Have to brutally sacrifice many people every month or else gods of fire and war will end existence

>they still think sacrificing human lives isn't simply human nature

> having your heart torn from your chest while you are still alive (that's the important part) is brutal.

Brutal according your current, modern morals.

What proof do you have that they thought it was 'brutal'? And not 'beautiful' or 'glorious'? Yeah, none.

One theory is that they used it as a way to control the populace, by using "enemies" or "outsiders" as the sacrificial victims, it showed what bad can happen if you disobey and/or have a different god, therefore different identity and economic structure. Tributes are big business.

Another theory is that, because of the lack of any large domesticated mammals in the new world, using humans as a source of protein to feed a growing population only makes sense.

Are there any good films/books/documentaries about the aztec/mayans/other preculombians societies? The history channel ones i've seen are pretty shit.

It's like you are not even paying attention.
Once they stopped the sacrifices their whole empire totally collapsed.
Clearly the sacrifices were required to keep the whole thing running.

>Another theory is that, because of the lack of any large domesticated mammals in the new world, using humans as a source of protein to feed a growing population only makes sense.
dumb theory. see: mad cow disease

cannibalism is almost universally taboo for a reason, and even where it isn't it's token and ritualistic

What if the aztecs were right but they just miscalculed the ammount of sacrifices needed per month? Maybe they satisfied they gods in excess and created a reserve and the world being shit nowadays is because the reservoir is starting to run out.

lack of Jesus

There were many sacrifices that involved the children of noble families and willing participance.

You're just talking about Apocolypto.

Heart is source of human life.

Gods are worth great respect

Show devotion to god by offering them the life of a human by ripping out their heart.

Seems pretty straight forward to me.

They needed to keep people in check. They weren't a good enough society to attract people to join them.

Makes more sense than Christianity desu.

The gods run on blood; and they're running at a deficit.

Want Huitzilopochtli "the sun" to stay operational and keep the natural world running?

Then you better give him a snack.

>gods being gods need some physical asset instead of some form of item bonded to abstract thinking
>more sense than christianity

If I understood right what I read about aztec mithology two of their gods sacrifice themselves and become the sun and the moon

It was just population control rectified with spiritualism. Imagine if the British Empire managed to conquer 10x the amount of population they did, they would need to do mass genocide for administrative reasons

>retarded postulation of stoicism
>if someone slaps your face offer them your other cheek

So to you christianity reduces to that whole sentence? Because aztec religion practically is reduced to "gib blood to the gods"

...

The nutsack is the source of all life tho

How does a belief like that even start?

>Brutal according your current, modern morals.
Your point?

>What proof do you have that they thought it was 'brutal'? And not 'beautiful' or 'glorious'? Yeah, none.
They believed in fake sky people that don't exist, who cares what they think? From a purely unbiased atheist stance their actions were brutal and unnecessary.

I know, right? those asshole gods making them sacrifice people.

Agreed

Maya_Documentary_With_Peruvian_Flute_Music_WTF.avi

Pablo is a Spanish name not an Aztec one fyi.

There is actually interesting aspects to their religion I think even atheists would find worth reading about. At least for me, some things make a lot of sense.

What about mad cow disease? You realize prions that cause disease aren't an inherent part of cannibalism, right? Feeding a cow another cow doesn't automatically trigger mad cow disease, it's feeding a cow another cow that was already infected with the disease.

You have a very childish perspective on the world and learning. This whole thread was made to give insight into the whys. The OP obviously is someone who cares.

Remove your heart, are you still alive user?

remove your brain, are you still alive user?

It was a means for the priestly upper class to control the masses.

They also used the knowledge of astronomy to predict events like solar eclipses to convince the populous.

Art/Literature:

-A Nahuatl-English Dictionary and Concordance to the Cantares Mexicanos

lib.utexas.edu/books/utdigital/book/pdf/dictionary.pdf
-Aztec Rhythms lib.utexas.edu/books/utdigital/book/index.php?page=audio.php
-Ballad of the Lords of New Spain lib.utexas.edu/books/utdigital/book/index.php
-Cantares Mexicanos: Songs of the Aztecs
holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Cantares-Mexicanos-Songs-of-the-Aztecs.pdf
-Chalca Womens Song jstor.org/stable/4491088?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
-Fifteen Poets of the Aztec World
-The Aztec Pantheon and the Art of the Empire
-"What in the world have you done to me my lover?": Sex, Servitude, and Politics among the Pre-Conquest Nahuas as Seen in the Cantares Mexicanos jstor.org/stable/4491089seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

History/Warfare/Politics:

>Aztecs and Conquistadores: The Spanish Invasion and the Collapse of the Aztec Empire
>Aztec Teotihuacan-Political Processes at a Postclassic and Early Colonial City-State in the Basin of Mexico
jstor.org/stable/25063064?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
>Aztec Warfare: Imperial Expansion and Political Control
>Aztec Women in the Court and Concubinage
anth.la.psu.edu/documents/Evans_2008ConcubinesandCloth.pdf
>Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico
jstor.org/stable/40650054?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
>Chiconautla, Mexico - A Crossroads of Aztec Trade and Politics
>Colonial Culhuacan: A Social History of an Aztec town
>Household and Status in Formative Central Mexico - Domestic Structures, Assemblages, and Practices at La Laguna, Tlaxcala
>Mesoamerica's classic heritage: From Teotihuacan to the Aztecs
>Moctezuma's Children: Aztec Royalty under Spanish Rule 1520-1700
>Osprey - Warrior 032 - Aztec Warrior 1321-1521
>The Aztec Empire: The Toltec Resurgence
>The Reign of Huemac
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/aa.1929.31.4.02a00070/pdf
>Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl: The Once and Future Lord of the Toltecs
>The Aztecs (3rd ed)
amazon.com/Aztecs-Edition-Ancient-Peoples-Places/dp/0500287910/ref=pd_sim_b_13
>The Aztecs: A Very Short Introduction
amazon.com/Aztecs-Very-Short-Introduction/dp/0195379381/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363370694&sr=1-1&keywords=The Aztecs: A Very Short Introduction
>The Aztecs 3rd edition (Michael E Smith)
mega.nz/#!jsoRyRBQ!otr_3QLe_hU7aj_EOCDceWCiO4__DhC8XZWuxyyil78
>Style and Substance - Evidence for Regionalism Within the Aztec Market System
jstor.org/stable/40650199?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

