Human sacrifice in Aztec culture

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The Spaniards who first met the Aztecs (Mexicas) implied in their writings of the time that human sacrifice was widely practiced in Aztec civilization. No first-hand, eyewitness accounts by Europeans of actual human sacrifice are known, although there exist some first-hand eyewitness accounts of the remains of alleged human sacrifices. In addition, there are a number of known second-hand accounts of human sacrifice written by Europeans told to them by Mexicas. Based on these observations, Europeans understood human sacrifice to be practiced throughout the Aztec empire and in particular at Tenochtitlan, the main Aztec city buried under today’s Mexico City.^[1] The excavation of the offerings in the main temple has provided some insight in the process, but the dozens of remains excavated are far short of the thousands of sacrifices recorded in popular accounts.

Contents 1 The antecedents of human sacrifice in the Aztec culture 1.1 The role of sacrifice in Mesoamerican religion 1.1.1 The 52 year cycle 2 Sacrifices to specific gods 2.1 Huitzilopochtli 2.2 Tezcatlipoca 2.3 Huehueteotl 2.4 Tlaloc 3 Sources of victims for human sacrifice 4 The sacrifice ritual 5 Estimates of the scope of sacrifice 6 Cannibalism 7 Human sacrifice as a political tool 8 Assessment of the practice of human sacrifice 9 Depiction in popular culture 10 Discussion of primary sources 10.1 Priestly accounts by Sahagun and Duran 10.2 Accounts from Cortes and Grijalva expeditions 11 Notes 12 References 13 External links 14 Further reading

[edit] The antecedents of human sacrifice in the Aztec culture

The practice of human sacrifice was widespread in Mesoamerican and South American cultures (during the Inca Empire) ^{[verification needed]}. While the Maya made human sacrifices, the Aztecs practiced it on a particularly large scale, sacrificing human victims on each of their 18 festivities, one festivity for each of their 20-day months ^{[verification needed]}.

It is not known if the Aztecs engaged in human sacrifice before they reached the Anahuac valley and started absorbing other cultures. The first human sacrifice reported by them was dedicated to Xipe Totec, a deity from the north of Mesoamerica ^{[verification needed]}. Aztec chronicles reported that human sacrifice began as an institution in the year "five knives", or 1484, under Tizoc ^{[verification needed]}. Under Tlacaelel's guidance, human sacrifice became an important part of the Aztec culture, not only for religious reasons, but for political reasons as well.

As Laurette Séjourné commented, human sacrifice would also put a strain in the Aztec culture. They admired the Toltec culture, and claimed to be followers of Quetzalcoatl. Also, as Séjourné points out, there were harsh penalties for those who dared to scream or faint during a human sacrifice ^{[verification needed]}.

[edit] The role of sacrifice in Mesoamerican religion

Sacrifice was a common theme in Mesoamerican cultures. In the Aztec myth "Legend of the Five Suns", all the gods sacrificed themselves so humanity could live.

Not all Mesoamerican sacrifices involved human sacrifice. Most cultures of Mesoamerica gave some kind of offerings to the gods. The sacrifice of animals was common, a practice for which the Aztecs bred special dogs. Objects also were sacrificed, broken and offered to their gods. The cult of Quetzalcoatl required the sacrifice of butterflies and hummingbirds.

Self-sacrifice was also quite common; people would offer maguey thorns, tainted with their own blood, and Maya kings would offer blood from their tongue, ear lobes, or their penis.^[2] Blood held a central place in Mesoamerican cultures; in one of the creation myths, Quetzalcoatl would offer blood extracted from a wound in his own penis to give life to humanity ^{[verification needed]}. There are several other myths in which Nahua gods offer their blood to help humanity ^{[verification needed]}.

Common people would offer maguey thorns with their blood ^{[verification needed]}. They also practiced bloodletting from cuts made with obsidian knives or bone needles, on fleshy parts of the body, like earlobes, lips, tongue, chest, calves, etc. This was considered private and a personal act of communication with the gods. The thorns were put in a ball of straw called Zacatapayoli and put in the adoratorium.

More extreme and public forms were used by the Maya. In times of problems, the Maya kings would make a wound on their tongue or on their penis, and pass a piece of rope through it ^{[verification needed]}. If this supreme sacrifice failed, the entire dynasty could fall. This kind of autosacrifice, exclusive to the upper classes, was not practiced by the Aztec ^{[verification needed]}.

