Same old, same old. I imagine it did get a bit tedious.
THIF! (Thank Huitzilipochtli it’s Friday!)
On the contrary, obsidian and flint knives are quite easy to sharpen - you just flake a bit more off the edge, it’s the same technique that makes them knives in the first place.
I laughed.
Similar experiment using two hands, a blade, and a subdiphragm approach.
Codexes. They were like scrolls that were folded up like accordions. The oldest is called the Dresden Codex. One explanaton for the existance of the sun and moon is given in wikipedia. Other versions say that the sacrifice of the first two gods only created the sun and moon. The rest of the gods discovered that they had to sacrifice themselves, too, to put them into motion. Or that many of them had to sacrifice themselves to give the wind god enough power to propel them. Different groups had different stories at different times.
I can’t remember where I read it, but somewhere I came across a suggestion that when the Aztecs first moved into the area, they were looked down on for being new and having few ceremonies. So they decided to collect the ceremonies of everyone else they could find and ramp them up (sort of taking Pascal’s Wager and not only raising but going all in). Anyone who knows more about it is welcome to say this is wrong.
Gosh, what a pity the elite of an entire civilization in a volcanic region were restricted to using just the one obsidian knife per day…:rolleyes:
Yes, I had indeed confused them.
The hummingbird transmogrification- does that proceed all during the year?
Or do the gods batch them up and do a season at once?
Reason I ask is that hummingbirds arrived in my area early this year.
It was still too cold for gardening, and yet hummingbirds were announcing their territories.
So I’m wondering if the gods set that up, or the warriorhummingbirds organized an expedition to invade my country.
I watched that video, located here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idZolXW0kWM and there is no indication there is a ribcage or any of the other things that are in the chest cavity and are firmly attached like the diaphragm , the lungs, or that the heart is firmly attached like in real life.
So once again I will ask you - what is your basis for making the contention that it would take at least 45 seconds. Do you have any actual experience manipulating internal human anatomy or simulations thereof? Can you reference anyone who does have such experience who agrees with you? Or are your assertions, despite the certainty with which they are proffered, merely WAGs?
I think the embodying happens year-round as Mexico is further South so their hummingbirds may be year-round(Colibri can confirm. Hah!) but paying it forward to Mictlantecuhtli with the starvations happens in the first of the two particularly death-dedicated 20-day months - Tlaxochimaco or Miccailhuitontli, The Feast for the Revered Dead (the other, Xocotlhuetzi or Huey Miccailhuitontli* , The Feast for the Greatly Revered Dead, was more about the burnings not the starvings). So diarize July 12 to July 31 for all your giant skull-faced knife-tongued death god appeasement activities, kids!
*[no relation to Huey Lewis]
Well that certainly makes sense- build your armies year-round, then fly north to retake Aztlan when the season is right.
Do you happen to know whether male warriors become male hummingbirds, and females become females?
Or is there a ranking system of some sort? Does it depend on how you died?
Also, the end of July is quality hummingbird time around here.
So far as I know, Aztecs did not have female warriors.
I’ve also heard that women who died in childbirth were believed to have equal status in the afterlife with those who died in battle, but I don’t recall where I heard that so I have no idea how reliable the source was.
Most hummingbirds in Mexico are non-migratory, but some species from the US do spend the winter there or pass through.
Having studied the little bastards, I always thought it was highly appropriate that the Aztecs named their god of war, blood, and human sacrifice after the hummingbird. Many of them spend most of their lives fighting, day in and day out, and they will attack animals hundreds of times their size.
aNewLeaf,I think it should be understood that not every hummingbird is a reincarnated warrior (and not every warrior reincarnates as a hummingbird - butterflies were apparently also an option)
Broomstick, that’s what I’ve read as well.
As a layperson interested in birds, and as a human kept by parrots of various sizes and types, I find that’s true of MOST birds. As diminutive and pretty as they look they can be monstrously aggressive and birds weighing only a few ounces will charge into battle with full grown humans if sufficiently provoked. That also applies to wild birds. They’re not stupid, they know you’re bigger and stronger, but they also know they themselves are fast and can fly, thereby avoiding your clumsy grasping paws. They’ve also got mad visual skills and depth perception and they’ll use those against you. The big dinosaurs were probably exterminated by angry sparrows, really, I’m advancing that as a new theory.
As a rule of thumb, small size in no way diminishes avian aggression and I’d even venture that the smaller the bird the more fearless and aggressive it can be, by which reasoning hummingbirds are probably the mightiest of bird warriors.
Within the city, the most common species here are Broad-Tailed hummers. The males make a noise with their wings, it’s obvious once you recognize it.
They stake out a territory, and fight off other males and anything they think is a threat.
Humans are not intimidating to them, they will approach without fear.
As for women who die in childbirth, that makes sense.
Even if not all hummingbirds were warriors, you need a lot of fertile females- why else be reincarnated?
I have a feeder on my porch, so far only one bird has found it, a female.
She arrives every morning at 5:25, chirps excitedly, then drinks a bellyful of nectar.
I’m not sure what it’s worth as a source, but I read it in Aztec Ace. He went with pop, rather than historical, Galileo (and Cleopatra, if I’m remembering correctly), but seemed to have put more effort into the Aztec sections.
Emphasis mine.
I’d like to know about this.
One of the classic Mayan blood-letting rituals was to pierce the penis with a stingray spine.:eek:
Oh my. Where can I learn more about these things?