Historical review of myths in Mexican culture
Introduction.
On other occasions, less common, these stories have also been used for a political purpose, to “demonstrate an alleged injustice by indigenous dynasties based on their historical tradition” thus, we find among the writings that collect multiple cultureArchives with direct testimonies of the American peoples, such as the work of Fray Bernardino de Sahagún General History of things in New Spain.
The works of Latin American historians such as Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, who, despite not having direct testimonies, his writings were carefully analyzed by eminences in the subject, in addition to descendants of indigenous noble families, so we can ensure that we can ensure that we can ensure that we can ensure that we can ensure that we can ensure that we can ensure that we can ensure that we can ensure that we can ensure thatThey are also important sources of knowledge. These families also have important texts, noted by their ancestors, in which we find much of pre -Columbian mythology.
Developing.
Such as Popol Vuh or the history of the Reynos de Coluacan and Mexico. These writings provide us with valuable information from the peoples prior to the conquest. Unfortunately, we do not have similar sources in all regions, so we have more knowledge of some cultures than from others. To correctly analyze the myths and legends of each society, we will analyze them individually.
We will begin by explaining the Aztec myths and legends, but for this we must contextualize this civilization: we must clarify that the term ‘Aztec’ is not entirely correct, since they were named afterwards and under that name three different peoples meetallies "The Triple Alliance" that also shared the Nahuatl language. These peoples developed fully during the late postclassic. They emerged in Mesoamerica and were very bellicose villages, since they imposed themselves on their predecessors and neighbors through force.
The most outstanding and those that happen to us are the Mexica (of Chichimeca origin) had an alliance with the Tetzcocanos and the Tlacoopanecas. This alliance began to become strong and dominated the Mexico Basin to continue advancing and dominate a territory that covered from the coast of the Gulf of Mexico to those of the Pacific Ocean. He also had limits with Chiapa and Guatemala. Despite his gifts as warriors, his empire did not last more than a century, since in 1519 the Castilian settlers arrived, who defeated the Mexicans in 1521 to increase their empire thus.
Now, religion in the postclassic was consistent with the society that developed in it: militarist. That is, the State relied on religion to be able to make war. To do this he used four religious concepts:
- The man was auxiliary of the gods and their designs, so, if their desire was to war, so humans should do it
- Due to the wear of the gods for fulfilling their functions, they need the force they obtain from human blood.
- The gods, who personified in some humans, had a life and death cycle, so they had to die to complete it.
- That has to do with the third, the gods could occupy human bodies.
All were backed by multiple myths. For example, the first must highlight the myth of the creation of the world and within it, that of the origin of men. It is said that Quetzalcoatl made a blood sacrifice to give life to men:
After he took the precious bones, the bones of male were together on one side, and also together, on the other hand, the woman’s bones […] after he sent them, the goddess Cihuacóatl-Pilaztli, which then the below thethrew in a precious vessel. On him, his member’s blood is blood;And all the gods made penance priority. It is said that later the men were born, since the gods had made the sacrifice of their blood on them.
In addition, prior to this story, there is that of the different soles, in which they divide the earth into several stages, four prior to the current one and this one that would be the fifth. In the previous ones to the current one, there was a sun for each stage, which was actually a transformed god. In all of them they were during different periods, but they always ended up exhausting and destroying themselves, something that created cataclys that destroyed what the earth was at that time. That is why humans had to feed and strengthen the gods, in order to delay the end of the world (according to the Mexicans there would be no sixth sun, but that the end of this fifth would be the end of humans).
That is why they had to serve the gods with mundane foods, but also with blood and hearts of enemies. So, they had to war to get the more, the better. This strengthened the militaristic ideology, since all men believed that being participants in the war, they contributed to the salvation of the world. But we should not believe that all the sacrifices were made to be able to feed the sun, but that, due to the belief that the gods were in a life cycle in which they should die to reborn even stronger, many times they characterized the captives withthe attire of the gods so that they died in the sacrifice and immediately were born with all the renewed forces.
These two justifications of sacrifices clearly illustrate the political utility of religion, since through "the designs of the gods", the leaders of the peoples guided the warriors towards their military and territorial interests. This combination of religious and military ideology can also be seen in the Mexican imagery. We also find it in other villages, but it stands out significantly in this. We find multiple scenes of death, sacrifices and wars. We are always going to find images or sculptures of all kinds of weapons, skulls, sacrifices, hearts … in addition to speeches and prayers, in which the food of the sun and the earth with blood was obsessively.