[edit] The 52 year cycle

The cycle of 52 years was central to most Mesoamerican cultures. The Nahua's religious beliefs were based on a great fear that the universe would cease functioning after each cycle of 52 years if the gods were not strong enough. Every 52 years a special "New Fire ceremony" was performed. All fires were extinguished, and in the middle of the night, a sacrifice was made. They then waited for dawn. If the Sun appeared, it meant that the sacrifices for this cycle had been enough. A fire was ignited on the body of the victim, and this new fire was taken to all the houses and cities. Rejoicing was general, because a new cycle of 52 years was beginning, and the end of the world had been postponed at least another 52 years. This ceremony is still practiced, but of course without human sacrifice.

This Mesoamerican ceremony was centuries older than the Aztecs. While originally it was believed it was a matter of luck to survive, the Aztecs thought that constant sacrifice through the 52 year cycle could postpone the end.

According to Miguel León-Portilla, Tlacaelel took the original Aztec and Nahua religion, and changed it so the Aztecs took a primary role in providing of victims for sacrifice. This was in order to give the Aztecs a new sense of themselves, turning a "people without face", as they were called by others, into the people in charge of the existence of the universe, and according to this they began to call themselves, "The people of the sun". Other researchers dispute León-Portilla's perspective, pointing to the relative lack of primary sources.

[edit] Sacrifices to specific gods

[edit] Huitzilopochtli

Huitzilopochtli was the tribal deity of the Mexica and as such, he represented the genius of the Mexica particularly. He was often identified with the sun and with warfare.

When the Aztecs sacrificed to Huitzilopochtli, the victim would be placed on a stone slab ^{[verification needed]}. Then the priest would ceremonialy cut through the abdomen with an obsidian dagger ^{[verification needed]}. The heart would be removed and held to the sky, in honor of the sun god. Then the body would be carried away and either cremated or given to the warrior responsible for the capture of the victims. He would either cut the body into very small pieces and send them to important people as an offering, or use the pieces for ritual cannibalism (see below). If given to important people, in exchange he would receive fine blankets, jewels, slaves, etc. This was a system for rewarding successful warriors ^{[verification needed]}.

[edit] Tezcatlipoca

Tezcatlipoca, generally considered the most powerful god, was the god of night, of sorcery and of destiny. The Aztecs believed that he created war for the purpose of providing food and drink for the gods. To the Aztecs, he represented the eerie, sheer power of god. Tezcatlipoca was known by many epitehets, including "the Enemy," and "the Enemy of Both Sides" which stress his affinity for discord. Tezcatlipoca had the power to forgive sins and to relieve disease, or to release a man from the fate assigned to him by his date of birth, but nothing in Tezcatlipoca's nature compelled him to do so. He was capricious and often brought about reversals of fortune. To the Aztecs, he was an all knowing, all seeing, nearly all powerful god. One of his many names can be translated as "We Who Are His Slaves."

The bravest captives were sacrificed to Tezcatlipoca in the gladiatorial sacrifice ^{[verification needed]}. But to the Aztecs the most important and emotive sacrifice was that of a young Aztec. This was accomplished by recruiting a handsome young volunteer and letting him live a luxurious life for a year. This youth would represent Tezcalipoca on earth; he would also get four beautiful women as his companions until the day came for him to die. He would continually go through the streets of the city playing his flute. On the appointed day of the sacrifice, the Aztecs would hold a feast in Tezcatlipoca’s honor. Then, the youth would climb the pyramid, break his flute and surrender to the priest who would sacrifice him. This was one of the more solemn festivities of the Aztec. Sahagun compared it to the Christian Easter.

[edit] Huehueteotl

Huehueteotl was the senior deity and also the fire god. To appease him, the Aztecs would hold large feasts and at the end they would burn people with their hearts taken out ^{[verification needed]}. The Aztecs believed that, if they didn’t placate Huehueteotl, a fire would strike their village. Huehueteotl preferred to have the bodies of newlyweds thrown into the altar ^{[verification needed]}. Just before the couple died the bodies were pulled out and the hearts were cut out as a second offering to him ^{[verification needed]}.

[edit] Tlaloc

Tlaloc was the god of rain. The Aztecs believed that, if sacrifices weren’t given to Tlaloc, the rain wouldn’t come and their crops wouldn’t grow. Another thing that was believed to happen if sacrifices weren’t given to Tlaloc was that the leprosy and rheumatism, diseases believed to be caused by Tlaloc, would infest the village. The Aztecs believed Tlaloc required the tears of the young and as a result sacrificed children so their tears would wet the earth.

