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Aztec hierarchy by this understanding was not of the type "where a unit of one type – the capital – controls subordinate units of another type" [8] but instead a type where the main unit is composed out of several constituent parts.
Aztec society was traditionally divided into social classes. They became sophisticated once the Mexica people settled and began to build the Aztec Empire . The class structure was so elaborate that it impressed the Spanish almost as much as Aztec architecture .
The teocalli, or pyramid-temples, were significant to Aztec religious practices. They were the sites of religious celebrations and rituals. [3] The temples represented ascension. There were multiple torn levels, which each correlated with different classes. The Aztecs believed that ascension was the process of preparing oneself to please the gods.
Sacrifice was a common theme in the Aztec culture. In the Aztec "Legend of the Five Suns", all the gods sacrificed themselves so that mankind could live.Some years after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, a body of the Franciscans confronted the remaining Aztec priesthood and demanded, under threat of death, that they desist from this traditional practice.
[citation needed] Its huge pyramid (larger in volume than the great pyramids of Egypt) [75] made it one of the most prestigious places of the Aztec religion. However, it appears that Cortés perceived Cholula more as a military threat to his rear guard than a religious center, as he marched to Tenochtitlan.
The warrior would thus ascend one step in the hierarchy of the Aztec social classes, a system that rewarded successful warriors. [ 22 ] During the festival of Panquetzaliztli, of which Huitzilopochtli was the patron, sacrificial victims were adorned in the manner of Huitzilopochtli's costume and blue body paint, before their hearts would be ...
The Aztecs [a] (/ ˈ æ z t ɛ k s / AZ-teks) were a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica from the 14th to the 16th centuries.
The pyramids were buried under a new surface every several years (especially every 52 years—the Aztec century). Thus the pyramid-temples of important deities constantly grew in size. In front of every major temple lay a large plaza. This sometimes held important ritual platforms such as the "eagle stone" where some victims were slain.