Song of the Hummingbird Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Song of the Hummingbird - Essay ExampleIn terms of temples, Smith illustrates that Aztec temples generally had standard types and forms. Many of their temples had high platforms or pyramids with a stairway running on one side toward one or more cult rooms. Many powerful Aztec capitals had twin-temple pyramids with two cult rooms and two stairways that ar parallel to each other. Every Aztec city had one of more gods and had cults dedicated to them in the citys temple. In the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan, two shrines were dedicated to Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc, for instance. prevalent ceremonies are one of the most familiar dimensions of Aztec religion to the public because of a number of movies highlighting these rituals and written records from Spanish friars and documents. Smith underscores that the Spanish sources of the Aztec human sacrifices that give tongue to that thousands were sacrificed for individual ceremonies may be biased because they wanted to make the Aztecs look in humane as percentage of their colonization agenda. Smith confirms that human sacrifices were indeed part of Aztec rituals but archeological evidence is not enough to determine the exact intensity and frequency of these sacrifices. Rites of human sacrifice were connected to beliefs that human blood is hallowed and that people owe debts to gods that must be repaid with human blood or life itself. The Aztecs also practiced other rituals and festivities, such as the monthly (Veintena) ceremonies, tonic fire ceremony, and domestic rituals. Smith describes these rituals and the objects used during these practices too. Thus, Smiths chapter on Aztecs gives a useful overview on Aztec