[edit] Sources of victims for human sacrifice

Not all inhabitants of Mesoamerica were candidates for human sacrifice ^{[verification needed]}. The main victims for human sacrifice had to be captive warriors who were from a Nahuatl culture.

In order to acquire captives in time of peace, the Aztec resorted to a form of "ritual warfare", or flower war. According to Diego Durans Historia de Nueva España, the Flower Wars were originally a treaty made between the cities of Texcoco, Tenochtitlan, Tlaxcala and Huexotzingo. The treaty was motivated by a famine in Mesoamerica in 1450. The Aztecs believed that sacred wars were needed to end the famine ^{[verification needed]}. By 1455, there was again prosperity in the region, so the sacred wars (xochiyáoyotl) were continued.

The Cihuacoatl (Grand Vizier) Tlacaelel is credited with originating the idea of the flower wars in order to ensure a supply of captives in times of peace. The capture of prisoners for sacrifices was called nextlaualli ("debt payment to the gods") so that the sun could survive each cycle of 52 years. The flower wars not only gave the Aztecs a constant supply of prisoners even in what were otherwise times of peace, but became an important part of their religion. Smaller numbers of Aztec prisoners were also sacrificed in Tlaxcala and Huexotzingo.

The Aztec eventually took over Texcoco and Tlacopan so that they became Aztec cities. As a founding member of the alliance, Texcoco had a lot of privileges, since it provided the Aztec with their most cultivated citizens. Eventually Texcoco was exempted from the ritual war. The Aztecs began to conquer the territories around Tlaxcala and Huexotzingo.

Tlaxcala was a Nahuatl culture that was never conquered by the Aztecs. By the time of the conquest, this ritual war had escalated to the level of a real war, and it was accepted that it was only a matter of time until the Aztecs would try to conquer Tlaxcala. Almost a hundred years of conflict had led to a lot of hate and bitterness between the rival cities with related cultures.

Because the objective of Aztec warfare was to capture victims for human sacrifice ^{[verification needed]}, Aztec battle tactics were designed primarily to injure the enemy rather than kill him ^{[verification needed]}. This way, the prisoner could be killed later in a ritual sacrifice. After towns were conquered, their inhabitants were no longer candidates for human sacrifice (unless they were offered voluntarily). Probably this would have changed if Tlaxcala had been conquered, or accepted the alliance of the Aztecs, when they began to provide support to the Spaniards.

Slaves also could be used for human sacrifice, but this was not considered as honorable as a war captive ^{[verification needed]}. Probably this was the source of children and women required for some sacrifices, but the historical sources do not speak much on the origin of these victims. What is told in detail is that merchants could only offer slaves—those slaves were paid at premiums rates. This was because only slaves that had been sold more than four times were considered as possible victims; they also had to be young and healthy. Since a slave could not usually be sold without his/her authorization, those slaves were particularly rare.

Also, some sacrifices required volunteers. This speaks much of the faith involved.

[edit] The sacrifice ritual

Most of the sacrifice rituals took more than one person to perform ^{[verification needed]}. In the usual procedure of sacrifice, the victim would be painted with blue chalk (the color of sacrifice) and taken to the top of the great pyramid ^{[verification needed]}. Then the victim would be laid on a stone slab by four priests, his abdomen sliced open with a ceremonial knife (contrary to popular accounts, an obsidian knife could hardly cut through a ribcage) and his heart taken out and raised to the sun. The heart would be put in a bowl held by a statue, and the body thrown on the stairs, where it would be dragged away. Usually, the sacrifice was supposed to be voluntary—even captives were supposed to offer their life without struggle, but if faith was not enough, drugs could be used ^{[verification needed]}.

Afterwards, the body parts would be disposed of in various ways: the viscera were used to feed the animals in the zoo, the head was cleaned and placed on display in the tzompantli, and the rest of the body was either cremated or cut into very small pieces and offered by the warrior as a gift to important people, in exchange of presents. This has been confirmed by archaeology, since the body of some of the victims indicate removal of muscles and skinning (José Luis Salinas Uribe, INAH, 2005) (see cannibalism).

Not necesarilly all the skulls in the tzompantli were victims of sacrifice. During the siege of Tlatelolco the Tlatelolcas built three more tzompantli: two for their own dead, and one for the Spanish (which included two horse skulls) (source: [La relación anónima de Tlatelolco]).