Regarding peoples prior to those belonging to the triple alliance, culturally speaking, they suffered a recession. We find much less deeds, in addition to a simplification of the calendar.We will continue in line with politically dominated citizens through religion, so it is very important to talk about the cult of Quetzalcoatl, the feathered snake.
We must clarify, as for this God, the confusion that his name has produced, since it does not represent the same in the Toltec culture as in the Mexica, since its creation and worship began at the end of the stage of the classic horizon of religionMesoamericana (let’s not forget that we are analyzing the late post -classic stage).We will begin by analyzing the origin of Quetzalcoatl, since it is important in the transition to militarism suffered by Mesoamerican religions.
Due to the demographic increase, the priests of Teotihuacán had decided. But there were other cultures willing to open up to new influences, such as Xochicalco, where they adopted much of the Teotihuacan influences adapting them to their own.
That’s where we found the origin of Quetzalcoatl cult. This new deity will create an almost monotheistic cult, compared to the multiple gods in the previous religions. This is because they personify in Quetzalcoatl the time, the year, the calendar, agriculture, ray, etc … It should be said that the peoples who welcomed this divinity merged it with the idea of Venus that the Maya had created, of suchway that they make him a dual deity, since the cycle madeIn the East as a evening star) he was inspiring for Xochicalco priests to create Quetzalcoatl and his duality.
Venus was visible 236 days and invisible 90 days, and then it was visible again 250 days and invisible for another 8 days. The days that disappeared, it was because they were in the underworld, fighting, and then overcome and resurface again. It is with this myth with which the use of blood and human hearts is justified to feed the strength of the gods. In addition, in some of the steles found in Xochicalco it can be interpreted that Quetzalcoatl or Venus, self sacrificed to create the fifth sun, so humans owe the creation of a new humanity. In the same Estela, it can also be observed as Quetzaltcoatl descended to Earth to discover corn, indispensable food for these peoples.
With this deity, which possessed so many attributes and collected cultures from all parts of Mesoameric.All these myths and legends are very important to understand their political function, since they continually remember the sacrifice of God for humans and, therefore, the great debt they have with him.
Despite this, each town had their own myth of origin, since "the first parents" were inside the mountains and every God had left them to populate the earth, thus each town had a "pattern", which wasThe God who had taken them out of the interior of the mountain, and Quetzalcoatl was the "boss" of the employers this was very convenient for the conquest of new villages, since they allowed them to continue with the worship of their God, but assuming that the snakeFeathered should be above.
In addition, the conquering peoples ruled on others through a coalition of three villages, but it is known that these did not always go well. The clearest case was the one that happens to us, that of the Mexica, which a century after having founded Mexico-Tenochtitlan, defeated the hegemonic capital of the Mexico Basin. Thus began the triple alliance that would collect the so -called Aztecs (Mexica, complexions and tlacoopanes).
It was agreed that each of them had to carry the reins of the most important powers and the Mexicics had to lead the wars, which placed them in a position of power. These soon were put above their allies alleging the designs of the gods. As we know, this power lasted little, since, in less than a century, the colonizers would arrive sweeping with everything known.
To begin the analysis of the Incas, we must clarify that the vast majority of the knowledge we have about this town is collected by the conquerors in the sixteenth and later centuries, since the Inca peoples lacked writing and the ways to collect their memoirs werevery diverse and complicated. The most striking, at least today, are the so -called chipos, their system was complex: from a main rope they hung others with knots, there were different types of strings and knots.
With them they used to encrypt numbers, since it was the simplest. Quipus were used to censor, for example. Although they were also used in non -numerical lists, in addition to as a resource to collect oral speeches, but these were only able to decipher it those who had made the knots or the people who had instructed them. It is also true, that much of what we know we owe it to the conquerors of the time, since for some years they dedicated themselves to observing the Inca culture and writing everything, but it is obvious that despite that, much information was lost.
conclusion.
Another of the techniques they used not to forget their past were the songs, which were recited in public and had to learn them by heart, which was easy due to their metric (at least for the Incas). Another method was the paintings, as in all cultures, and the last known method is that of private reports to which only the sovereigns had access. It should be noted that not all these methods have reached this day, but we know of them by the chronicles written in the MOM
Leave feedback