Week 4: Religion and Empire

Free Choice:

                Conrad and Demarest speak about the ideology that surrounded the religion of the Mexica and Inca people. We have explored this term known as ideology in depth in class, and the definition that has stuck with me from the class discussion is that ideology is a set of ideas that are taken as truth by its supporters. Although people in the 21^st century might find human sacrifices as inhumane, the people of Mexica and Incan background saw it as part of their religion. The authors define ideology as “a set of interrelated ideas that provides the members of a group with rationale or their existence.” (4) It is interesting that they point out that the Mesoamerican and Central Andean civilizations’ ideologies were profoundly rooted in religion. In this particular instance, these terms are interchangeable in the sense that these civilizations’ beliefs and actions were embedded in their religion. Therefore, these empires believed the truth to be these religious ideas that defined the day to day activities of the people. All in all, the book’s introduction took the same structure as our course, as both the book and course defined the terms that we would be using throughout both experiences to clear the ambiguities that may have existed otherwise.

                I found it interesting how the authors addressed the empires that had preceded the Aztecs while also mentioning that the chronological aspects of these events are controversial in the sense that it is difficult to figure out when they actually occurred. This is due to the many different sources that are used to recount the history and even to the different methods of calendric systems that might have been used. This is another relation that I found to our class, as we discussed primary and secondary sources and their impact that they have on how a story is retold. It is essential to understand what types of sources are being relied upon when a person is explaining historical discourse. 

Although it can be difficult to actually know what truly happened in some cases, it is clear that these empires utilized religion ideology as their backbone to control the subordinate groups.  The authors explore how this has been a reoccurring theme throughout the empires that preceded the Aztecs and the Incas. One particular example is found in the Toltec empire where the elite group professed their ancestry to legitimize their rule. This continued through the Aztec and Inca rule, as the leaders would claim ancestry of gods and even past empire rulers to legitimize their own power. It is interesting how some aspects of this religious ideology that affected these empires in an astronomical way were carried on from past empires. The leaders understood the power that these ideologies held and the importance, as well, that these ideologies be held intact. This in itself speaks volumes on ideology and its substantive nature that it held in these civilizations.