Other kinds of human sacrifice, which paid tribute to various other Aztec deities, approached the victims differently. In these, the victim could be shot with arrows (in which the draining blood represented the cool rains of spring), died fighting (gladiatorial sacrifice), burned (to honor the fire god), flayed after being sacrificed (to honor Xipe Totec, the flayed god), or drowned ^{[verification needed]}.

[edit] Estimates of the scope of sacrifice

While Cortés and his men reported some gruesome stories of these sacrifices, none of them actually claimed to be a witness, as Cortés acknowledged.

For the reconsecration of Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487, the Aztecs reported that they sacrificed about 84,400 prisoners over the course of four days ^{[verification needed]}. This report is hardly credible, not only because it would mean almost 15 sacrifices per minute for 24 hours a day, but also because the city of Tenochtitlan itself had an estimated population of only 80,000 to 120,000 in that time. The rate of 15 sacrifices a minute might have been possible if there had been a team of priests sacrificing the 84,400 but it's even less credible if we credit the report that Ahuitzotl performed the sacrifices himself. As a comparison, the Auschwitz concentration camp, working 24 hours a day with modern technology, approached but did not equal this pace: it executed about 19,200 a day at its peak.^{[citation needed]}

Since the Aztecs reported the number of sacrifices themselves, they could have inflated the number as a propaganda tool, especially if, as they reported, Ahuitzotl sacrificed them personally.

Another figure used is from Bernal Díaz del Castillo, the Spanish soldier who wrote his account of the conquest 50 years after the fact. In the description of the tzompantli, a rack of skulls of the victims in the main temple, he reports to have counted about 100,000 skulls. However, that many skulls in a single line would have had a length of about 100 kilometers; even stacked in several rows, they could hardly fit in the reported 30 meters per side of space available in the tzompantli. Modern reconstructions account for about 600 to 1,200 skulls. Similarly, Díaz claimed there were 60,000 skulls in the tzompantli of Tlatelolco, which was as important as that of Tenochtitlan. According to William Arens in The Man-Eating Myth: Anthropology and Anthropophagy (1979, ISBN 0-19-502793-0), excavations by archeologists found 300 skulls.

According the Florentine Codex, 50 years before the conquest the Aztec had burnt the skulls of the former tzomplantli, because they were old. That would give 50 years to construct a new tzomplantli with the 1,200 skulls of the modern estimates ^{[verification needed]}. The skulls of the tzompantli were only from the war captives.

Michael Harner, in his article The Enigma of Aztec Sacrifice, quotes Cook and Borah as estimating number of persons sacrificed in central Mexico in the fifteenth century to 250,000 per year and claims that "Evidence of Aztec cannibalism has been largely ignored or consciously or unconsciously covered up."^[3]

While popular accounts refer the Aztec had to perform a daily sacrifice so the sun would appear the next day, the sacrifices were made only in specific days. Bernardino de Sahagún, Juan Bautista de Pomar and Motolinía report that the Aztecs had 18 festivities each year, one for each Aztec month. Motolinía and Pomar clearly state that only in those festivities were sacrifices made. Each god required a different kind of victim: young women were drowned for Xilonen, sick male children were sacrificed to Tlaloc (Juan Carlos Román: 2004 Museo del templo mayor), Nahuatl-speaking prisoners to Huitzilopochtli, and an Aztec (or simply nahua, according to some accounts) volunteer for Tezcatlipoca. The Ramírez Codex states that for the annual festivity of Huitzilopochtli, more than 60 prisioners were sacrificed in the main temple, and prisoners were sacrificed also in the main Aztec cities.

Not all these sacrifices were made at the main temple; a few were made at "Cerro del Peñón", an islet of the Texcoco lake. According to an Aztec source, in the month of Tlacaxipehualiztli, 34 captives were sacrificed in the gladiatorial sacrifice, to Xipe Totec. A bigger figure would be dedicated to Huitzilopochtli in the month of Panquetzaliztli: according to the Ramírez Codex more than 60 captives were sacrificed. This could put a figure as low as 300 to 600 victims a year, but Marvin Harris multiplies it by 20, assuming that the same sacrifices were made in every one of the sections or calpullis of the city. There is little agreement on the actual figure since there is little archeological evidence so far to support any figure.

Providing prisoners for sacrifice was the main purpose of warriors, and every Aztec warrior would have had to provide at least one prisoner. Theoretically this should provide a base number of victims. But while all the male population was trained to be warriors, only the few who had successfully captured prisoners for sacrifice could became full-time members of the warrior elite. Those who could not would most likely have became macehualli, or workers. Accounts also state that several young warriors could unite their efforts in order to capture a single prisoner. This suggests that capturing prisoners for sacrifice was challenging.

