Aztec Vs Incan Essay

Aztec vs Incan Religion
Patrick Sklenka
Throughout the history of the Americas, several different civilizations ruled, all with their own unique religions and ways. Yet none were as unique as the Incans and the Aztecs. The Aztec
Empire was located in central Mexico. The Aztecs ruled from 950 C.E to 1520 C.E. They built large pyramids as temples to their gods and went to war to capture other people so they could sacrifice them to their gods. The Aztecs also devoted an entire calendar to date the times of religious events. The Inca Empire was centered in Peru and ruled over much of the west coast of
South America from the 1400s to the time of the Spanish arrival in 1532. While the The Incans did not make human sacrifices, they were known for their harsh mentality and lack of sympathy.
While the Incans and Aztecs lived in different times and locations, both of these Meso-American civilizations had similarities in their religion and the impact it had on their society.
Both the Incans and the Aztecs shared many different deities and ways of worshipping these deities that influenced their culture. One such similarity between these two different civilizations is the fact that they both had the majority of their deities as some form of nature. At the top of that long list of deities is the highest god for both the Incans and Aztecs, the Sun God.
The Incans called the Sun Inti, and the Aztecs called the Sun Huitzilopochtli. Along with the
Sun, the Incas worshiped a moon goddess called Mamaquilla, similar in her “appearance and influence” to Aztec moon deity Coyolxauhqui. The Incas also revered Mamacocha as a goddess of the Pacific Ocean. Similar to the Aztec river goddess Chalchiuhtlicue, Mamacocha also held power over freshwater, as the Incas considered her mother to all rivers and streams. Incas left shells next to lakes and streams as symbolic offerings to sea goddess Mamacocha. Their love and will to please the gods caused both civilizations to take part in human sacrifice, but how often they did it is vastly different. They both did this to appease the gods or to ensure good harvest.
The Aztecs also did this to ensure that the Sun would not die and would rise again in the morning, but the Incans did it rarely incase of bad weather or a really bad year of harvest, so they could ensure next time it is better. Their love for the gods caused the people to try to please the gods through everything they did, even when it came to something like eating however, the ways they celebrated and worshipped these gods were completely different.
While the Incans and Aztecs did celebrate are worship their gods everyday, there were many key differences between them. The Aztecs gave human sacrifices to the Sun god every day because they believed that if they did not then the Sun would not rise again. On the other hand, the Incans decided to mainly do animal sacrifices, but they would do human sacrifices in the event of tremendously bad weather or some other catastrophe. Due to this great difference in mentality towards their gods, the Aztecs were more war-like and the Incans were a little more docile. Their mentalities also impacted the way they ruled and formed their governments. For example, the Incans believed that their leader, Topa, was a descendant of the Sun God, and therefore a symbol of divinity. That is why the Inti were always so strict in their practices and mentality towards their gods. They believed that they had to constantly please the gods and their

leader, so they never really thought of turning on or revolting against him when the Spaniards arrived in 1532. This is why the Incans fought the Spaniards so long and this is also why the
Aztecs gave in so quickly to the Spaniards when they arrived in Meso-America in 1520. The
Aztecs did not rule with an iron fist like the Incans, and it turned out to be their downfall. The
Aztecs were very war-like and because of this, they could not have as strict or strong a rule over all its people throughout their land. While they ruled for almost 6 centuries, the Aztec empire was controlled primarily by a political body called the Triple Alliance, made up of the Acolhua people of Texcoco, the Mexica in Tenochtitlán, and the Tepaneca people of Tlacopan. According to Aztec religion, they thought that Cortez, when he arrived was Quetzalcoatl. Quetzalcoatl was an Aztec god that vowed he would appear, so the Aztecs let Cortez inside the capital, and within a year or so of arriving, Cortez backstabbed the king and took over the entire civilization. The
Aztec civilization, one of the most war-like civilizations in the Americas, fell because they would not fight. Along with their beliefs, there was also many similarities as well as differences that the
Incans and Aztecs shared in their culture and daily life.
Aztec and Incan culture were very unique. The culture of the Aztec empire consisted of arts, different architectural styles like the pyramid, ceremonies, and many other traditions. All of these were ways of celebrating their gods and ensuring a better future. Human sacrifice was very important, honored, and common. There were many different types and ways the Aztecs sacrificed people. Some were very brutal and horrid while others were, compared to the brutal ones, nothing. One example of a vicious sacrifice was done to honor the god Huehueteotl.
Sacrificial victims were drugged and then thrown into a fire at the top of decretive ceremonial platform. This was a basic, continually occurring theme within the Aztec culture. An Incan was to insure his or her well being by carefully carrying out all rituals and everyday worship. This was for the well being of all environmental forces and powers. Any bad thing that happened to an individual whether it was physical or economical was seen as punishment by the supernatural forces. They believed it was because there was a lack of attention or because of a wrongdoing on their part. The Incans were also just as brutal as the Aztecs though. The Incans believed in an afterlife that was quite easy to achieve and it was achieved by following a simple rule of behavior: "Do not steal; do not lie; do not be lazy." If these rules were broken, then the Incans would give out extreme punishment, and this was the only way to redeem yourself. Some examples of Incan punishment are that they would be thrown off a cliff, have their hands cut off or eyes cut out, or hung up to starve to death. Both the Aztecs and Incans were treated differently in the fact that if an Aztec disobeyed the religious rules, they would not be tortured like the
Incans would be. However, both societies were extremely brutal and could show great ability to kill and torture people for their religious beliefs. Even though they were not able to contact one another, they still resembled each other greatly, and this was shown through the ways they worshipped and treated their citizens and their deities.
The Incans and Aztecs were both impacted greatly by their religions and their beliefs of how they should act to get to their afterlives. They were similar in the way that both the Incans as well as the Aztecs were very in touch with nature, as shown by the way that all their deities resembled some form of nature. They were also similar by the ways that they treated each other to ensure that the gods would always be pleased. The Incans and Aztecs both were brutal and very savage to ensure that the gods were pleased, and they would not stop until they made sure

that their gods were happy. However, the Aztecs culture was molded to be more war-like than the
Incans because they believed that their Sun God, Huitzilopochtli, would not rise again every day if they did not sacrifice someone. The Incans did not believe this, but they did believe in living by a moral code, which was slightly more lax in the Aztec religion. If an Incan disobeyed this code, then they would be punished very savagely. While both civilizations were never influenced by each other, they shared many similar religious beliefs, yet they were not entirely similar and acted a lot differently towards their people and it influenced the ways that their culture and government formed.a