RITUALS IN AZTEC AND EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION

In whatever culture, must exists any type of ritual and customs, the ritual of Aztecs culture is the human sacrifice, which is very particular and very recognized around the world. Also, the Egyptian culture has a ritual which is called mummification; this technique has been used for many decades ago and for a long time.

Both civilizations have their own rituals, obviously very different to each other, but both believe in many gods and for show respect to them wearing a specific type of clothes and use a particular jewelry or tattoos, whatever each culture use.

Rituals for Aztecs are the main action and the main characteristic that they represent, their ritual is the well known “human sacrifice”. It consists in that the victim is painted and it is would be placed on a slab where their heart would be removed and held up to the sun. Later, the body would be thrown down the stairs of the temple; Tattoos also played an important role in the Aztec culture, these were used in rituals. As a part of these rituals, a priest would use a pointed stone to draw symbols on the stomach, chest, and wrist of children. In the Aztec culture, these symbols were intended to show the children’s devotion to the god. Each Aztec tattoo design was specifically chosen for its symbolism or relation to a god. However, the Egyptian does not use that technique and their rituals are very different than the Aztecs ones. Their ritual consist in mummification, the priest is the guide of the daily rituals of clothing, feeding and putting to bed the sculpted images that represented the deities to whom the temples were dedicated. The priests shaved their heads and body hair, and washed their bodies twice daily as a ritual act of purification. They wore gowns or kilts of pure white linen. Also, the higher priest must to learn various duties, such as studying and writing hieroglyph texts.

By Maria Paula Bohorquez