Because of this modern estimates of the number sacrificed by the Aztec at the time of the conquest can vary from 300 people annually to 14,100 in a single event. The main source of discrepancy in this estimate is whether the sacrifices were only performed in the main temple of Tenochtitlan, in all twenty calpullis (precincts) of the city or in all Aztec cities.

[edit] Cannibalism

While there is universal agreement that the Aztecs practiced human sacrifice, there is a lack of scholarly consensus as to whether they also practiced cannibalism and, if so, to what extent. At one extreme, Materialist anthropologist Marvin Harris, who wrote about cannibalism in Our Kind and Cannibals and Kings has suggested that the flesh of the victims was a part of an aristocratic diet as a reward, since the Aztec diet was lacking in proteins. According to him, the Aztec economy would have been unable to support feeding them as slaves, so the columns of prisoners were "marching meat". At the other extreme, William Arens doubts whether there was ever any systematic cannibalism.

While most historians of Mesoamerica believe that there was ritual cannibalism related to human sacrifices, they do not support Harris's thesis that human flesh was ever a significant portion of the Aztec diet. Noted Mesoamerican scholar Michael D. Coe states that while "it is incontrovertible that some of these [sacrifical] victims ended up by being eaten ritually, . . . the practice was more like a form of communion than a cannibal feast."^[4]

There is little documentation of Aztec cannibalism. There are only five accounts of cannibalism from the date of the conquest, none of them particularly suggestive of widespread ritual cannibalism, and only one – the Ramirez codex – (equivocally) tying cannibalism to ritual sacrifice.

The five specific accounts of cannibalism are:

• Cortés wrote in one of his letters that his soldiers had captured an Aztec who had a roasted baby ready for breakfast.

• Francisco Lopez de Gómara reported that during the siege of Tenochtitlan, the Spaniards had asked the Aztecs to surrender since they had no food. The Aztecs answered, asking the Spaniards to try to attack, so they could be taken as prisoners, and then served with "molli" sauce.

• In the books of Bernardino de Sahagún, there is an illustration of an Aztec being cooked by an unknown tribe. This was reported as one of the dangers that Aztec traders faced.

• The Ramírez codex, written by an Aztec after the conquest using the Latin alphabet, reports that after the sacrifices the flesh from the hands of the victim were given as gift to the warrior who made the capture. According to the codex, this was supposedly eaten, but was in fact discarded and replaced with turkey.

• In his book Relación de Juan Bautista Pomar, Juan Bautista de Pomar states that after the sacrifice, the body of the victim was given to the warrior responsible for the capture. He would boil the body to be able to cut small pieces of meat, to be offered as gifts to important people in exchange for presents and slaves, but it was rarely eaten, since they considered it had no value; instead it was replaced by turkey, or just thrown away.

It is at least interesting that the one account by an Aztec and the account by a mestizo of supposed cannibalism following ritual sacrifice claims that the apparent cannibalism was a sham. This is congruent with Laurette Séjourné and Miguel León-Portilla's theory that the upper classes were aware that the religion created by Tlacaelel was something of a forgery.

In 2005, INAH reported that some of the bodies found under Mexico City's "Catedral Metropolitana", from the basement of Aztec temples, showed cut marks indicating the removal of muscles from the bones. Not all the bodies show this treatment.

In August 2006, near Calpulalpan, Mexico, Reuters reported that an analysis of the skeletons of 550 victims killed after the conquest, indicate that some of the victims were dismembered, and that many bones showed knife and teeth marks and evidence of boiling.^[5]

Despite this paucity of contemporary sources, accounts of the Aztec Empire as a "Cannibal Kingdom" (Marvin Harris's expression) have been commonplace, from Bernal Díaz to Harris, William H. Prescott, and Michael Harner. Harner has accused his colleagues – especially those in Mexico – of diminishing or hiding evidence of Aztec cannibalism. The question, of course, is whether such evidence exists to be hidden. Even Díaz (who participated as a soldier in the conquest of Mexico) does not claim to have been an eyewitness to cannibalism. It is possible that Aztec cannibalism was simply a blood libel by the victorious Spanish.

