Ancient Civilizations in Credo: Mesoamerican Religions

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Sun god of the Incas, from whom they believed they were descended. He was represented by the disc of the Sun with a human face, or as a trinity.

From Encyclopedia of Archaeology
In Inca religion, Mama Quilla, the moon goddess, was the wife of Inti, and was served by priestesses.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Legendary founder of the Inca dynasty of Peru. According to the most frequently told story, four brothers, Manco Capac, Ayar Anca, Ayar Cachi, and Ayar Uchu, and their four sisters, Mama Ocllo, Mama Huaco, Mama Cura (or Ipacura), and Mama Raua, lived at Paccari-Tampu [tavern of the dawn], several miles distant from Cuzco.

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Aztec deity, the Lord of Duality or Lord of Life. With his female counterpart, Omecíhuatl (Lady of Duality), he lived in Omeyocan, the 13th and highest Aztec heaven. He was represented by symbols of fertility, and his image was adorned with ears of corn. He was the only Aztec god to have neither a temple nor a formal cult. Seeing him as remote in the heavens, the Aztecs assumed he would never interact with them directly, but they felt his presence in rituals and in the rhythms of nature.

Ancient deity and legendary ruler of the Toltec in Mexico. A chief Toltec and Aztec god identified with the wind and air and represented by a feathered serpent.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Ancient deity of the Toltec in Mexico. Identified with the night sky, the moon, and the stars, and associated with the forces of evil and destruction, Tezcatlipoca shared dominion over humanity with Quetzalcoatl, the god of light and good. Of the various legends surrounding their continual feud, one of the most important tells of Quetzalcoatl's expulsion from Tula, the Toltec capital.

From Gods, Goddesses, and Mythology
Tlaloc was worshiped by the Aztecs as a god of rain and fertility. He could bring drought, floods, and disease, as well as new life. Tlaloc was an ancient god of Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America) whom the Aztecs incorporated into their pantheon to add legitimacy to their empire.

From Cultural Studies: Holidays Around the World
For about 100 years the Aztecs ruled much of Mexico until the invasion of the Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes and his troops in 1521.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Town, SW Guatemala. In the heart of the highlands, Chichicastenango was a trading town in ancient times. It became the spiritual center of the Quiché after their defeat (1524) by Pedro de Alvarado.

From Cultural Studies: Holidays Around the World
The Inti Raymi Festival, also known as the Inti Raymi Pageant, Sun Festival, or Feast of the Sun, is an ancient Winter Solstice festival celebrated by the Incas in Peru on June 24.

From Cultural Studies: Holidays Around the World
Among the ancient Aztec people of what is now Mexico, the year was divided into 18 months of 20 days each, plus a five-day “unlucky” period.

In Milestone Documents of World Religions
The Popol Vuh (or Popol Wuj) is one of the most important examples of pre-Columbian literature to survive the Spanish conquest of the Americas. It is a work of epic poetry that tells the origin story of the Maya and, more specifically, the Quiché, a Mayan ethnic group that dominated the highlands of modern-day Guatemala during the postclassic period of Mayan history (925–1530 ce).

A type of religious offering, or gift to a superior or supreme being, in which the offering is consecrated through its destruction.

A form of culture that revolves around the central position of the shaman, a religious practitioner in various, generally small-scale societies who is believed to be able to diagnose, cure, and sometimes cause illness because of a special relationship with, or control over, spirits. The shaman acts as an intermediary between man in his environment and society and the forces and the spirits of the other world.