Aztec Sacrifice. Post-Conquest Nahua Painting, c. 1560.


an illustration


Aztec Sacrifice. Post-Conquest Nahua Painting, c. 1560. (Priests hold excavated heart to sun atop teocalli) c. 1650 ref 1500 Aztecs Spanish Conquest

AZTEC PRIESTS CARVE HEART FROM SACRIFICAL VICTIM

Aztec/Christian parallels or inverse analogues. The Aztecs carved the heart out of an alive human war captive, dedicated his heart's blood to the sun, and ate his body in order to honor their gods and to preserve the world; Christians beheld their man-god nailed alive to a cross, and ate and drank his body and blood in a symbolic ceremony in order to save themselves. At the temples of both religions one could encounter black clothed priests performing mysterious rites; the Aztecs pinned the skulls of their victims onto racks outside their temples; the Spanish church featured auto-da-fe's staged by the Inquisition in which numerous heretics would be burned alive in wicker baskets in the town square.

AS LOVINGLY DESCRIBED IN PRESCOTT THE VICTIM WAS LED TO THE ALTAR AT THE TOP OF THE PYRAMID, STRETCHED ACROSS A STONE BY THREE PRIESTS [check number, think 4 held and 5th ripped out, would duplicate 4 cardinal points plus sun as center of Aztec wheel] WHO HELD HIS LIMBS, WHILE A FOURTH RIPPED OUT THE LIVING HEART, HOLDING IT UP SO THAT THE SPRAYING BLOOD MIGHT SPATTER ABOUT--IT WAS A DEFINITE HONOR TO BE SPRAYED WITH THE BLOOD, ONE THAT THE PRIESTS RESERVED FOR THEMSELVES AND VISITING DIGNITARIES.

THUS HUMAN SACRIFICE WAS A PART OF MANY NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURES ON BOTH CONTINENTS, FOR MANY THOUSANDS OF YEARS. THE AZTECS, HAD COME TO HOLD IT AS A DAILY NECESSITY TO SUSTAIN THE SUN IN ITS COURSE. THEY LEVIED HUMAN TRIBUTE FROM THEIR VASSAL STATES--ONE OF CORTEZ' FIRST MAINLAND EXPERIENCES WAS TO WITNESS SUCH A DEMAND ON THE COASTAL CEMPOALLANS. SOME STATES, LIKE THE TLAXCALA, THE AZTEC REFUSED TO CONQUER--LEAVING IT INDEPENDENT SO THAT THEY MIGHT WAR AGAINST IT. IN EFFECT THE AZTECS WERE HARVESTING HUMANS WITHIN AND WITHOUT THEIR BORDERS IN THEIR ZEAL FOR KEEPING THE WHEELS OF THE UNIVERSE WELL GREASED. FOR SPECIAL OCCASIONS--SUCH AS THE DEDICATION OF THE GREAT PYRAMID OF HUITZILOPOCHTLI IN OUR YEAR 1486--TENS OF THOUSANDS OF VICTIMS, HARVESTED AND KEPT PRISONER FOR YEARS--WERE OFFERED UP, AND THEIR LINES EXTENDED FOR MILES BACKWARD FROM THE CENTER OF SACRIFICE. THE PYRAMIDS GLISTENED BLACK WITH BLOOD--A SIGN OF GREAT POWER AND ENERGY FOR THAT IS HOW THE SUN GOD DRANK--AND GREAT MOUNDS OF SKULLS GREW UP. IN TENOCHTITLAN THE EXCESS BODIES WERE FED TO THE ANIMALS IN THE ZOO. ALTHOUGH THIS WAS A NORMATIVE EXPERIENCE IN AZTEC CULTURE--ONE THE AZTECS FELT COMFORTABLE WITH AS THEY MIGHT SAY IN MARIN COUNTY, IT SEEMS CLEAR THAT THEIR NEIGHBORS WERE FEELING OPPRESSED AND THREATENED. ONE OF THE GUISES OF CORTEZ WAS THAT OF A LIBERATOR.

THE BODIES OF THE EXCARDIATED VICTIMS WERE FLUNG DOWN THE STEPS OF THE PYRAMID, PERHAPS AS A ROUGH AND READY FORM OF TENDERIZING THE MEAT. THE TRUNK AND LIMBS WOULD BE SEVERED, AND THE TENDEREST PARTS, THE THIGHS AND THE HANDS RESERVED FOR RITUAL FEASTING. MOCTEZUMA WAS SAID TO BE PARTIAL TO THE THIGHS OF YOUNG MEN, SERVED WITH A NICE TOMATO AND CHILE PEPPER SAUCE.

PRESCOTT CAPTURES THE EUROPEAN SENSE OF HORROR

"This was not the coarse repast of faminished cannibals but a banquet teeming with delicious beverages and delicate viands, prepared with art, and attended by both sexes, who, as we shall see hereafter, conducted themselves with all the decorum of civilized life. Surely, never were refinement and the extreme of barbarism brought so closely in contact with each other!"

RITUAL SACRIFICE AND CANNABILISM: PROS AND CONS

Indeed, says Prescott, the Aztecs don't seem so bad if you put their habits next to those of the Spanish Inquisition. At least the Aztec sacrificed their victims to their gods and into heaven; the Inquisition burned its victims and consigned them to hell.

