2007-05-02 18:37:11 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Mythology & Folklore
Because there a lot of energy is released in the event of violent death and those people knew how to use it for their own benefit. Not nice but you asked ...
2007-05-03 00:38:49 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Olmec Sacrifice
2016-12-15 13:04:48 · answer #2 · answered by opp 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sacrifice is an intricate part of worship. Some pagans sacrificed humans, early Jews whatever animal they could afford to offer (Ex: The Turtle Dove offering in the New Testament), Today the Sacrifice is Jesus in the form of the Bread and the Wine.
The reason early mesoamerican cultures sacrificed human hearts was to keep the sun rising each morning.
H
2007-05-02 23:26:15 · answer #3 · answered by H 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It was a religious rite. Among the Aztecs, and maybe the Olmec and Maya as well, it was thought that the Sun God needed to be fed blood or human hearts in order to continue to rise. Some people have theorized that practices like that, and war as well, developed as a biological answer to the need to kill off surplus population, usually males.
2007-05-02 18:41:45 · answer #4 · answered by jxt299 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The best way to get someone to do something for you is to give them something in return.
It started out small--with food, incense smoke, animals. People started to give their own blood (what is more precious to you than the fluid that keeps you alive) and then someone must have gotten the bright idea--if giving the gods some of my blood is good, imagine what I'd get if I gave them all of YOUR blood...
It was a great honor for those who understood the concept to be chosen as a sacrifice.
Obviously they chose to see their gods as greedy and hungry and petulant, since if they weren't fed on a regular basis they'd wreak havoc upon their worshippers.
I'm not condoning it and saying that killing people to make the gods give you things is a good thing to do, just telling you what they did.
2007-05-03 00:36:31 · answer #5 · answered by Gevera Bert 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In all 3 of these belief systems, sacrifice was the highest form of worship to their gods. In the case of the Mayans, they believed that it was the only thing that would appease their sun gods anger and they would sacrifice folk until times got better. No wonder they are all extinct!
2007-05-02 18:45:39 · answer #6 · answered by Knowledge Thirsty 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