Human Sacrifice in Aztec Culture

Human Sacrifice In Aztec Culture

Human sacrifice (Nahuatl: tlamictīliztli was a religious practice characteristic of pre-Columbian Aztec civilization, as well as of other mesoamerican civilizations such as the Maya and the Zapotec. The extent of the practice is debated by modern scholars.

Spanish explorers, soldiers and clergy who had contact with the Aztecs between 1517, when an expedition from Cuba first explored the Yucatan, and 1521, when Hernan Cortes conquered the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, made observations of and wrote reports about the practice of human sacrifice. For example, Bernal Díaz's The Conquest of New Spain includes eyewitness accounts of human sacrifices as well as descriptions of the remains of sacrificial victims. In addition, there are a number of second-hand accounts of human sacrifices written by Spanish friars that relate the testimony of native eyewitnesses. The literary accounts have been supported by archeological research. Since the late 1970s, excavations of the offerings in the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan, Teotihuacán'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.

Human sacrifice among pre-Columbian indigenous populations is a controversial topic. The discussion of human sacrifice is connected with the classic conflict between viewing indigenous peoples as either "noble savages" or "primitive barbarians." Within modern scholarship, some scholars tend to romanticize the description of human sacrifice while others tend to exaggerate it.