For part 2 of my human sacrifice series I opted to concentrated on the Aztec culture.
Pre-Columbian Aztec civilization apparently used human sacrifice as a religious pracitce. I use the word 'apparently' because some scholars have debated the extent of the practice. Some scholars have characterized it as a biased myth of misinterpretation lacking in proof based on scientific method, perpetuated by an agenda among European invaders to dehumanize indigenous people, whom they admitted having a motive to justify their genociadal holocaust against.
Between 1517 and 1521 a group of Spanish explorers, soldiers and clergy, had contact with the Aztecs when they explored Yucatan, and when Herman Cortes conquered the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, observations were made and documented of the practice of human sacrifice. There was eye-witness accounts of human sacrifice and descriptions of the remains of sacrificial victims. there are also a number of second-hand accounts of human sacrifices recorded by Spanish friars, that relate the testimony of native eye-witnesses. The documented accounts have been supported by archeological research. Since the late 1970s excavations of the offerings in the Great Pyramid of Teotihuacan's Pyramid of the Moon, and other archaeological sites, have provided physical evidence of human sacrifice among the Mesoamerican peoples
A wide variety of explanations and interpretations of the Aztec practice of human sacrifice have been proposed by modern scholars.
- Religious theories have been proposed explaining the practice as the product of religious beliefs about the need to sustain the universe through the spilling of human blood.
- Political theories have been proposed explaining human sacrifice as a political tool for intimidating and controlling subordinate or potentially hostile peoples
- Socio-psychological theories link the practice of human sacrifice to unconscious factors, such as response to traumatic events.
- Ecological theories human sacrifice as a response to population pressures
- Dietary theories link the practice of human sacrifice to the subsequent cannibalization of the victims and the use of their flesh as a source of protein
Most scholars of Pre-Columbian civilization see human sacrifice among the Aztecs as a part of the long cultural tradition of human sacrifice in Mesoamerica.
SACRIFICES TO SPECIFIC GODS
Huitzilopochtli
Huitzilopochtli was the tribal deity of the Mexica and, as such, he represented the character of the Mexica people and was often identified with the sun at the zenith, and with warfare.
When the Aztecs sacrificed people to Huitzilopochtli (the god with war like aspects) the victim would be placed on a sacrificial stone. Then the priest would cut through the abdomen with an obsidian or flint blade. The heart would be torn out still beating and held towards the sky in honor to the Sun-God; the body would be carried away and either cremated or given to the warrior responsible for the capture of the victim. He would either cut the body in pieces and send them to important people as an offering, or use the pieces for ritual cannibalism. The warrior would thus ascend one step in the hierarchy of the Aztec social classes, a system that rewarded successful warriors.
Tezcatlipoca
Tezcatlipoca was generally considered the most powerful god, the god of night, sorcery and destiny (the name tezcatlipoca means "smoking mirror", or "obsidian"). The Aztecs believed that Tezcatlipoca created war to provide food and drink to the gods. Tezcatlipoca was known by several epithets 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; however, 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 names can be translated as "He Whose Slaves We Are".
Some captives were sacrificed to Tezcatlipoca in ritual gladiatorial combat. The victim was tethered in place and given a mock weapon. He died fighting against up to four fully armed jaguar knights and eagle warriors.
During the 20-day month of Toxcatl, a young impersonator of Tezcatlipoca would be sacrificed. Throughout a year, this youth would be dressed as Tezcatlipoca and treated as a living incarnation of the God. The youth would represent Tezcatlipoca on earth; he would get four beautiful women as his companions until he met his destiny, in the meantime he walked through the streets of Tenochtitlan playing a flute. On the day of the sacrifice a feast would be held in Tezcatlipoca's honor. The young man would climb the pyramid, break his flute and surrender his body to the priests. Sahagún compared it to the Christian Easter
Huehueteotl
To appease Huehueteotl, the fire god and a senior deity, the Aztecs had a ceremony where they prepared a large feast at the end of which they would burn captives and before they died they would be taken from the fire and their hearts would be cut out. Motolinía and Sahagún reported that the Aztecs believed that if they did not placate Huehueteotl a plague of fire would strike their city. The sacrifice was considered an offering to the deity
Tlaloc
Tlaloc was the god of rain. The Aztecs believed that if sacrifices weren't supplied for Tlaloc, rain wouldn't come and their crops wouldn't flourish. Leprosy and rheumatism, diseases caused by Tlaloc, would infest the village. Tlaloc required the tears of the young as part of the sacrifice. The priests made the children cry during their way to immolation: a good omen that Tlaloc would wet the earth in the raining season.
These so called gods are just a sample of some that i found that required a human sacrifice. It usually took more than two people to perform the sacrifice ritual. The sacrafice would be taken to the top of the temple, where they would then be laid on the stone slab by four priests, and his or her abdomen would be sliced open by the fifth priest with a ceremonial knife made of flint. The cut was made in the abdomen and went through the diaphragm. The priest would grab the heart and tear it out, still beating. It would be placed in a bowl held by a statue of the honored god, and the body thrown down the temple's stairs. Before and during the killing, priests and the people gathered would stab, pierce and bleed themselves as autosacrifice. Hymns, whistles, spectacular costumed dances and percussive music marked different phases of the rite. The body parts would then be disposed of the viscera fed the animals in the zoo, the bleeding head was placed on display in the tzompantli, meaning "hairy skulls". Not all the skulls in the tzompantlis were victims of sacrifice. In the Anales de Tlatelolco it is described that during the siege of Tlatelolco by the Spaniards, the Tlatelolcas built three tzompantli: two for their own dead and one for the fallen conqueorors, including two severed heads of horses.
Other kinds of human sacrifice, which paid tribute to various deities, approached the victims differently. The victim could be shot with arrows, in which the draining blood represented the cool rains of spring. Gladiatorial sacrafice was where they would die in unequal fighting, or be sacrificed as a result of the Mesoamerican ballgam, burned to honour the fire god, flayed after being sacrificed to honour Xipe Totec, Our Lord The Flayed One, or drowned.
Humans, as a believer in religions, have always been responsible for human sacrifice, and will always be, from droughts wars, for gold or oil, people Will Be sacrificed......................some things will never change...................Even Organised Killings.
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