Dominican priest Diego Durán's Historia de las Indias de Nueva España y islas de tierra firme, while clearly a useful source of information (he had access to the survivors of Tenochtitlan), must be doubted on the subject of human sacrifice. Apparently combining a blood libel against the Aztecs with that against the Jews, he argued that the Aztecs were one of the lost tribes of Israel, and adduced human sacrifice and cannibalism as part of his evidence. [1]

[edit] Human sacrifice as a political tool

Human sacrifice was nothing new, nor was it something unique to pre-columbian Mexico. Previous Mesoamerican empires, such as those of the Toltecs and Olmecs, sacrificed their enemies, as did ancient European cultures such as the Greeks. What distinguished Aztec human sacrifice from these was the sheer scale of the carnage, the importance with which it was embedded in everyday life, and the political function it served.

The high-profile nature of the sacrificial ceremonies indicates that human sacrifice played an important political function. The Mexica used a sophisticated package of psychological weaponry to maintain their empire, aimed at overawing and instilling a sense of fear into local tlatoque. Whereas European empires were typically secured through the creation of garrisons and installation of puppet governments in conquered towns or settlements, in Mesoamerica such methods would be prohibitively expensive and largely impractical. The part-time Mexica army was needed to expand the frontier and was, in any event, disbanded during the rainy crop-growing seasons. The Mexica honed human sacrifice as a weapon of terror, using it even against the Spanish. Tlatoque from across the empire even those of enemy towns were invited - or in the case of tributary towns, obliged - to attend sacrificial ceremonies in Tenochtitlan. The refusal of a tlatoani would be considered an act of defiance against the Mexica and result in serious consequences, perhaps even war.

Sahagún describes what awaited those condemned souls upon the summit of the temple:

"As soon as they had dragged them to the block…they threw down on their back, five men holding them, two by the feet and two by the arms, and one by the head. Then at once the priest, who was to kill him, would come and strike him a blow on the chest with both hands, holding a flint knife shaped like the iron of an anchor, cutting a hole. Into this hole he would thrust one hand and tear out the heart, which he offered to the sun… The lords from provinces who had come to observe the sacrifice were shocked and bewildered by what they had seen and they returned to their homes filled with astonishment and fright."^{[citation needed]}

This psychological weapon was also a means of discouraging internal unrest. Commoners participated in the maintenance of a temple according to a rotating monthly schedule, and assisted the priests in sacrificial rituals. A commoner would have been lucidly aware of the fate that awaited those who opposed the Mexica leadership. Safety was to be found inside the Mexica polity rather than risk death outside it. Human sacrifice perpetuated the myth of invincibility that surrounded the Mexica army.

[edit] Assessment of the practice of human sacrifice

In the book of the "anonymous informants" of Sahagun, an Aztec defends the practice of human sacrifice, asserting that it was not much different from the European way of waging warfare: Europeans killed the warriors in battle, Aztecs killed the warriors after the battle.

While this practice may seem barbaric by modern standards, accounts by the Tlaxcalteca, the main enemy of the Aztecs, show that at least some of them considered it an honour to be sacrificed. In one legend, the warrior Tlahuicole was freed by the Aztecs but eventually returned of his own volition to die in ritual sacrifice.

This penchant for human sacrifice proved to be the undoing of the Aztecs. Their need for a continual supply of victims drove many neighboring cities to the side of the Spaniards.

[edit] Depiction in popular culture

A popular depiction in the media involves a feathered Aztec priest cutting into a young, naked and drugged sacrificial victim to extract a still-beating heart, which is raised upwards in an offering to the Sun-god. ^[6]

[edit] Discussion of primary sources

Early Spanish accounts often contradict one another in places and on details, and their reliability is generally suspect for various reasons. Even so, just about every single 16th century Spanish source mentions the practice, for the Aztec as well as other conquest-era Mesoamerican cultures.

For indigenous descriptions and mentions, there are numerous illustrations in central Mexican codices such as the codices Rios, Tudela, Telleriano-Remensis, Duran, and Sahagun's Florentine- see for eg here. However, it should be emphasized that indigenous codices were not written texts but rather non-linear, pictorial and highly symbolic ideographs.

For Mesoamerica as a whole, accumulated archaeological, iconographical, osteological and (in the case of the Maya, written) evidence indicates it was widespread across cultures and periods, dating back to at least the mid-Formative (ca 600 BCE and earlier).

For osteological analyses interpreted as being of sacrificial remains, see for eg Hammond [2] (mid-Formative Cuello), Cowgill [3] (Classic Teotihuacan) and Tykot [4] {postclassic Kaqchikel) remains. See also here, skeletal remains of sacrificed infant from an interment at El Manati, early/mid Formative site near the Olmec centre of San Lorenzo.

