World Religions › Ancient civilizations › Polytheism: the many gods of the ancient world
Indigenous religions of the Americas (Maya, Aztec, Inca)
Olmec c. 1200 BC; Maya, Aztec and Inca to the 1500s; Native traditions live on· Religion or tradition· Ancient, indigenous & folk
Historical recordConfirmed by archaeology, outside sources or contemporary records.
The native faiths of North, Central and South America, from the Olmec, Maya, Aztec and Inca to living Native traditions.
See it on the World Religions map →What it is
The great civilizations built pyramid temples and ran precise ritual calendars. Maya kings offered their own blood to gods of maize, rain and sky. The Aztecs believed the sun needed sacrifice, including human hearts, to keep moving; their Great Temple in Tenochtitlan honored the war god Huitzilopochtli and the rain god Tlaloc. The Inca worshiped the sun god Inti and the earth mother Pachamama. Hundreds of North American peoples kept their own traditions of spirits, land and ceremony.
Why it matters
They developed entirely apart from Eurasia, showing how humans independently arrived at temples, priests, calendars and sacrifice. Many survive, often blended with Catholicism, as in Mexico's Day of the Dead.
Sources and history
Temples and art from sites like Teotihuacan and Chichén Itzá; deciphered Maya hieroglyphs; a few surviving books (codices); Spanish chronicles such as Bernardino de Sahagún's; and living Native and Andean communities.
Questions and debates
The scale of Aztec human sacrifice is debated, though excavated skull racks show it was large. Much meaning was lost when Spanish priests burned most codices.
Connections (2)
▸Indigenous religions of the Americas (Maya, Aztec, Inca) include major forms of Polytheism: the many gods of the ancient worldHistorical record
The connection
Maya and Aztec religions were classic polytheisms: many gods of rain, maize, sun, war and death, each served with temples, calendar festivals and offerings. The Aztec rain god Tlaloc and Maya Chaak played the same role. Other Native traditions combined many spirits with belief in a creator.
When and where
Mesoamerica from the Olmec, about 1200 BC, to the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs in 1521; the Andes under the Inca, 1400s to 1532.
Historical evidence
Maya inscriptions and codices name dozens of gods; Tenochtitlan's Great Temple, excavated from 1978, held twin shrines to Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc; Spanish chroniclers listed their festivals.
Questions and debates
Scholars debate whether some gods were separate persons or faces of one sacred force (teotl, in Aztec thought), which blurs the label 'polytheism'.
▸Indigenous religions of the Americas (Maya, Aztec, Inca) were largely suppressed by Global Christian missions and empireHistorical record
The connection
Spanish conquest brought missionaries who saw native gods as demonic. Temples were torn down and churches built on top, as at Cholula and Cuzco. Priests burned Maya books, and campaigns to 'extirpate idolatry' swept Peru. Yet indigenous beliefs survived, often blended with Catholic saints and festivals, as in Andean devotion to the earth mother Pachamama.
When and where
Mexico from 1519 and Peru from 1532 onward; Franciscans, Dominicans and Jesuits; Bishop Diego de Landa burned Maya codices at Maní, Yucatán, in 1562.
Historical evidence
Missionaries' own reports, such as Landa's and Sahagún's; church trial records; churches standing on temple foundations; and the survival of only four Maya books.
Questions and debates
How much indigenous religion survived beneath Catholic forms, and whether blending was resistance or genuine conversion, is debated by historians and anthropologists.