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Sacrifice—both literal and symbolic—has played a key role in the religious beliefs of many people throughout history and in all parts of the world. In Mesoamerica, traditions of bloodletting and human sacrifice flourished long before the Aztecs came to power.
The Aztec state amplified the importance of human sacrifice and made it a central element of military ideology—warriors secured sacrificial victims to feed the gods and maintain cosmic order.
Enemy Sacrifice
The Aztecs conceived of warfare differently than we do today. Aztec warriors tried to wound rather than kill their enemies, making their capture easier. Captured warriors were then often forced to fight while tied to a temalacatl [tay-mah-lah-caht], literally "wheel made of stone."
After the ritual gladiatorial battle, the enemy combatant was then taken to another sacrificial stone where his heart was offered to an Aztec deity, usually Tonatiuh [toe-nah-TEE-ooh], the sun god. Tonatiuh needed to be nourished with human hearts to sustain his daily journal across the sky.
The Afterlife of Aztec Warriors
Sacrificed enemies were not the only warriors to serve the sun god. The Aztecs believed that after one of their own warriors died, his spirit—called a cuauhtecatl [kwa-TAY-caht]—would accompany the sun across the morning sky on its journey towards the noontime zenith.
In the Aztec world, terrestrial battles reflected the daily combat between the sun god and the forces of darkness—and it was a warrior's vital role in the imperial state religion to maintain order within the universe, upon which all human life depended.
Continue through Warriors: A Warrior's Life. >>
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