Aztec human sacrifice was rooted in repaying the gods’ original self-sacrifice
Evidence
And THIS, the Aztecs believed, is why human beings, too, owed a sacred debt to the sun: for the gods had given their own blood and lives so that the sun would move and the world would live, and so humans, in turn, owed the sun the nourishment of sacrifice to keep it moving and keep the world alive. … This belief lay behind the Aztec practice of human sacrifice — a solemn and, to us, terrible practice, but one rooted in this profound and tragic belief that the very life of the sun and the world depended on the repayment of the gods’ original sacrifice. — , A Year of World Stories, 10294
Categorization
- DEFINE: Explains the causal logic linking gods’ sacrifice to humans’ reciprocal obligation — the theological basis of Aztec sacrifice.
- XREF: connects to: Gratitude in folklore can demand the ultimate sacrifice of life itself — , A Year of World Stories, 8823; Sacrifice itself can generate the value of its goal — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 242; Sacrifice is the magical prototype of rational exchange for mastering gods — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 59
Related
Broader Connections
- Sacrifice itself can generate the value of its goal
#corroborates(0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 242