For a selection of illustrations of sacrifices on Classic era Maya ceramics and inscriptions, see here and here.
An updated reference:http://www.livescience.com/history/human_sacrifice_050123.html

Early primary accounts are detailed below.

[edit] Priestly accounts by Sahagun and Duran

Early accounts by Duran and Sahagun must be considered in the proper sociopolitical context ^[7]. Both of these critical authors were Christian priests who admittedly viewed the Aztec religion as a "work of the Devil that had to be eradicated" ^[8]. Their intended audience was other priests who had the task of identifying and eliminating the Aztec religion. Furthermore, the political climate in Spain in the latter half of the 16th century favored the presentation of Aztecs as inhuman brutes thus facilitating the exploitation of Indians as cheap labor. ^[9].

A succinct summary of typical discrepancies with Sahagun's writings is found here ^[10].

"Sahagun's writing of the Spanish version ^[11] of the Florentine Codex ^[12] in 1575 to 1577 was precipitated by the need to defend himself against allegations of heretical sympathy with Aztec religion, and to defend the whole thrust of the Franciscan missionary effort from the inquiries of the Inquisition. One example of this is that in book 1 of Sahagun's work, which deals with a description of the gods worshiped by the Aztecs, the appendix is dedicated to refuting the idolatry of the Aztecs. It fills one half of the volume.

In the Spanish version of the Florentine Codex Sahagun inserted material on cannibalism that is not present in the Nahuatl text. In one case Sahagun inserts a paragraph which includes the following phrase (25, vol. 1, p. 69,

[T]hey gave them abundant food and drink and bathed them in warm water, so that they would fatten up because they were to eat them.

The equivalent passage in the Florentine Codex makes no reference to fattening or eating the victims (13, book 1, p. 43). In the description of the feast of Panquetzaliztli, the Spanish version reads (25, vol. 3, p. 43).

The merchants held a banquet in which human flesh was eaten . . . they washed and regaled [the victims] so that their flesh would be tasty when they would kill and eat them.

Again, there is no mention of the fattening of victims or their consumption in the equivalent passage in the Florentine Codex (13, book 9, p. 45). There is evidence that future victims were chosen among those in good health and physical condition and without blemishes (13, book 1, p. 43). If the impersonator of the god Texcatlipoca got fat, ". . . they gave him salt water so that he would become slender. . ." (13, book 6, p. 66; 25, vol. 1, p. 153)."

[edit] Accounts from Cortes and Grijalva expeditions

There are a few surviving direct narratives from sources on the Spanish side who were participants in the expeditions of Grijalva and Cortes (i.e. first-hand external descriptions of the Mexica, other Nahua peoples and the conquest itself). These include Cortes himself, Juan Diaz, Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Andreas de Tapia, Francisco de Aguilar, Ruy Gonzalez and the Anonymous Conqueror. To these we may add the likes of Martyr d'Anghiera, Lopez de Gomara, Oviedo y Valdes and Illescas, who while not in Mesoamerica themselves wrote their accounts based on interview and direct testimony of those who were, and figures such as Las Casas and Sahagun who were later in Mesoamerica but also had access to direct testimony. All of these narratives mention and describe the practice as something actually witnessed by them, either in the act or very shortly afterwards. Some examples:

