Question

What was the role of human sacrifice in the major civilizations of Meso and South America?

Answer 1

It has to be like a paragraph response i dont get it

Answer 2

They believed that they had to offer their gods the gift of human blood. The victims were usually prisoners of war and slaves. The priests would plunge a knife into the victim’s chest and rip out of the still beating heart to give to the gods.

Answer 3

On Flvs It States That Sacrifice was a common theme in Mesoamerican cultures. 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 Mexico, a body of Franciscans confronted the remaining Aztec priesthood and demanded, under threat of death, that they desist from this traditional practice. The Aztec priests defended themselves as follows:
“ Life is because of the gods; with their sacrifice they gave us life.... They produce our sustenance... which nourishes life.”
What the Aztec priests were referring to was a central Mesoamerican belief: that a great, on-going sacrifice sustains the Universe. Everything is tonacayotl: the "spiritual flesh-hood" on earth. Everything —earth, crops, moon, stars and people— springs from the severed or buried bodies, fingers, blood or the heads of the sacrificed gods. Humanity itself is macehualli, "those deserved and brought back to life through penance". A strong sense of indebtedness was connected with this worldview. Indeed, nextlahualli (debt-payment) was a commonly used metaphor for human sacrifice, and, as Bernardino de Sahagún reported, it was said that the victim was someone who "gave his service".