Human sacrifice in pre-Columbian cultures

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This is a sub-article of child sacrifice and human sacrifice.

In some prominent pre-Columbian cultures human sacrifice, the ritualistic killing of human beings, was a part of the religious practices. The practice of child sacrifice in particular in historical Mesoamerican and South American societies is well documented both in the archaeological records and in written sources. The exact ideologies behind child sacrifice in different pre-Columbian cultures are unknown but it is often thought to have been performed in order to placate certain gods.

[edit] Mesoamerica

[edit] Olmec culture

Altar 5 from La Venta. The inert were-jaguar baby held by the central figure is seen by some as an indication of child sacrifice. In contrast, its sides show bas-reliefs of humans holding quite lively were-jaguar babies.

Although there is no uncontroversial evidence of child sacrifice in the Olmec civilization, full skeletons of newborn or unborn infants, as well as dismembered femurs and skulls, have been found at the El Manatí sacrificial bog. These bones are associated with sacrificial offerings, particular wooden busts. It is not known yet how the infants met their deaths.^[1]

Some researchers have also associated infant sacrifice with Olmec ritual art showing limp "were-jaguar" babies, most famously in La Venta's Altar 5 (to the right) or Las Limas figure. Definitive answers will need to await further findings.

[edit] Maya culture

In 2005 a mass grave of one- to two-year-old sacrificed children was found in the Maya region of Comalcalco. The sacrifices were apparently performed for consecration purposes when building temples at the Comalcalco acropolis.^[2]

There are also skulls suggestive of child sacrifice dating to the Maya periods. Mayanists believe that, like the Aztecs, the Maya performed child sacrifice in specific circumstances. In the Classic period some Maya art that depict the extraction of children's hearts during the ascension to the throne of the new kings, or at the beginnings of the Maya calendar have been studied.^[3] In one of these cases, Stela 11 in Piedras Negras, Guatemala, a sacrificed boy can be seen. Other scenes of sacrificed boys are visible on painted jars.

In Yucatan, child sacrifice continued until the Postclassic Period and even during the first years of the Colonial Period.^[4]

[edit] Toltec culture

In 2007, archaeologists announced that they had analyzed the remains of 24 children, aged 5 to 15, found buried together with a figurine of Tlaloc. The children, found near the ancient ruins of the Toltec capital of Tula, had been decapitated. The remains have been dated to AD 950 to 1150.

"To try and explain why there are 24 bodies grouped in the same place, well, the only way is to think that there was a human sacrifice", archaeologist Luis Gamboa said.^[5]

[edit] Aztec culture

Main article: Human sacrifice in Aztec culture

Tláloc, as shown in the late 16th century Codex Rios.

Aztec religion is one of the most widely documented pre-Hispanic cultures. Diego Durán in the Book of the Gods and Rites wrote about the religious practices devoted to the water gods, Tlaloc and Chalchiuhtlicue, and a very important part of their annual ritual included the sacrifice of infants and young children.

According to Bernardino de Sahagún, the Aztecs believed that, if sacrifices were not given to Tlaloc, the rain would not come and their crops would not grow. Tlaloc required the tears of the young so their tears would wet the earth. As a result, priests made children cry before the infanticidal ritual sacrifice, sometimes by tearing off their nails.^[6]

Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxochitl, an Aztec descendant and the author of the Codex Ixtlilxochitl, claimed that one in five children of the Mexica subjects was killed annually. These high figures have not been confirmed by historians. Hernán Cortés describes an event in his Letters:

Archaeologists have found the remains of 42 children sacrified to Tlaloc (and a few to Ehecátl Quetzalcóatl) in the offerings of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan. ^[8]

In Xochimilco, the remains of a three-to-four-year-old boy were found. The skull was broken and the bones had an orange/yellowish cast, a vitreous texture, and porous and compacted tissue. Aztecs have been known to boil down remains of some sacrificed victims to remove the flesh and place the skull in the tzompantli. Archaeologists concluded that the skull was boiled and that it cracked due to the ebullition of the brain mass. Photographs of the skull have been published in specialized journals.^[9]

The table below shows the festivals of the 18-month year of the Aztec calendar and the deities with which the festivals were associated. In History of the Things of New Spain Sahagún confesses he was aghast at the fact that, during the first month of the year, the child sacrifices were approved by their own parents, who also ate their children.^[10] Child sacrifices appear in red on the column at the far right:

[edit] South America

Archaeologists have also uncovered physical evidence of child sacrifice at several other pre-Columbian cultures. For example, the Moche of Northern Peru sacrificed teenagers en masse, as archaeologist Steve Bourget found when he uncovered the bones of 42 male adolescents in 1995.^[11]

[edit] Inca culture

Capacocha was the Inca practice of human sacrifice, mainly using children.

Male figurine for Capa Cocha rituals, Inka, 1450-1540 CE, gold, Dumbarton Oaks Museum, Washington, DC.

The Incas performed human sacrifices during or after important events, such as the death of the Sapa Inca (emperor) or during a famine. As sacrificial victims, they selected children who were physically perfect, because these were the best they could give their gods. They dressed the children in fine clothing and jewelry and escorted them to Cuzco to meet the emperor where a feast was held in their honor. Then, high priests took the victims to high mountaintops for sacrifice. They gave the children an intoxicating drink to minimize pain, fear, and resistance, then killed them by strangulation, by a blow to the head or by leaving them to lose consciousness in the extreme cold and die of exposure.^[12] Early colonial Spanish missionaries wrote about this practice but only recently have archaeologists such as Johan Reinhard begun to find the bodies of these victims on Andean mountaintops, naturally mummified by the dry conditions found in these environments.

[edit] North America

The Pawnee practiced an annual Morning Star Ceremony, which included the sacrifice of a young girl. Though the ritual continued, the sacrifice was discontinued in the 19th Century.^[13] The Iroquois are said to have occasionally sent a maiden to the Great Spirit.^[14]

The Southern Cult or Mound Builders, of the Southeastern United States may have also practiced human sacrifice, as some artifacts have been interpreted as depicting such acts.^[15] Early European explorers reported witnessing mass human sacrifices.^[16]

[edit] See also

• Cannibalism in pre-Columbian America
• Child murder
• Human sacrifice in Aztec culture
• Infanticide
• Psychohistorical views on infanticide
• Ritualized child abuse

[edit] External links

• Discovery Channel The mystery of Inca child sacrifice
• PBS NOVA Online

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Duverger, Christian (2005, original in French 1979) La flor letal: Economía del sacrificio azteca, Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Económica.
• de Sahagún, Bernardino, Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España, Mexico: Editorial Porrúa, 2006.
• Harner, Michael, (1977) "The Enigma of Aztec Sacrifice", Natural History, April 1977, Vol. 86, No. 4, pages 46-51.
• Ortíz C., Ponciano; Rodríguez, María del Carmen (1999) "Olmec Ritual Behavior at El Manatí: A Sacred Space" in Social Patterns in Pre-Classic Mesoamerica, eds. Grove, D. C.; Joyce, R. A., Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C., p. 225 - 254.
• Museo del Templo Mayor Online, Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, Mexico, access May 26, 2008.