The Gods Of The Inca Religion

One of the most important myths of the Huichols Indians is about the creation of the world. These types of myths are categorized as origin myths which “are typically the most sacred of a culture’s myths and provide the foundation upon which other myths are built” (Lindell “Professor’s Notes 4” 2). The article “Journey of Grandmother Rain” by Jack Eidt tells the story about the first humans, the creation of the land, and the creation of the sun. From a structuralist perspective, the binary opposition that shapes the worldview of the Huichol Indians is apparent in this origin myth. According to Eidt, in the Huichol origin myth the first human, named Watacame, and his black female dog, Tziku Mayuri, had to “withstand five days of monsoons, wind, waves, flooding and storming” (Eidt). After Watacame had successfully survived the storm, the Goddess Takutzi Nakawe (Grandmother Rain)

Thus beginning the but the animal yet again where worried that now the man would grow lonely, so then Hactcin, with a lice made the man dream of a women. When he had woken there she was, and they were instructed to eat plants and animal. From the first man and women come all people of their tribe after. Apache spirit “Holy Boy” tried to make the sun and with help of White and Black Hactcin and Red Boy they made what daylight is to us now. Shamans claimed they controlled the sun but four days after an eclipse occurred and unable to bring the light back, White Hactcin called upon the animal and with their help they created a mountain. This mountain was climbed by White, Black Hactcin and Holy boy as well as Red boy who only saw the sun was in another earth where it shined bright. Man and women where the first to climb up the mountain and there all others come up except two, an old man and an old women. They stayed behind but told the others they had to go back one day which is why when we die we go the underworld.

Long distance trade fell under the supervision of the central government and administrator’s organized exchanges of the agricultural products. The Incas came up with their own writing system called quipu. Quipu consisted of an array of small cords of various and lengths, all suspended from large thick cord, unlike the Aztecs system which was just symbols. The Incan social structure was based upon hereditary aristocrats, consisting of rulers, priests, and peasant cultivators. Like the Aztecs the Incas performed bloodletting rituals, the sacrificial subject was just an animal instead of a human. The Incans considered the sun as a god and as their major deity, called Inti. They also recognized the moon, stars, planets, rain, and other natural forces as divine. Many of the differences between the Aztecs and the Incas benefited the two by becoming successful, striving, powerful regions.

The Inca Empire, the massive nation that extended 2,500 miles along the western coast of South America and had a population of over 7 million at its peak. It included all of what is now Ecuador and Peru and most of Chile. Known as “The Children of the Sun”, they excelled at craftsmanship, weaving, and culture (“Children of the Sun”). A very religious people, they worshiped the Sun as their supreme god and held religious festivals monthly to appease these gods. Although they did not value it aside from its beautiful appearance, the Inca Empire was home to millions of pounds of solid gold and silver. The Inca had no use for it except to use it to craft decorations and statues. In fact, an Inca citizen valued cloth more than they valued gold

The Incas and the Aztecs Before the Spanish and Portuguese "discovered" the New World, there

It was done over water at the time they brought men and women also domestic animals.

There were several ancient civilizations that built their cultures around their geography. The Incas were among one of those ancient civilizations. They had amazing ingenuity to make use of their environment. The Incas built agriculture terraces and they had a complex irrigation system. And some crops that we use today. The physical environment of the Incas affected and shaped their civilization.

Ancient Hawaiians worshipped many gods and demi-gods. The main god known as Kane, represented life and nature while Ku, represented death and war. According to the Kumuhonua Legend: he [Kane] formed the three worlds: the upper heaven of the gods, the lower heaven above the earth and the earth itself as a garden for mankind; the latter he furnished with sea creatures, plants, and animals and fashioned men and women to inhabit it (Beckwith). It was believed that each family had its own personal god to protect them. Personal gods were thought to live vicariously through the animals that surrounded the islands such as the shark or pig. Through these very same animals, it was also believed that families could communicate with the spirits of the deceased.

The religious aspects of both the Aztec and the Incan civilizations were based on several different deities. The Aztec empire had more than 128 gods and goddesses. The most important of these gods is Tlaloc (Life god) and Huitzilopochtli (Sun god). These gods could be represented in human, animal or direction form. Aztec gods were worshipped through pyramid shaped religious buildings and ritual sacrificing. Human

Tonatiuh was considered to be the sun god in the fifth era, he was one of the most important gods in the Aztec religion. Tonatiuh was a patron of the Aztec gods, and he would assist the people by supplying them with warmth and fertility. The Aztec would worship him by sacrificing the hearts of their war prisoners, they did this to keep the sun moving in orbit. The people did this form of sacrifice to repay the gods, they believed that the sun appeared in the heavens, but it refused to move so the gods sacrificed their own hearts to convince the sun to move. Tonatiuh was given the role of the sun god through great sacrifice, in the earlier times a council was formed between the gods to decide who the next sun god would be, they established that the god worthy of being given this role would have to prove himself by sacrificing their own life to preserve human life forever.

Both the Aztec empire and the Inca empire thought of the god that represented the sun

The Aztecs were ancient Native Americans that resided in southern Mexico, who believed in sun gods that would give a good harvest if they were appeased. One would notice how drastically different this is from the topic of Christianity. Yet I must explain how they have one thing in common, the self is what belongs to us as humans. However, this is seen in two very different ways.

     The Aztec and Inca peoples lived in militaristic and expansionist societies whose ideals were fueled by their religious convictions. Expansionism was necessary for both societies to support their religious beliefs. The religious zeal of these two civilizations became something that the leaders of the empires could not control. These empires were built through ideologically driven conquests, which became the cornerstones of their societies and something beyond the control of the rulers.

The religion of the Aztec, including their beliefs, customs and religions, acted as a tremendous influence on their government, economy, and culture. Religion was the foundation for the infamous culture of the Aztec Civilization. Through ceremonies of sacrifice, and the infusion of cosmology into their religion, the Aztecs sculpted a culture unlike that of any other civilization, and left behind a legacy to be studied and admired for generations to come. Religion ultimately shaped the unique civilization of the Aztecs, through cultivating the general outlook and values of the Aztecs, expanding the empire, and influencing the architecture and layout of their city.

The Inca religious system was based on the worship of multiple deities. The supreme god was the creator god, Viracocha. The Incas also worshiped the sun god, Inti, from whom the royal family was believed to have descended. Additionally, a number of other nature gods were