Aztec Religion Explained

Bibliography:
David Carrasco, "Religions of Mesoamerica," 2nd edition, 2013.
David Carrasco, "The Aztecs: A Very Short Introduction," 2011
Isabel Laack, "Aztec Religion and Art of Writing," 2019.
Michael Smith, "The Aztecs," 1996.
Jonathan Z. Smith, "The Devil in Mr. Jones," in the book "Imagining Religion."

[mishapurser]

"I am human. And nothing human is alien to me."
That really hit hard.

[falnica]

As mexican whose birthday is today, this is the best gift, thank you

[MattSinz]

Correction: Lake Texcoco didn't just dry up, it was drained on purpose in the hopes of creating farm land.

[Victor-ktqn]

It's funny how if you grew up in Mexico you by nature know how to pronounce most of the Aztec names.
Although we don't know the nahuatl language, a lot of cities and town are still nahuatl. So you learn to pronounce them, hence pronouncing other names isn't that hard.

[Bysthedragon]

I'm not Mexican or of Mexican descent, but around when I was in highschool I was thinking of Aztec culture and realized I didn't know anything about it and pop culture doesn't paint a flattering image so I started doing some research on my own starting with a figure I was familiar with Quetzalcoatl and started learning about his stories and relationships to people and other gods. There was a whole lot of misinformation out there and various different interpretations out there that made some things difficult to understand but I am now a firm admirer of Mesoamerican Culture and history and while my friends consider me an expert on the subject I know there's still a lot that I don't know so I am always interested to discover more! Thank you so much for this video!

[owenconant]

Man, this is the best video ive ever seen on any indigenous american religion.

[TraverseTheo]

Small note, and very minor at that. But when you mention the Florentine Codex it should be worth noting that most of Bernadino De Sahagun's informants were from Tlatelolco. Why does this matter? Shortly after the founding of Tenochtitlan, a portion of the Mexica nation split themselves off and formed their own dynasty and city-state north of Tenochtitlan. The Mexica were divided into Tenocha and Tlatelolcan, and though they had a shared culture and language they developed distinguished identities.

In 1473 the tlatoani of Tlatelolco, Moquihuix was killed (unclear if he was thrown off a temple or committed suicide), and thus Tlatelolco was made subject to Tenochtitlan. It would no longer have their own ruler but instead the city would be ruled by a governor subservient to Tenochtitlan. And though the Tlatelolcans would help their Tenocha brothers during the Seige of Tenochtitlan when the Spanish arrived, resentment was still high and very evident in many Tlatelocan sources. This is the reason why Moctezuma is portrayed as weak-willed and foolish, while Cuauhtemoc is portrayed rather valiantly and praiseworthy especially when one considers the Cuauhtemoc's mother was related to Tlatelolcan royal family.

I understand this is a lot of context for an admittedly very tiny note, but I feel it should be included as this small tidbit has sort of poisoned the well so to speak about how we engage and interpret the Conquest, especially Moctezuma's character. I'm not going to touch the Quetzalcoatl-Cortes myth, but just know that the political and religious context of Mexico at the time has accidentally created one of the most persistent historical myths that really speaks a lot how cultural/historical narratives are formed, contextualized, and re-interpreted.

[thinkfact]

I'm so happy you did this! I remember recommending you do more indigenous American religions in one of your live streams and I'm super excited to see you finally do it. They are hard to get some good information about and this video is wonderful! Thank you.

[xibalbalon]

As someone with heritage from one of the countries that make up the Mesoamerica region, Carrasco has summarized my feelings better than I've ever heard before. The mix of shame and pride, and being connected to a whole civilization that's mocked and ignored yet with a history that still deserves respect.

[mingojimenez]

In regards to human sacrifices, can you imagine what impression the crucifix may had caused upon the indigenous people at their first glance? Literally a representation of a god being tortured in the most horrendous manner.

[Mr]

Props from a mexican for not shying away from difficult pronunciations! Great video as always my man

[luisoncpp]

I am mexican myself, so I grew up hearing many things about the aztecs, however I still feel that I barely know anything about them, and something even more worrisome: we know even less about native cultures that still exist and they are currently mistreated by our modern society.

[mazatl]

awesome video and thanks for explaining the difference between Aztec and Nahua and specifying you're talking about Mexica Imperial Religion

[misterbeach]

It is perhaps worth mentioning that human sacrifices were quite common in Western history. Think how even Augustus/Octavian sacrificed his enemies to the gods, after some defeats; a practice he abandoned in his later years. We could even argue that the witch burnings and the Inquisition were a sacrifice, despite being in the late medieval times, to appease God so that he forgive their sins (in actual inquisitional speeches the priest and inquisitors literally speak of a "sacrifice for the greater good" because "we all have sinned", and so that society is about to be cleansed).

[EllisMontes]

Thank you so much for raising up the voices of indigenous peoples. As an indigenous Mexican/Peruvian American, I find it difficult to celebrate my heritage because of how marred it has been, both by colonizers and the colonized. So many people point to sacrifices as the only feature of these religions and, as a result, of the culture and people. I take pride when I learn more about the history of my ancestors, and I hope that I can continue to celebrate my heritage and know it well.

[sofialima]

Their sculptures are fascinating to me. There are so many beautiful and delicate details, I wish we had more of them, not only to understand more of them, but also to admire. Amazing video, thank you!

[Salsmachev]

Just fyi stress in Nahuatl is strongly penultimate. So it's tenochTItlan, TLAloc, NAhuatl, etc. 
I may or may not have gotten flashbacks of my very impassioned Mesoamerican history professor insisting that we learn to pronounce eight foot long Nahuatl technical terms like xochiyaoyotl and Huitzilopochtli correctly.
If you're interested in a very approachable breakdown of classical Nahuatl and linguistics, the channel Nativlang has a great video on the topic.

[brandonf]

Oh nice! I really like that you're making videos on lesser studied religions. I certainly enjoy the videos on Judaism, Christianity, Islam, etc, but videos on more neglected religions really help me gain a better understanding on and combat any stereotypes I may have about them.

[StepBackHistory]

This was gonna be what i went to grad school for for a long time. And most those locations and sites you spoke about like the anthropology museum and the templo mayor I've been to.

[mrsniffles]

The story of Cortez being hailed as a God is often presented with connotations of Aztec ignorance but with the context of their personification of Gods it makes a lot more sense.