.

As with the impersonation of gods, Aztec ritual was often a reenactment of a mythical event which at once served to remind the Aztecs of their religion, bring about good luck in daily life, and forward a political goal. These reenactments often took a form similar to European theater, but the Aztec understanding of such performances were very different; there was no clear divide between the "actor" and the figure they played.

The Start of the Aztec Religion

Syncretic religion, adopting other groups’ deities (like the Toltecs) (some aspects of…)

wildlife and crops affecting religion

The Aztec Religion Continued Outside of the Empire

Modern Aztec influence:

the Modern Hopi:

James, Susan E. “Some Aspects of the Aztec Religion in the Hopi Kachina Cult.” Journal of the Southwest, vol. 42, no. 4, 2000, pp. 897–926. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40170157. Accessed 28 Apr. 2024.

- frequent trade between Aztecs and American southwest (turquoise, buffalo hide, ect)

-music of corn grinding songs traveled north as well. Ballcourts in Arizona. Mounts in San Pedro all suggest cultural exchange from Mesoamerica

-uto-Aztecan between Aztec in Hopi

- drought and dramatic weather from 1250-1470 AD led to many Aztecs moving north into American southwest

-Aztecs moving to valley of Mexico is wandering “home” to legendary area of Aztlan (maybe driven out by drought)

-similar calendar ideas, agriculturally centered, deities, songs, linguistic patterns, etc

The Pueblo

Parsons, Elsie Clews. “Some Aztec and Pueblo Parallels.” American Anthropologist, vol. 35, no. 4, 1933, pp. 611–31. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/661936. Accessed 28 Apr. 2024.


 * impersonation of gods by priests or for a year by somebody going to be sacrificed vs Pueblo war captains being war gods
 * supernatural cause of disease and expectation of priests to fix it
 * blood sacrifice

Pantheism
See also, Aztec philosophy

There has been discussion on whether the Aztec religion was a polytheistic or pantheistic religion. Pantheism is the belief that everything is Divine and the Divine is everything. James Maffie, in his book Aztec Philosophy: Understanding a World in Motion, argued that the religion of the Aztecs was pantheistic in nature. Maffie believes that the Aztec view of teotl, found in their poetry, is sufficient to constitute a monist pantheism. He provides nine characteristics of teotl as supporting this view, focusing on his interpretation of the cosmos being a unity that is ontologically identical with teotl.

Several other authors discuss pantheism in Aztec religion and philosophy. Miguel León-Portilla examines pantheism though he hesitates to label it as entirely pantheistic, instead positing that a specific interpretation of their theology and philosophy is more representative of Aztec thought. Louise M. Burkhart also claims that the theology of the Aztecs was monist in nature, though polytheistic. Like Maffie, she posits that monism arises from teotl, which she sees as the primary agent regarding the nature of the universe.

However, this view of Aztec religion was relegated to the priests and upper classes. The religion of the common people was polytheistic, worshiping the many deities as separate entities.

Dualism
See also, Aztec philosophy

Like other Mesoamerican religions, the Aztec religion contained aspects of dualism within their conception of the world. An example of this is the deity Ometeotl, who is split into Ometecuhtli (Lord of Duality) and Omecihuatl (Dual Lady). They dwell in the place of duality together, which is one of the thirteen heavens. However, despite being referred to as separate entities, they are complementary parts of a whole. Miguel León-Portilla describes the linguistic evidence for this, found in a passage of the Códice Matritense de la Real Academia and presented in his book Aztec Thought and Culture. In a section on the various heavens, the line “There dwells the true god and his consort” is dissected. Examining the word i-námic, commonly translated as “consort”, León-Portilla derives it from the prefix of i (the possessive prefix) and the verb namique (“to find, to help”). The prefix is not only a possessive but can be translated as “of him” or “equal to him”. Therefore, his consort is simply another aspect of him, which constitutes a form of dialectical monism and not true dualism.

León-Portilla also examines the phrase “flower and song”, which is an idiom referring to the poetry and creative works of the Aztecs. It is a difrasismo, two words put together that form a singular metaphorical unit. These grammatical constructions also illustrate the dualism of both the Aztec language and religion and they are also common in prayers.

Another example of dualist thought in Aztec religion is in the design of the great Templo Mayor in Tenochtitlan. Atop the great pyramid sat two shrines, one to Tlaloc, the god of rain and agriculture, and the other to Huitzipochtli, the god of warfare and the god of the Mexica. These two opposing shrines at the top of the Templo Mayor also represented the society of Tenochtitlan, both the aspects of their society that demanded tribute and warfare but also the domestic aspects such as agriculture.