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The point is that pre-Columbian America, while not a dystopia, was no paradise.
Everyone here who wants to talk about history knows that.
There are lots of interesting things one could talk about the Aztecs. For example, the relationship between the three partner cities and how their elective monarchy works. In the Mann book that you cited the author mentioned a strong philosophical tradition that produced a large number of texts like the ancient Greeks. Unfortunately 90% of online threads about Aztecs are about human sacrifice. It is unfortunate that this one thing takes all of the oxygen out of interest in a fascinating culture.
How would anyone be able to accurately answer this kind of question?
You can't. The best you can do is a reasonable guess.
My guess is that if the Aztec Empire had survived to this day, it would probably not be in an isolated cocoon like North Korea. New ideas have spreading around the World for the past 400 years. For instance, the Industrial Revolution did not start in Latin America but it spread there anyway, similar to what would have happened to an independent Aztec Nation. Electricity, automobiles, air conditioning, shipping, steel, television, computers, the internet - all these would probably be found in a independent modern Aztec Nation.
Ideas have been spreading as well. Ideas like democracy, communism, socialism, etc. Around the World people have been increasingly turning against slavery, child labor, cannibalism, treating women as third class citizens etc. People around the world complain about Japanese whale hunting or the way the Saudis treat women - so can you imagine a modern Aztec government still promoting the sacrifice of adolescents and young adults? I don't think so!
I didn't. I have a real dislike of knee-jerk bashing of the West.
In what way was the post bashing "the west?"
...and even if it was it looks pretty weak to refuse to engage in discussion and instead claim it's off topic due to making cultural comparisons. Especially when the OP in this thread was making similar cultural comparisons to African cultures.
...and even if it was it looks pretty weak to refuse to engage in discussion and instead claim it's off topic due to making cultural comparisons. Especially when the OP in this thread was making similar cultural comparisons to African cultures.
Jbgusa is correct. This is a thread about human sacrifice in the Aztec Empire, not off topic WW1 or WW2 in Europe.
Unfortunately 90% of online threads about Aztecs are about human sacrifice. It is unfortunate that this one thing takes all of the oxygen out of interest in a fascinating culture.
And 90% of the books about Nazi Germany are about the holocaust (50% anyway). Human sacrifice practiced on the scale the Aztecs did is bound to be their defining feature. What else could be?
Their other achievements were grand only in comparison to their neighbors. Many other cultures had passed the Aztecs in architecture, communications and technology centuries or millennia before.
It might be remarkable they accomplished what they did without the wheel or draft animals. But is more remarkable that the didn't have the wheel or draft animals.
And 90% of the books about Nazi Germany are about the holocaust (50% anyway). Human sacrifice practiced on the scale the Aztecs did is bound to be their defining feature. What else could be?
Their other achievements were grand only in comparison to their neighbors. Many other cultures had passed the Aztecs in architecture, communications and technology centuries or millennia before.
It might be remarkable they accomplished what they did without the wheel or draft animals. But is more remarkable that the didn't have the wheel or draft animals.
There are more books about the Nazi war machine and their rise to power than books about the Holocaust at Barnes and Noble today. The military volumes alone would outnumber anything on the Holocaust. It seems to me that people have no trouble looking past the "defining feature" of the Third Reich. And my point is "defining feature" shouldn't mean stop reading.
You seem to be confusing Aztec, the name of an empire, with Mesoamerican civilization, which makes me think you're not really interested in the history debate.
You second paragraph makes little sense in a history forum. If your point is that any culture that's surpassed isn't worthy of study then we should just ignore everything that happened before the modern era.
Read Guns, Germs and Steel for answers to your last point.
There are more books about the Nazi war machine and their rise to power than books about the Holocaust at Barnes and Noble today. The military volumes alone would outnumber anything on the Holocaust. It seems to me that people have no trouble looking past the "defining feature" of the Third Reich. And my point is "defining feature" shouldn't mean stop reading.
You seem to be confusing Aztec, the name of an empire, with Mesoamerican civilization, which makes me think you're not really interested in the history debate.
You second paragraph makes little sense in a history forum. If your point is that any culture that's surpassed isn't worthy of study then we should just ignore everything that happened before the modern era.
Read Guns, Germs and Steel for answers to your last point.
Still, the defining aspect of Nazi "culture" is the holocaust, just as mass human sacrifice is of the Aztec. Their other "achievements" can't be because they are just not notable compared to other cultures. Given the achievements of Roman engineering and architecture, who can be interested in the Aztec except as a footnote? Similarly for writing, philosophy, art, all those things that define cultures.
Besides, this thread is about, at its heart, Aztec human sacrifice. It's more hypothetical than historical.
Still, the defining aspect of Nazi "culture" is the holocaust, just as mass human sacrifice is of the Aztec. Their other "achievements" can't be because they are just not notable compared to other cultures. Given the achievements of Roman engineering and architecture, who can be interested in the Aztec except as a footnote? Similarly for writing, philosophy, art, all those things that define cultures.
Besides, this thread is about, at its heart, Aztec human sacrifice. It's more hypothetical than historical.
I think the defining aspect of the Nazis was the whole notion of Aryan - & all the loving care they piled upon that feeble matchstick to keep a bloody, vainglorious enterprise running.
Similarly, the defining aspect of the Aztecs was their terrifying regard of their bloodthirsty god, who they were appeasing with human blood. Both cases of projection, I suppose.
But I do like the iron-y of at its heart, Aztec human sacrifice - the better to pump oxygen throughout the body politic, no doubt. Perhaps there's hope for us all yet ...
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Nature, red in tooth & claw
