by AdamHat

Created on: February 23, 2009

The differences between Aztec human sacrifice rituals and today's capital punishment laws are fundamentally minute but then exacerbated by the excessive change in society over time and will prove to be fundamentally similar when compared in context. They both were socially accepted (defined as each practice being legal within the primary governing society to use such methods, not to be confused with individual morality), are done ritualistically (through a series of set and meaningful phases to serve a greater purpose than plain murder; this does not argue spirituality necessarily), and lastly, the practice is governed by the prevailing power (the victims are chosen through guidelines and certain stipulations by the controlling group, not individually). By highlighting the similarities of these three attributes, it becomes apparent that these two acts are not nearly as different as they may seem on the surface.

Social Acceptance
In both situations, the act of killing specific people for specific reasons is justified by the governing power claiming that it assures their way of life to continue. Willard C. Booth mentions in the following passage how integrated Aztec religious beliefs were into everyday life: "To the Aztec, life could continue only through the Gods and nourishment of the gods was maintained only through magic substance, the chakhihuatl of life, found in the blood, but particularly in the human heart" (Booth, 2-3). The need to please the gods was a widespread thought throughout the Aztec society. They feared what the gods were capable of doing to their civilization if they did not honor them and lived their lives in never-ending praise to the divine. Take, for instance, the four months dedicated to the rain gods (months: 1, 4, 6, 16). The Aztec chose children, particularly those who would weep most prior to their imminent death, to be sacrificed to the rain gods with the understanding: "the more they cried about their coming death, the more rain would fall" (Booth, 4). If the rain gods were pleased, they would make the corn grow, and if angered, they could throw lightning or cause drought and flood directly affecting their standard lifestyle.

Today's America also roots their justification of capital punishment by assuring our current way of life to continue. Though now, the importance of human life has reached a new extreme where many individuals and entire countries find it immoral to take a life under any circumstance, such as those in Europe.

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Next Page >>