Many researchers say that, for the Mexica, political power as well as religious belief is likely key to understanding the scale of the practice. Theirs was a relatively young empire; during their 200-year reign, they conquered territory all over central and southern Mexico, sometimes facing tremendous resistance from local communities (some of which would later ally with the Spanish against the empire). Spanish chronicles describe Tenochtitlan's sacrificial victims as captives brought back from wars, such as those fought with their archenemy, the nearby republic of Tlaxcala. Subject peoples in the Mexica Empire were also sometimes required to send individuals as tribute. "The killing of captives, even in a ritual context, is a strong political statement," Verano says. "It's a way to demonstrate power and political influence—and, some people have said, it's a way to control your own population."
Mexican skull tower
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this is old who cares
I mainly just want to discuss the Aztec
It's interesting how at the time both yuros and american amerindians were into human sacrifice (aztecs and incas at least), Mapuches did not allow this tough, I read that the one guy that ate a conquistador's heart along with his men was heavily ostraziced because of this
Jaguar Warriors, son!!!
Mesoamerica was hardcore
Spanish OG powerhouse.
Why didn't Aztecs domestice bisons?
Bison didn't reach that far south
A really cool paper about an archaeological site in Peru associated with Inca ritual sacrifice was just released btw. Interestingly, it seems like some of the victims were drawn from different ethnic groups based on the evidence of cranial modification:
Variation in styles of cranial modification indicates that the children buried at HLL are a heterogeneous sample, perhaps drawn from distinct ethnic groups and geographic regions (Fig 7). Of 130 crania sufficiently complete enough to be evaluated, 85.4% (111/130) show no cranial modification. Surprisingly, only 8.5% (11/130) show the form of occipital flattening typical of prehistoric populations of the north coast of Peru: tabular erect [66] or fronto-occipital (anteroposterior) deformation [67], which is considered to be the result of cradle boarding in infancy [67–69]. Eight crania (6.2%) show a distinct form of cranial modification known as annular [66] or circumferential [67]. With the exception of a single well-contextualized burial from an early LIP context at the site of El Brujo in the Chicama Valley (who we interpret as a highland woman who migrated to the coast) and seven individuals in a Chimú mass killing in the Huarmey Valley [also interpreted as possibly non-local [21] to our knowledge no other examples of annular deformation have been published from north coast Peruvian sites of any time period.
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>inb4 why didn't amerindians developed the wheel
t. Fernando del Huizilopotchtli
They also ate the bodies. The markets of tenochitilan (Mexico city) was filled with human meat. They had no other protein but human meat since they depeleted their hunting and fishing grounds and turkey and dogs needed extra feed and meat respectively so they couldn’t be farmed.
Mexicans descend from cannibals and there is nothing wrong about killing Mexicans.
Thanks for the link, into pocket it goes I'll read it tomorrow while commuting, there are a lot of documentaries about Incas sacrificial tombs but most of them are in castillian, can you into it? I've tried to climb the plomo 3 times to check the site where this kid was found, but it keeps eluding me, the climb is pretty interesting because you can see inca structures everywhere, or what's left of them
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They ate their bodies when they were pursuing other tribes like the spartan killed non citizens, it was a ritual thing
This savagery still lives on in them today
Either you're a muslim refugee or a german, tftp
No they ate them after they were dehearted. They chopped up the body and the lower classes would buy up to eat while the upper classes and nobles ate the more expensive protein ie (turkey, dog, what remained of wild game, fish etc...).
Kind of fucked up, but probably ritualistic, can't judge rituals
Not rituals. They ate them after the rituals because they needed the protein. Mayan civ collapsed because of lack of non cannibalistic protein diet. Aztecs were going to collapse and in the process before the Spanish arrived.
Source? I was always tought cannibalism was only done as a religious ritual.
Salsa, sounds like a good read
it's mostly regarded as a fringe theory. Marvin Harris is the name of the researcher if you're interested
Tought so, the story I was told was that cannibalism was mainly done as a religious ritual where they made pozole with the victim and the tlatoani was the one who got to enjoy the better parts of the body.
We Mexicans have a strong affinity for skulls.
Well you share that with italians, and the flag too