[Aztlan] Hard evidence of Maya human sacrifice

[N Arnold]

Archaeologically speaking, I believe you have to
consider all of the evidence. As others have stated,
you must look at the murals, inscriptions, pottery,
archaeological evidence, osteological evidence, and
contact-era accounts.

The Maya practiced ritual sacrifice. This is obvious,
but only recently so. Just 4 or 5 decades ago we must
remember that the Maya were considered, more or less,
peaceful astrologer kings who conducted sacrifice for
the good of the kingdom. Now we know this is not true,
epigraphical evidence, along with a more sophisticated
archaeological approach have pointed to the new
paradigm of warring city-states that is more or less
accepted.

I think the real question needs to not focus on “did
the Maya practice sacrifice”; instead it should focus
on the gory glamorization of human sacrifice, or the
dry sanitization of it.

Mel Gibson's film focused on the basest behaviors of a
decadent people. We see the bodies flung down the
pyramids, the heads bouncing along. This seems like
Gibson's own idea of what happened, most likely
gleaned from first person accounts such as Diaz (in
regards to the Aztecs of course), and "popular"
cultural beliefs. I mean, how many times have you seen
a TV special on the Aztecs, the Olmecs, or even the
Maya, and the cut scene shows off sweeping views of...
Teotihuacan? People (meaning the American audience)
think of Mexican indiginas and picture bloody
sacrifice on a fantastic level. They don't care what
culture is represented.

The other problem is of course, the clean and sanitary
view of human sacrifice. Remember the book "Man Corn",
that dealt with cannibalism and sacrifice in the South
West? I do, and it created a huge Native American
backlash. I don't need to comment on the validity of
the arguments presented in the book, but the fact
remains that descendents of those tribes did not like
the negative press. Now take everything that's been
posted by other listeros regarding Maestro Ocelotl,
the "Mexica Nazis", the bastardization of the danza,
etc and it points to the same thing. I think the other
posters presented quite nicely the needs and desires
of Chicano or Latino youth to identify with a
self-empowering image. It is just unfortunate that
there are those who take advantage of it, and dismiss
hard archaeological evidence to promote a personal
agenda.

Archaeology, and the perception of ancient cultures
remains a touchy subject. I've been on CRM projects
where Native Americans have protested our work. I
can't blame then. Any time you have a person taking a
"science" based, archaeological, etc view on someone's
personal heritage you will run into these problems.
The facts remain:

The Maya conducted ritual sacrifice. In regards to
Apocalypto, Mel probably took it too far, in gory,
funky, fashion for the cinema.

The Maya conducted wars on their neighbors. Again, Mel
chose to ignore the city-state warfare and focus on
something else.

Thanks,

Noah





--- newsroom-l <newsroom-l at newsroom-l.net> wrote:

> --- Jorge Pérez de Lara <jorgepl at estudioelias.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > The need that many listeros appear to feel to
> "hide under the rug" the
> > reality of human sacrifice among the Maya smacks
> me as an attempt to
> > "sanitize" the Maya and their culture for modern
> Western consumption.
> > Regardless of whether the volumes of sacrifices
> were large of small,
> > it is clear from much evidence that the Maya (as
> indeed most if not
> > all Mesoamerican peoples) regularly practiced it.
> 
> I think that the issue of volume is very
> significant, as is the meaning
> the ceremonies had to the participants. Are we
> dealing with a reign of
> terror? Were these killings like lynchings? Were the
> victims terrified,
> weeping, struggling to escape (and, if we are to
> believe Gibson,
> sometimes succeeding)?
> 
> We had a very fruitful discussion about the meaning
> of death in the
> Mayan world. All sentient beings resist death and
> cling to life, but the
> ability to embrace death when necessary might be
> considered a sign of
> advanced civilization rather than primitive
> superstition. To me, the
> most interesting part of Syriana was the simulation
> of the video
> testament of the suicide bomber. That is not to say
> that I support
> suicide bombers or human sacrifice, but I do
> perceive an entirely
> different tone from the view that is being described
> by those who have
> seen Apocalipto.
> 
> I don't have Linda Schele's "The Blood of Kings" at
> hand, but if I
> recall correctly, she described a Mayan king drawing
> a string barbed
> with cactus thorns through a hole in his penis -- in
> order to benefit
> his people. