Aztec Blood Sacrifice Rite

This ritual was preformed by the Aztecs to appease their gods and to prevent them from ending the world, as the gods demanded human sacrifice as payment for creation.

## **Procedure**

Human sacrifice rituals were performed at the appropriate times each month with the appropriate number of living bodies, and other goods. These individuals were previously chosen to be sacrificed, as was the case for people embodying the gods themselves, or members of an enemy party which had been captured and prepared to be sacrificed. For the ritual, the victims were expected to bless children, greet and cheer passers-by, hear people's petitions to the gods, visit people in their homes, give discourses and lead sacred songs, processions and dances.

In the usual procedure of the ritual, the sacrifice would be taken to the top of the temple. The sacrifice would then be laid on a stone slab, a *chacmool*, by four priests, and his/her abdomen would be sliced open by a fifth priest with a ceremonial knife made of flint. The most common form of human sacrifice was heart-extraction. The Aztec believed that the heart (*tona*) was both the seat of the individual and a fragment of the Sun's heat (*istli*). The *chacmool* was a very important religious tool used during sacrifices. The cut was made in the abdomen and went through the diaphragm. The priest would grab the heart which would be placed in a bowl held by a statue of the honored god, and the body would then be thrown down the temple's stairs. The body would land on a terrace at the base of the pyramid called an *apetlatl*.

Before and during the killing, priests and audience, gathered in the plaza below, stabbed, pierced and bled themselves as auto-sacrifice. Hymns, whistles, spectacular costumed dances and percussive music marked different phases of the rite.

The body parts would then be disposed of, the viscera fed to the animals in the zoo, and the bleeding head was placed on display in the *tzompantli* or the skull rack. When the consumption of individuals was involved, the warrior who captured the enemy was given the meaty limbs while the most important flesh, the stomach and chest, were offerings to the gods.

Other types of human sacrifice, which paid tribute to various gods, killed the victims differently. The victim could be shot with arrows, die in gladiatorial style fighting, be sacrificed as a result of the Mesoamerican ballgame, burned, flayed after being sacrificed, or drowned.

## **Usage**

A wide variety of interpretations of the Aztec practice of human sacrifice have been proposed by modern scholars. Many scholars now believe that Aztec human sacrifice ritual was performed in honour of the gods. Most scholars of Pre-Columbian civilizations see human sacrifice among the Aztecs as a part of the long cultural tradition of human sacrifice in Mesoamerica.

## **Drawbacks**

The gods demanded people to be sacrificed everyday, if the priests failed to preform the rite, the world would end.

Those individuals who were unable to complete their ritual duties were disposed of in a much less honourary matter. This "insult to the gods" needed to be atoned, therefore the sacrifice was slain while being chastised instead of revered. While the gods would accept these sacrifices, they were often insulted by them and could have disastrous consequences.