Month: December 2023
I’m currently writing an argumentative research paper for my archaeology class about the misinterpretation of the religion of the Aztecs, and I’m going to be dissecting and critiquing my first paragraph.
In the ancient society of the Aztecs, located in the Northern parts of modern day Mexico, religion was a key piece in all facets of daily life. After the Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire, Christian friars attempted to convert the native population to Christianity. In the process of converting the native Aztecs, the European colonizers set about dismantling all aspects of the native religion. The dismantling of the Aztec religion and conversion efforts employed by the Europeans led to the misinterpretation of the religion the Aztecs adhered to.
In my intro paragraph my first sentence provided direct background on the topic, and sets up the idea of religion being important in the society. The second sentence then provides historical context of the time period and a factor that led to the collapse of the religious empire, and subsequent misinterpretation of the religion. My thesis asserts that the strategies the Europeans employed to convert the natives directly led to the misinterpretation of the Aztecs’ religion. I’ll have to rework my thesis to focus more on the misinterpretation and find new reasons for it, as so far my paper is more focused on the misinterpretation and not the reasons behind it.
Europeans directly misinterpreted the structure of the religion, and these misinterpretations are still prevalent in the modern world. As Arnold Carlos Vento argues, the Aztecs “did not have a religion as we know religion today”, and the Aztecs had a distinct lack of dogmatic theology. The Aztecs’ religion, for lack of a better word, was guided by planetary cycles, and the holy men that the Europeans categorized as pagan priests were in fact astronomers and sages (Vento). The Aztecs had a “supreme science” known as Ilhuikáyotl, which was a type of ancient cosmology (Vento). The supreme science affirmed the belief of One Supreme Force that cannot be interpreted, the aforementioned Teotl (Vento). In order to express the supreme force, the Aztecs used epithets to express the greatness of the force, with terms such as “the force for whom one lives” and “the force that has everything within it” (Smith). This supreme essence was assisted by “natural representations” and manifestations that “provided life to the planet” (Vento). In contrast to the European systems of belief, the Aztecs did not believe in demons or hells, and instead believed that one was expected to live harmoniously with the supreme essence of life (Vento). The Aztecs did not use religious dogma or follow an imperialist church, and instead their metaphysics, or religion, were based on “thousands of years of scientific observations”, and were intent on discovering higher truths (Vento). Considering the Aztecs’ belief that a supreme force connected planetary patterns and interrelationships between living things, referring to multiple Aztec gods is to “project a medieval Western Christian perception” upon the reality of the Aztecs (Vento).
My first paragraph identifies the misconceptions the Europeans held about the religion, and the projections that formed them. I added lots of context on the religion itself, but I felt it was necessary to fully understand why the Europeans’ conceptions of the religion was so flawed. I also found it interesting to read about the religion and the misconceptions I had about it. The religion the Aztecs followed was unlike any I had ever read about.