Syncretism

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Syncretism

• When distinct elements from different religions
  are combined to create a new practice
• Syncretism can be conscious, or unconscious
• Syncretism is a common practice in situations of
  religious pluralism, and in situations of
  cultural conquest, as happened in Mexico

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PalenqueSarcophagusCover
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Coatlique
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Coatlique
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Mictlantecuhtli

• Aztec god of the underworld
• Life-sized sculpture from ceremonial center in
  Tenochtitlan
• Associated with owls, bats, and spiders
• Connected to all three kinds of deaths in Aztec
  cosmology (1) normal death (old age, disease)
  (2) heroic death (warfare, child-birth) (3)
  non-heroic death

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Mictlantecuhtli

• Aztec god of the underworld
• Statues in temples received blood offerings