"Apocalypto" Ain't religion great?

Gregor

Haven't seen the movie but I understand it grapically depicts human sacrifice. I believe the movie attributes the practice of cutting out the victims heart atop a Mayan pyramid by a Mayan High Priest. If I remember my history, the Mayans didn't do this, it was the Aztecs. The Mayans would occasionally throw virgins into deep limestone cisterns.

Whatever, the Aztecs used obsidian bladed knives which were not capable of cutting through the bones covering the heart so they cut from the abdomen up under the rib cage and removed the heart from the living victim and held it aloft.

When I lived in Santa Barbara, Calif. they had an "Old Spanish Days" fiesta every August. I remember one of the parade floats was a recreation of an Aztec sacrifice as part of the Mexican culture. What a weired, sick, thing to memorialize and be proud of.

heathen

apparently they weren't much worse than the spaniards that enslaved them and stole all their gold .

smellsgood

"If I remember my history, the Mayans didn't do this, it was the Aztecs. The Mayans would occasionally throw virgins into deep limestone cisterns."

The Aztecs, Incas and Mayans sacrificed humans and would pull out the heart while still beating. I saw the movie and it was gory but it did tie in the human sacrifice to the fact that there crops were having trouble. That's when they would sacrifice humans.

In the movie it was a small tribe whose choice men were led away for sacrifice. The reality was that there was no discrimination as to sex or age with sacrifice. Meaning, that being of a certain sex or age didn't offer security.

They sacrificed children. There are skeletons of the age of 6.

If the child had some sort of dental problem, such as an abcess and were crying alot during a sacrifice, this was supposedly a good sign.

Of course they shoved people in the well too. Just as in the movie, the men would be painted blue before being put on the stone, cut under the ribcage. Also accurate in the movie is the priest who is in a trance and channelling spirits during the whole ordeal. Really disturbing stuff!

MegaDude

The human sacrifices helped cause the demise of the Mayan culture according to one theory.

The people were getting sick so they kept up sacrificing their victims. Then they would throw the bodies into a certain natural well or cenote. These wells are fresh water systems that go for miles and they are all interconnected. The more they sacrificed and disposed of bodies, the more they polluted their natural fresh water source and the sicker the people got.

I saw Apocalypto and thought it was a pretty good "chase" movie. However, the scene of the human sacrifices was done brilliantly. Especially how the priests and Mayan elite at the top of the pyramid are shown as babbling, debased, almost insane. I imagine they would be, constantly surrounded by all that violence of slaughtering hapless victims and paranoia about evil gods wanting to harm them.

Blueblades

In one of the society's books , can't remember which one, they have a graphic picture of the heart cut out and held up in the hand, very bloody.

Blueblades

Megadude, The chase scene reminded me of the movie with Henry Fonda, The Last Of The Mohicans, great chase scene.

Blueblades

Gregor

One of the best chase sequences I've seen in a long time was the one in beggining of the current Bond movie Casino Royale. Also one of the best 007 movies in a long time. They got so bad with Moore and Brosnan I started skipping them. Still a couple from that era I've never bothered to see.

Gee, I guess I'm helping to hijack my own thread.

Blueblades

Gregor, I agree, great chase scene, one of the best Bond movies, texas hold em' was an good part of the movie .

Blueblades

Mulan

In one of the society's books , can't remember which one, they have a graphic picture of the heart cut out and held up in the hand, very bloody.

One of the best books they ever published. "Mankinds Search for God"................encouraged people to question the religion they were brought up in and not to follow a religion simply because it's the one your parents handed down to you. Hmmmm, I'll bet they regretted those lines. I think they were on page 8 or 11. I used to have paper clips on two of the pages that were damning to their own cause. Moved the books to the downstairs bookcase, and don't want to go in search.

Satanus

I haven't seen the movie. From the sounds of this one and his last one, mel might have a fascination w human sacrifices. It is also at the core of christianity, after all.

S

"Apocalypto" Ain't religion great?

Share this