>Handbook to Life in the Aztec World
amazon.com/Handbook-Aztec-World-Manuel-Aguilar-Moreno/dp/0195330838/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363370543&sr=8-1&keywords=Handbook to Life in the Aztec World
>Daily Life of the Aztecs
amazon.com/Daily-Life-Aztecs-Native-American/dp/0486424855/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363455636&sr=8-1&keywords=daily life of the aztecs
>Precious Beauty: The Aesthetic and Economic Value of Aztec Gardens
anth.la.psu.edu/documents/evans_precious_beauty.pdf

Religion/Sexuality/Thought:

>Ahuianime: Las Seductoras del Mundo Nahua Prehispánico revistas.ucm.es/index.php/REAA/article/view/40112/38549
>Aztec Ceremonial Landscapes
>Aztec Philosophy
mega.nz/#!rp502baL!t7L8wKHg9jACC_9Ro2wudwm_v1-BofXgsAcRCBtZ60o
>Aztec Sorcerers in Seventeenth Century Mexico: The Treatise on Superstition
>Aztec Thought and Culture: A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind
>City of Sacrifice: The Aztec Empire and the Role of Violence in Civilization
>Fighting with Femininity
historicas.unam.mx/publicaciones/revistas/nahuatl/pdf/ecn24/435.pdf
>La Ahuiani, ¿Flor Preciosa o Mensajera del Diablo? La Visión de Las Ahuanime en las Fuentes Indígenas y Cristianas
itinerarios.uw.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/09_articulos_szoblik_druk.pdf
>Moctezuma's Mexico: Visions of the Aztec World
>Mujeres sacerdotisas aztecas - las cihuatlamacazque
historicas.unam.mx/publicaciones/revistas/nahuatl/pdf/ecn24/434.pdf
>Myths of Ancient Mexico Civilization
>Sweeping the Way: Divine Transformation in the Aztec Festival of Ochpaniztli
>The Flower and the Scorpion: Sexuality and Ritual in Early Nahua Culture
>The use of plants and other natural products for malevolent practices among the Aztecs and their successors
historicas.unam.mx/publicaciones/revistas/nahuatl/pdf/ecn24/429.pdf
-Time and Sacrifice in the Aztec Cosmos
>Time History and Belief in Aztec and Colonial Mexico

Citations?

On MY Veeky Forums?

This is really good mate, thanks.

>Another theory is that, because of the lack of any large domesticated mammals in the new world, using humans as a source of protein to feed a growing population only makes sense.
...WHAT? Where, ever, is it mentioned that the Mesoamericans had societal cannibalism?

...WHAT?

Hoi, buddy, this is great and all but why have you left out "The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico" by Bernal Diaz de Castillo (sp?)? First hand account of a conquistador with Hernan Cortez. Tried to be neutral to the best of his ability. Fascinating.

Ask the gods.

They did have a type of sacrifice where priests or kings made incisions on their foreskin and bled from it for the gods.

>murderer got caught
>i did it to stop the storm
>see? it stopped
or something similar to that

Since the first days of Europeans there? Cannibal comes from the word carib, tribes than hunted and eated Tainos/Arawack after they raided them. Bernal Diaz del Castillo noted about it, how the Tlaxcalans before being allies taunted the Spaniards than they would eat them, like the Aztecs did before etc.
About the Protein seems a very weak argument tough, they had a kind of dog raised to be eaten plus Turkeys, Iguanas and all kinds of hunting meats. PLus vegetal proteins with beans and corn combo.

They thought they were living in a cosmic horror story

> fake sky people that don't exist

It was actually underground monsters, that lived in very real caves, and manifested once in a while, not hard to believe, if you live in a land of weird shit, just like you believe anything that science tells you, without empirical confirmation, cause someone confirmed it for you in an study that you didn't bothered to read, and wouldn't understand anyway.

And just like them once in a while, someone else, not you, bombs or kills someone else, in your name, and you just watch, cause war is cool.

In Cannibals and Kings by Marvin Harris. Although, that was one part of it that didn't exactly make sense. There would never be enough sacrifices to feed the entire population or replace the amount of protein that population would require. Small Aztec villages aren't being snail mailed still beating hearts. The cannibalism as protein deficiency argument works best in the small island tribes, where population density is low and mortality high, a single captive can feed a whole clan. Not to mention this isn't just about proteins. There are so many vitamins and minerals in the blood, when a warchief drank the blood of his enemies he was supposed to have been given healing powers, restoring his eyesight, his hearing, his health. In reality he was suffering from malnutrition, and the influx of vitamins actually restored his eyesight. This does leave open the possibility of human sacrifice for medicinal value, kind of similar to forcible organ or stem cell harvesting today.

Durans is a bit richer on the culture, "The History of the Indies of New Spain", "Book of the Gods and Rites" and "Ancient Calendar". The Florentine Codex is arguably the most informative of all though.