And they wonder why there was so much disease... they were filthy. but i just cant believe the way its portrayed in this movie that it served no purpose, but the people really blieved it was doing soemthing. i am just having a really hard time believeing this crap.
2007-05-31 03:38:09 · 6 answers · asked by theskyisthelimit02 3 in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
Please study history by going to a library and doing some research. Hollywood exists to sell tickets and make money. It twists everything it can get a hold of. tf
2007-05-31 03:49:21 · answer #1 · answered by Knick Knox 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
I was wondering this same thing after watching apocalypto, I did a little research and found out that there is no evidence that the Myans did this type of mass sacrafice portrayed in the movie. The Mayans god did not demand human sacrafice so there is a controversy among archaeologists and it seems this was a Mel Gibson interpretation. It is to have been thought that they would sacrafice prisoners of war in this fashion, on top of the pyramid and cutting out the heart. The Aztecs on other hand did conduct human sacrafices and were a much more violent civilization, which was around the same time of the Mayans.
The disease part was thrown in there because no one knows the actual cause of the downfall of the Mayan civilization. The most accepted hypothesis are disease, foreign invasion, peasant revolt, environmental disaster/climate change. If you go back through the movie trys to incorporate most of these hypothesis, the girl with "the sickness" represents disease, the guy on top of the pyramid states that the gods were unhappy and caused the crops to rot out and they show the swampy land and rotted crops which would represent environmental change, and the they show the boats of the "white man" coming at the very end of the movie which represents foreign invasion. In one scene at the sacrafice they even show the crowd representing the common unwealthy man glaring at a couple being carried around with green make up on representing the wealthy, which I think shows the people were unhappy and trying to represent a possibility of the peasant revolt hypothesis.
Heres good info if your interested theres a portion if you scroll down that is devoted to the history or inaccuracies of the movie.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypto
2007-05-31 11:03:32 · answer #2 · answered by Mike J 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Well sacrifices were part of Aztec and Mayan culture. When the Spanish arrived they were shocked to see a person's still beating heart ripped from their chest, so they burnt them alive at the stake...which shocked the Aztecs and the Mayans.
I think Apocalypto was a bit over the top. Mel Gibson's point, along with The Passion of Christ is that the world is getting better. That despite our complaints and problems, it is not very common for people to be nailed to a cross (without their consent anyway, in the Philippines and many SM clubs people volunteer for this) or have their heart ripped from their chest.
Aztec and Mayan culture was not brutal everyday. People were married, shopped in the suburbs (according to recent arceological evidence), played ball sports, had sex, did business.
It is like showing US soilders shooting Iraqi civilians without showing US soilders helping orphans, rebuilding communities and so on. Both are true. One sucks and represents the evil of the US, and the other is wonderful and represents the good of the US.
2007-05-31 10:47:00 · answer #3 · answered by flingebunt 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The sacrifice of life to appease or control a Deity is common through all cultures. Abraham is told to sacrifice his son to God in the Bible, and cultures all over the world have at one time or another practiced this primitive form of god-influence. Archaeologists have found massive amounts of skeletons surrounding Incan religious sites, all with bone trauma indicating ritual mutilation, so these things did happen. Exactly why, or the reasoning behind it is lost to time.
2007-05-31 13:58:43 · answer #4 · answered by jessejamesbaker 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The sacarficing did happen, there are paintings found of this, showing one getting their heart ripped out, it was in a way backward culture, God send the Spanish to teach people, to live righteous.
2007-06-01 19:47:11 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You are looking for truth ? From Hollywood ?
2007-05-31 10:41:53 · answer #6 · answered by =42 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