• Juan Diaz (who was on the 1518 Grijalva expedition, and wrote his Itinerario de Grijalva before 1520) describes the witnessed aftermath of a sacrifice on an island off the Veracruz coast; in his Verdada Historia Bernal Diaz (who was also with Grijalva) corroborates (J.M. Cohen trans., pp. 37-38) "on these altars were idols with evil looking bodies, and that very night five Indians had been sacrificed before them; their chests had been cut open, and their arms and thighs had been cut off, and the walls were covered with blood... At all this we stood greatly amazed, and gave the island the name of the Isla de Sacrificios", and later after landing on the coast they come across a temple dedicated to Tezcatlipoca where "that day they had sacrificed two boys, cutting open their chests and offering their blood and hearts to that accursed idol".
• Bernal Diaz continues with many more such descriptions from his exploits on the later Cortes expedition. Arriving at Cholula, they find "cages of stout wooden bars...full of men and boys who were being fattened for the sacrifice at which their flesh would be eaten" (p.203). Reaching Tenochtitlan itself, he describes the sacrifices at the Templo Mayor there :"They strike open the wretched Indian's chest with flint knives and hastily tear out the palpitating heart which, with the blood, they present to idols...they cut off the arms, thighs and head, eating the arms and thighs at ceremonial banquets. The head they hang up on a beam, and the body...is...given to the beasts of prey" (p.229).
• Cortes describes similar events in his Letters; for example, "Y que les tomaba sus Hijos para los matar, y sacrificar á sus Idolos", "And they would take their children to kill and sacrifice to their Idols". [5]
• The Anonymous Conqueror's Narrative of Some Things of New Spain and of the Great City of Temestitan details Aztec sacrifices in his resume of that venture- see particularly Ch. XV, online here. This source also included a depiction of the temple in which men, women, boys and girls were sacrificed in Ch. XIV, online here. In addition to human sacrifice, the Anonymous Conqueror repeatedly claims that the Aztecs were cannibals, sodomites, alcoholics and polygamists- e.g. see Ch. XXIV, online here. The Engish version (online) was translated from a Spanish translation of an Italian translation of the original Spanish text, which has been lost. The illustration of the temple first appeared in the 1556 Italian edition (Ramusio).

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Museo del Templo Mayor, Hall2
2. ^ Museo del Templo Mayor, Hall 2
3. ^ Harner (1997).
4. ^ Coe, p. 177
5. ^ CNN link to Reuters story
6. ^ See McDonald
7. ^ Ortiz de Montellano
8. ^ Ortiz de Montellano.
9. ^ Keen, pp. 69-95, p. 575.
10. ^ Ortiz de Montellano
11. ^ B. de Sahagun, Historia General de las Cosas de la Nueva Espana, A. M. Garibay, Ed. (Editorial Porrua, Mexico, D.F., ed. 2, 1969), vol. 1, pp. 118, 174.
12. ^ C. E. Dibble and A. J. O. Anderson, Florentine Codex, General History of the Things of New Spain (Univ. of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, 1950-1969), 12 books; book 10, p. 79; book 11, pp. 117-136.

[edit] References

• Coe, Michael (1994) Mexico, From the Olmecs to the Aztecs, 4th Edition, Thames & Hudson, London.
• Cook, Sherburne and Woodrow Borah. Essays in Population History. 3 vols. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1971-1979.
• Harner, Michael, (1977) "The Enigma of Aztec Sacrifice", Natural History, April 1977, Vol. 86, No. 4, pages 46-51.
• Harris, Marvin, (1977) Cannibals and Kings: Origins of Cultures ISBN 0-679-72849-X.
• Keen, B. (1971) The Aztec Image in Western Thought Rutgers Univ. Press, New Brunswick, N.J.
• León-Portilla, Miguel (1963) Aztec Thought and Culture: A Study of the Ancient Náhuatl Mind. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.
• McDonald, Fiona and David Antram, Illustrator(2000). You Wouldn't Want to Be an Aztec Sacrifice!. Franklin Watts . ISBN 0-531-16209-5
• Museo del Templo Mayor Online, Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, Mexico, access September 13, 2006.
• Ortiz de Montellano, Bernard R. (1978). "Aztec Cannibalism: An Ecological Necessity?- The Aztec diet was adequate in protein and cannibalism would not have contributed greatly." Science 200:611-617.
• Stevenson, Mark (2006) "Evidence May Back Human Sacrifice Claims", Associated Press news story, accessed September 18, 2006.

[edit] External links

• James Q. Jacobs, The Cannibalism Paradigm: Assessing Contact Period Ethnohistorical Discourse presents a critical academic inquiry into the evidence for cannibalism claims and the validity of original works on which current beliefs related to human sacrifice and cannibalism are founded.
• (Spanish) News report on investigation of sacrificial victims in Templo Mayor

[edit] Further reading

• Fiona McDonald, You Wouldn't Want to Be an Aztec Sacrifice!, Franklin Watts (August 2000), ISBN 0-531-16209-5. A gruesome present-tense account of Aztec human sacrifice, written for elementary school grades 4-6 . In the book the reader is a captured warrior who ends up having his/her heart cut out as an offering to the gods. According to a review by School Library Journal cited on Amazon.com's page about the book, "[s]uggestions are made as to why a warrior would not be too scared, maybe because an herbal potion could make him feel drowsy and peaceful." Of a group of children's books on "ghastly subject matters" this is singled out as "the most gruesome and [it] will therefore appeal to a certain clientele."