Heart  

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:The heart has its reasons, of which reason knows nothing.

The heart was historically seen by some as the seat of the soul and the organ responsible for human thought. The Romans for example noticed that emotions often corresponded with changing heart rates such as fear, love and excitement. While it is now known that the heart has nothing to do with thoughts or emotions as such, people still carry on using the term "heart" metaphorically when talking about love. When used in this metaphorical sense, the heart is often illustrated as an icon ().

The term "heart" can also refer to the core or center of anything e.g. "The heart of the matter". The center of the world, the magma, is the "heart of the world."

The Aztec civilization used the heart as a sacrificial token during the sacrifice of a human being. The priest used a stone knife to cut into the thoracic cavity and remove the heart, upon which it would be placed on a stone altar as an offering to the gods. The greatest sacrifice under the reign of Montezuma involved the removal of the hearts of over 12,000 enemy soldiers.

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Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Heart" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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