Third BGU- English Project#1- Religion: Mayas-Incas and Aztecas-G#1

 

RELIGION
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AZTECS

The Aztecs were considered the most religious people in the Mesoamerican region. their religion was essentially astral, that is, based on the stars. The Aztecs worshiped their gods, practiced rites, and worshiped in priestly temples. One of its most important gods was Huitzilopochtli, Aztec god of war, who represented the sun. The god Quetzalcóatl "feathered serpent" was also a divine being widely worshiped by other Mexican peoples such as the Mayas, Toltecs, Chichimecas, etc.

In the Aztec culture, myths and rites were very rich and varied, and were related to nature. The most important cults were always related to the Sun. Rituals with human sacrifices were very common; war, therefore, was a great supplier of prisoners for sacrifices. Generally, all the energies of the community were channeled towards ritualistic activities, carried out in a series of settings and meticulous procedures.

RELIGIÓN MAYA

Dominating most aspects of the life of the Mayans, religion was always present and leaving its influence felt in agricultural rites, in public ceremonies, in art and culture. Its importance was very great, if one takes into account that it was strongly linked to political control, to the ideology that sustained the Mayan civilization and that, like the sciences, was also in the hands of a specialized group, that of priests. The Mayan religion had three fundamental characteristics:

· Polytheistic religion: Several gods were worshiped at the same time.

· Religion of naturalistic aspects: The gods were the elements, atmospheric phenomena and celestial bodies.

· Dualistic religion: It started from the principle that good and evil are equally divine.

The gods of good were in constant struggle with the gods of evil, but they were as inseparable from each other as day and night. Other examples are: the fertile father and the fertilized mother; life and death (the closest thing we can find is perhaps yin and yang). The destinies of humanity were always affected by this struggle. Benevolent gods produced positive things, such as thunder, lightning, rain, corn, and abundance. The malevolent gods, on the other hand, were blamed for the hunger and misery caused by hurricanes, droughts, and war sowing death and destruction. An excellent example of this is a representation in a codex in which Chac, god of rain, plants a tree, while next to him Ah Puch, god of death, plucks it up and breaks it in two.

Mayan gods

· Hunab Kú: (His name means "creator god of everything") Creator god. The concept of Hunab Ku is relatively recent. Its oldest reference comes from the colonial era. According to these references, he was the main Mayan god, creator of the world and humanity from corn. In relation to this, Domingo Martínez Paredes in his book Hunab Ku: Synthesis of Mayan philosophical thought, tells us:

After carefully analyzing the ethical and aesthetic concepts of the Mayan people, from the material works to those of the intellect, we gradually came to know - thanks to linguistic and philological analysis - the reality of the expression hunab ku, as "giver of movement and measure" , since the elements of which it is composed reveal it like this: hun, "unique", "only"; nab, "measure" and "movement" and ku or kub, "giver".

Domingo Martínez Paredes

· Itzamná, also called Zamná: lord of the heavens, night and day and son of Hunab kú. He possibly also manifested himself as Ahau or Kinich Kakmó, the sun god. He is depicted in the codices as an old man with toothless jaws, sunken cheeks, a hooked nose and sometimes bearded. He is credited with the invention of writing, the calendar and therefore, the origin of him dates back to the beginning of Mayan history.

· Kukulkán: it represented the god of the wind also called ‘feathered serpent’, brought from the central highlands by Putun Itza and Toltecs.

· Ix Chebel Ya'ax: wife of Kinich Ahau.

· Kinich Ahau: Sun god, son of Itzamná.

· Ixchel: goddess of the Moon, floods, pregnancy, weaving, and Itzamná's wife. She appears as an old woman pouring a jug onto the ground or also as an old woman weaving with a backstrap loom.

· Chaac: god of rain that is divided into the four cardinal directions, east (red), north (white), west (black) and south (yellow). Chac, god of rain, is represented with a nose similar to a trunk and two coiled fangs that come out of his mouth and are directed downwards. The adornment that he wears on his head is usually a knotted sash, and the hieroglyph of his name has an eye that in the Tro-Cortesian Codex, takes the shape of a decidedly "T". He was the god of the greatest popular descent, being by extension the god of fertility and agriculture. Image of Chac.

· Wakax Yol K'awil or Nal: god of corn or agriculture (there are alternative versions with the name Yum Ka'ax). Lord of the woods, he always presented himself as a young man and sometimes with an ear of corn on his head or holding a pot with three ears.

· Ah Puch, Kisin, Kimil or Hun Ahaw: god of death.

· Yum kaax: God of corn and war.

· Xaman Ek: North Star (probably the Pole Star).

· Ixtab: goddess of suicide, wife of Kisin.

· Ek Chuah: "black star". black scorpion of war, patron of cocoa and merchants. He is the god M of the codices, represented with a very long nose, a body painted black, with a mechapal and carrying a bundle on his back.

· Ik: god of the wind.

· Kakupakat: god of war.

There is a god who presides over war, human sacrifice, and violent death.

The main, or better known, gods

RELIGIÓN INCA

Religion was constantly present in all areas of Inca work. In the legends of the formation of the Inca empire, a marked sexual difference between man and woman is perceived. They were polytheists (that is, they believed in various gods), highlighting the cult of the "God of the Sun (Inti)".

Worldview According to Inca mythology, there were three different worlds, which had been created by the Inca god Viracocha (also known as Wiracocha or Huiracocha). The division was done as follows:

1. Hanan Pacha (world above, heavenly or supraterrestrial): it was a heavenly world and only the right people could enter it, crossing a bridge made of hair. In the Andean tradition, Hanan Pacha was defined as the upper world where gods such as Viracocha, Inti, Mama Quilla, Pachacamac, Mama Cocha, etc. lived.

2. Kay Pacha (world of the present and here): in the Andean worldview, Kay Pacha is the name of the earthly world, where human beings live and spend their lives.

Zuma Temple. (This being one of the inspirations to create a game with the same name)

3. Uku Pacha (world below or world of the dead): in Andean mythology, Uku Pacha was the world below or world of the dead, of unborn children and everything that was below the surface of the earth or the sea. The sources, caves or other openings on the earth's surface were considered lines of communication between the Uku Pacha and the Kay Pacha. Temples [edit] Pascaumati Temple of the Sun (Coricancha), in Cuzco. Temple of the Moon. Pachacamac Temple (destroyed). Urpi Huachac Temple.

Pilgrims Square.

Festivities

Month

Inca month

Translation

January Huchuy Pocoy Small ripening

February Hatun Pocoy Large ripening

March Paucar Warai Flower Indument

April Ariway Sweet corn dance

May Aimuar Song to the harvest

July Anta Situwai Earthly purification

June Inti Raymi Sun Festival August Qhapaq Situwa The full and great purification

November Aya Marqa Sacred homage to the dead

September Quya Raymi Queen festival October Uma Raymi Water festival

December Capac Raymi The great feast of the mighty

CREATED BY:

MARIBEL GARNICA