3. The brutality of life wasn’t limited to religious practices
The need to expect a life of sacrifice and the acceptance of pain was stressed to Aztec children across the Empire and at all levels of society. Rituals of childbirth included the mother addressing the newborn, instructing the child to expect a life of pain and suffering. The child was informed (as a requirement of the state religion) to expect a life of affliction and sacrifice, and that its likely end was to be violent, either in sacrifice to the gods or as a casualty of war. Success in life was described as fleeting, as all life ended in death. The ritual at birth was a religious requirement introducing the child into the Aztec belief system. Throughout childhood the ritual was repeated and reinforced as the child grew, with additional rituals added, some of them painful. The Aztec’s were also believers in corporal punishment.
Preteen Aztec children who earned the anger of their parents through misbehavior or for failing to complete their chores were corrected by being pricked with the spiny fronds of the agave – also called the maguey – plant. The punishment served two purposes. The pain reminded the child of the sacrifices expected of them, and the use of the frond reminded the child of the sacrifices of the gods, since the agave played a major role in Aztec life, used as food, the provider of a beverage, and as material for the building of homes, household items and clothing. Other punishments, which were demanded by the state, including the ritual binding of the child in agave fronds, which have a long and sharp spine on the end.