USF St. Petersburg campus Honors Program Theses (Undergraduate)

First Advisor

David R.Carr, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Raymond 0. Arsenault, Ph.D.

Third Advisor

Ward A. Stavig, Ph.D.

Publisher

University of South Florida St. Petersburg

Document Type

Thesis

Date Available

April 2012

Publication Date

1997

Date Issued

November 1997

Abstract

A paradox of sorts existed in Mesoamerica around the time following the demise of Tula, one that involved human sacrifice and its role in two similar cultures. While ritual killings presented themselves in the valley of Mexico as well as the Yucatan peninsula since the first civilizations evolved there, something had changed during the Toltec rule. The arrival of the benevolent leader Ce acatl Topiltzin, later called Quetzalcoatl, ushered in a time in which the Toltecs rarely practiced human sacrifice. Topiltzin, son of the first Toltec leader Mixcoatl, brought to the area a sense of peace and wealth that had rarely existed in Mesoamerica. The songs of Quetzalcoatl described Tula as, "a true paradise on earth."' The Toltec leader Topiltzin presided over this utopia as the "great priest-leader Quezalcoatl" who restored to Tula the glory and high culture previously known in Teotihuacan.

Comments

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the University Honors Program, University of South Florida St. Petersburg.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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