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Religion and the Mexican State

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 July 2024

Jacques Soustelle
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It is evident to anyone who is at all familiar with the documents and witnesses of the times that Aztec society at the time of the discovery of Mexico appears to be intensely religious, that all public and private life was invaded, so to speak, by rites and dominated by beliefs. But what exactly was the place of religion and its ministrants in the hierarchy of powers? To what degree was the priestly function interwoven with that of government and the administration of the city? Can the regime of ancient Mexico be described as a theocracy? To answer these questions, it is of no small use, first, to go back to the period preceding the foundation of Mexico-Tenochtitlan.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 9 , Issue 34 , June 1961 , pp. 1 - 15
Copyright
Copyright © 1961 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

1 The religious organization of Mexico was the result of a compromise between the truly Aztec religion of Uitzilopochtli, sun god of warriors, and that of Tlaloc, a very ancient divinity of rain and agriculture worshiped by the station ary peasants of the central valley. The two high priests had equal rank.

2 Four were consecrated to astral gods, two of these to Uitzilopochtli.

3 The first Motecuhzoma, whose name means "he who is angry like a lord," had his own brother killed in a fit of fury.