Bloodletting rituals in Maya culture

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Spanish conquest of Yucatán

Bloodletting was a ritual of the Maya people, which dates back to ancient Mesoamerica. It was also a common practice for other cultures, but is generally associated with the rituals of the Maya. The Maya believed that the gift of blood to the gods, especially royal blood, was crucial to their well-being, and that it validated their worthiness in the Maya community.

In a typical bloodletting ritual, rulers cut or pierced their ears, cheeks, tongues and genitals. Whichever body part the Maya drew blood from, there was a specific reason for each body part. For example, a man would pierce his penis and let the blood drip on some paper. The reason for this is because it symbolized human fertility.

Some of the other body parts being pierced (the tongue, ears, etc.) was done because when the blood was released, it symbolized the fact that they wanted to procure human life. The blood that was released from the body of the "Bloodletters" (as they were called) was usually burned. That way, smoke would rise, and this smoke was considered to be an offering to the gods.

The Maya had strict beliefs in regards to the gods they worshipped, and this offering was very important for them because they felt as if it would help them retain health in their lives. Bloodletting was the most important ritual to the Maya. It was not so much a daily activity, but its importance was obvious when it did take place.

Contrary to popular belief, women also participated the brutal bloodletting rituals. some times, if a king was sacrificing some part of his body, his wife would also sacrifice a part of her body as well. A common practice of women participating in the bloodletting rituals was for the woman participant to pull a rope through her tongue. The painful part is that the rope had thorns all over it. This made for an extremely difficult and messy situation for the women involved.

The Maya sometimes conducted what was known as a "heart sacrifice"; they would cut open the chest of a person and physically remove the heart. The Maya would sometimes use knives made of obsidian glass. It was oftentimes very sharp, and was substantially more efficient in cutting body parts or skin, whichever was being cut in order to fulfill the sacrifice.

Sacrifices sometimes occurred with very small children, with some children bought expressly for the bloodletting ritual.

Some experts believe that certain body parts being sacrificed in the bloodletting rituals were more important than others. For instance, some people think that the ears are the most important, while others believe that the tongue is more essential in the sacrifice. Some even believe that the ancient Maya people conducted bloodletting not for the religious aspect the rituals, but instead for the political gains that could be made. It is thought by some experts that some of the Maya people who performed the bloodletting rituals were actually just deceiving the rest of the community, and that this was actually done in order to manipulate the community. This idea is rejected by many, especially since religion was such an important part of the Maya lifestyle.

Fairly unknown to lots of people, the persons involved in the Maya bloodletting rituals would sometimes come up with ways to deal with the excruciating pain caused by the rituals. Some of these ways include taking hallucinogenic drugs, and finding certain parts on the body which would be more fatty or less sensitive (this way the pain would be somewhat lessened).

[edit] Bloodletting in art

Bloodletting was one of the most common subjects of Maya art. Many examples show rulers of the Maya people sacrificing their bodies and blood as offering to the gods. The Maya art shows a more idealistic depiction of bloodletting, and the idea of bloodletting in Maya Mythology is evident in many forms of art.

An example of a graphic depiction of bloodletting in Maya art is at Yaxchilan, a city which was inhabited during the ancient Mesoamerican period. On two different parts of a building in Yaxchilan, there are some graphic scenes of bloodletting. There are two scenes, and these scenes show the literal sense and an example of what bloodletting is, and they also illustrate the idea that the Maya conducted bloodletting as a way of communicating with the gods that they worshiped in their everyday lives.

[edit] References

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• Ancient Mexico & Central America by Susan Toby Evans
• Mesoamerican Archaeology by Julia A. Herndon and Rosemary A. Joyce
• Yaxchilan: The Design of a Maya Ceremonial City by Carolyn E Tate - History - 1992 - 320 pages.
• Ancient Maya: The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization by Arthur Demarest - Social Science - 2004 - 390 pages.