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During the Spanish Conquest, Christianity was imposed on the Nahua people, which prohibited many traditions and celebrations linked to Aztec gods, including Netotiliztli. Netotiliztli survived because the Nahua shifted the dance's meaning from a spiritual tradition of celebration and worship, to a dance solely for pleasure.
While other well-known post-colonial Aztec codices mostly document native life in Tenochtitlan, the largest city in the Aztec empire and the one that would eventually develop into the modern-day capitol of Mexico City, much of the content of the Codex Ixtlilxochitl is associated with life in Texcoco and offers a more diverse perspective on day ...
It can be divided into three sections: An intricate tonalamatl, or divinatory calendar; documentation of the Mesoamerican 52-year cycle, showing in order the dates of the first days of each of these 52 solar years; and a section of rituals and ceremonies, particularly those that end the 52-year cycle, when the "new fire" must be lit.
The Mexica of the Aztec period are perhaps the most widely studied of the ancient Mesoamerican peoples. While most pre-Columbian historians believe that ritual cannibalism took place in the context of human sacrifices, they do not support Harris' thesis that human flesh was ever a significant portion of the Aztec diet.
The most spectacular ritual was the New Fire ceremony which took place every 52 years and involved every citizen of the Aztec realm. During this, commoners would destroy house utensils, quench all fires, and receive new fire from the bonfire on top of Mt. Huixachtlan, lit on the chest of a sacrificed person by the high priests.
The first part occupies pages 11 to 125 and was painted by the Indian scribes in a Pre-Hispanic style near 1540, containing iconography and hieroglyphic writing information regarding Mexican or Aztec religion; types of calendar, rituals regarding disease and death, gods of the drunk, etc. The codex is a religious document that details deities ...
It was an Aztec belief that through ritual costuming among other processes, the teixiptla assumes the life force/universal power (called teotl) of a deity and becomes their embodiment. [2] These ritual costumes included the flayed skin of sacrificial victims and/or deity regalia which included headdresses and clothing among other accouterments ...
The "singeing ceremony" was given to both Aztec boys and girls. It is uncertain of the age in which this ritual occurred. It was indicative of becoming one with the stars, as the burns on the wrists were aligned with certain constellations. A stick that had been placed in a fire would be pressed onto the skin of the child and the scar was thus ...