AND MODERN WRITERS STRESS THE CENTRALITY, THE NECESSITY, OF HUMAN SACRIFICE IN AZTEC SOCIETY. IF YOU BELIEVE WHAT THEY DID, THAT THE SUN NEEDED A DAILY RATION OF HUMAN BLOOD, THEN HUMANS HAD TO BE SACRIFICED TO THE SUN. IT WAS A TOUGH JOB, IN OTHER WORDS, BUT SOMEBODY HAD TO DO IT.

THE VICTIMS, SOME SAY, WERE WELL CARED FOR AND HONORED BEFORE THEIR DEATHS. AND THEY WERE NOT INDIVIDUALS IN OUR MODERN WESTERN SENSE--THEY WERE HONORED THEMSELVES TO BE CHOSEN, TO DO THEIR BIT, AS IT WERE, TO KEEP THE SUN GOING FOR THE REST OF HUMANITY.

ANOTHER RATIONALE IS THAT HUMAN SACRIFICE--MOSTLY, BUT NOT ALWAYS, OF YOUNG MALES CAPTURED IN WAR, WAS A CULTURAL DEVICE TO ELIMINATE SURPLUS MALES FROM THE POPULATION. THE ONES UNSKILLFUL ENOUGH IN WAR GOT CAUGHT, THE MORE CLEVER ONES SURVIVED TO REPRODUCE--SO RATHER THAN FIGHTING BLOODY AND DEADLY WARS WITH AN OVERKILL FACTOR, THE MEXICANS WERE ENACTING A RELATIVELY HUMANE AND STRUCTURED PROCEDURE IN THEIR PRISONER HARVESTING WARFARE.

BUT EATING THEIR VICTIMS AFTERWARDS? EVEN THOUGH THIS TOO IS A TIME HONORED RITUAL, WIDELY TESTIFIED TO IN THE AMERICAS,

MANY NOW SUSPECT THAT REPORTS OF CANNIBALISM IN THE AMERICAS ARE GREATLY EXAGGARATED AND THE RESULTS OF EUROPEANS SPOOKING THEMSELVES WITH THEIR OWN HORROR TALES. BUT WITH THE AZTECS, WITH SO MUCH SMOKE, THERE PROBABLY IS SOME FIRE.

PRESCOTT'S SENSE OF HORROR CONTINUES TO AFFECT OUR PRESENT VIEW.

ONE CAN ONLY SAY--YES, IN CERTAIN SOCIETIES, ONE CAN BE CIVILIZED AND EAT ONE'S NEIGHBOR TOO. HOW TO COMPREHEND THIS MIND SET?

PARTAKING OF THE FLESH OF THE VICTIM, ONE PARTAKES OF THE VICTIM'S ESSENTIAL NATURE, DOES HIM OR HER HONOR, WHILE HONORING THE GODS. THE FEAST IS THUS A GENUINE RITUAL OF RESPECT AND COMMUNION.

THE CHRISTIAN MASS ITSELF IS A RE-ENACTMENT OF SUCH A FEAST--ONLY IN THE MASS IT IS THE FLESH AND BLOOD OF THE GOD THAT IS EATEN--A PROSPECT THAT MIGHT HAVE HORRIFIED THE AZTECS.

ONE HISTORIAN EVEN SUGGESTED THAT THE MEAT OF THE SACRIFICAL VICTIMS PROVIDED A CRUCIAL SOURCE OF PROTEIN IN A SOCIETY WHERE THE LARGEST FORM OF ANIMAL LIVESTOCK WAS THE CHICKEN. WERE THE AZTECS SIMPLY STRIVING FOR A BALANCED DIET?

WHATEVER THE EXPLANATIONS, IT WAS THIS LAST PRACTICE THAT MOST HORRIFIED THE SPANIARDS AND LED THEM TO CONCLUDE THAT THE AZTECS WERE BEYOND THE PALE OF HUMANITY, UNLESS THEY COULD BE SAVED BY ANOTHER RELIGION. FEAR, ZEAL, AND GREED WERE ALL PART OF THE COMING ENCOUNTER BETWEEN CORTEZ AND MOCTEZUMA.

ONE HISTORIAN EVEN SUGGESTED THAT THE MEAT OF THE SACRIFICAL VICTIMS PROVIDED A CRUCIAL SOURCE OF PROTEIN IN A SOCIETY WHERE THE LARGEST FORM OF ANIMAL LIVESTOCK WAS THE CHICKEN. WERE THE AZTECS SIMPLY STRIVING FOR A BALANCED DIET?

WHATEVER THE EXPLANATIONS, IT WAS THIS LAST PRACTICE THAT MOST HORRIFIED THE SPANIARDS AND LED THEM TO CONCLUDE THAT THE AZTECS WERE BEYOND THE PALE OF HUMANITY, UNLESS THEY COULD BE SAVED BY ANOTHER RELIGION. FEAR, ZEAL, AND GREED WERE ALL PART OF THE COMING ENCOUNTER BETWEEN CORTEZ AND MOCTEZUMA.