Introduction
The concerns about death and the possibility of an afterlife have always intrigued humans across all cultures and religions. The majority of cultures believe that mortal death is not the end of life for people. A few, especially those that rely on scientific evidence as a basis for their knowledge, have contrary beliefs. Finding answers to such questions is relevant in helping people make an important decisions and when grieving. In addition, comparing the beliefs of two or more ancient cultures can shade light o incongruences and facts. Although both the Mexican Aztec belief and the Egyptian Cosmos believed in an afterlife, their faith differs in other aspects like transcendence and judgment of deeds, the obligation of the Mortal, home for the soul, reincarnation.
Transcendence and Judgement
Transcendence means the ability to go beyond the natural or expected limit. In the context of life, it is the ability to continue existing beyond natural death. The Egyptians believed in transcendent, whereby the positive individual experience that the deceased had was the primary determinant of the nature of life the person experiences (Nyord5). In other words, people whose life on earth was full of good deeds will have a better afterlife compared to those who were evil. Therefore, the cosmic belief system encouraged people to live by doing good so that when they die, they will have an improved quality of life.
Similarly, the Aztecs, who mainly occupied modern day Mexico, believed that their humans existed beyond the death of the body. Death was only a transition from the present existence, which continued beyond the earth. However, unlike the Cosmic culture, the Aztecs did not believe that the acts of a person, whether good or bad, did not matter when it came to the kind of life a person would live beyond death. Interestingly, the Aztec culture held that the way a person died was the sole determinant of the kind of existence they would have in the afterlife (Dockray, par. 6). For instance, warriors who died in battle and the women who lost their lives during childbirth went to paradise while those who had a prolonged illness would go to the underworld. Thus, there was transcendence with different kinds of life depending on the nature of death.
Obligation of the Mortal
The existence of life after death gives hope for a possible reunion which can help people not to despair during the mourning period. Yet, there is a concern that not all the deceased have a privilege of enjoying the life in paradise. Whether based on good deeds or the type of death, both cultures believed that there was a chance of having a damned afterlife. Relatives and friends of the deceased who were alive had some obligation to their dead to help ease their afterlife.
Within the Cosmic belief system, it is evident that the living believed that they should equip their dead with the necessary tools. For example, the people wrote mortuary texts which were intended to be read by the deceased for their encouragement or direction (Nyord, 7). Moreover, some people would be buried with their work tools, such as the axe or arrows that they could use for socio-economic sustenance afterlife. Thus, it was relevant to bury the deceased with some possessions that the people or the priest judged would be useful while writing letters for their direction.
Comparatively, the Aztec cultural beliefs remained connected with the people who died as ancestors and would occasionally pray for them or give honor depending on how the person died. For example, in one of in one of the prayers, the people have to recite that the deceased have loaned them their life for a short time, but they will eventually die just like the sounds of waterfall do in a dry season (Dockray, par. 9). The implication is that the living remained connected the ancestors and had an obligation to thank them or pray for them. For example, the people who died in war to save the land and those who were sacrificed were honored and even worshiped.
Nature of Afterlife and Reincarnation
The possibility of the existence of an afterlife intrigues people to imagine how a typical day for a dead person looks. Since the body decomposes and the soul or spirit remains immortal, there are concerns about such existence. The ancient Egyptians and the Mexicans had some answers to such questions, though with variations in their faith. The Egyptians believed that the houses they lived in were only temporary structures while the grave was the real house (Shah, 40). No wonder many skills were taken in curving the tombs and graves to appear beautiful.
In addition, as part of their daily requirements, every deceased person had a path of life to follow. The dead had a clearly defined roadmap that they had to undertake after the end of the physical death (Zago, p.1). Noteworthy, at the point of death, each of the person was buried with a text book which provided the necessary information to transverse the difficult terrains (Calvert, par. 13) the kings and the pharaohs were buried in the pyramid tombs near river Nile that had well holes. Therefore, it appears that the Egyptians believe that the dead continued with life as usual in their tombs.
Conversely, the Aztecs believed that the life after death occurred in two steps, one involving staying in one of the paradises and then reincarnation to be another animal form. For example, the warriors who died in battle stayed for four years in paradise and then came back as hummingbirds or butterflies (Schoppert, par.4). However, the people who went into the underworld had to work their way back to one of the paradises and have some rest before reincarnating to another animal and coming back to life.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the concept of the afterlife between the Egyptians and the Aztecs of Mexico has several similarities with remarkable distinguishing factors. Both believed that the physical death was a transition and that people lived beyond death. However, they differ with regard to the determinant of the beauty of life-based on good deeds or circumstances of death. The other distinctive factor is that the Aztecs believed that the obligation of the mortals was to pray for and honor the dead. At the same time, Egyptians held that the obligation was to equip them with the necessary tools for survival. Lastly, the Aztecs held on to the belief of reincarnation after some time, while for the Egyptians, the deceased did not come back to earth.
Bibliography
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Dockray, Hillary. “Ancient Aztec Perspective on Death and Afterlife.” The Christi Center – Always Here After Your Loss. Web.
Nyord, Rune. “On interpreting ancient Egyptian funerary texts.” Magazine of the Center for Studies on Cultural Diversity 1, no. 19 (2022), 1-23. doi:10.35305/cl.vi19.48.
Schoppert, Stephanie. “Sacrifice to the Gods: 10 Startling Facts About the Aztec Culture.” History Collection. Web.
Shah, Bipin. “The Sacred Pyramids, Ziggurats and Mountains-their Purposes and Why They Were Built?” Research Gate, (2020), 1-40.
Zago, Silvia. “Conceptualizing Life after Death. The Evolution of the Concept of Duat and Related Notions in Egyptian Funerary Literature.” PhD diss., University of Toronto (Canada), 2019.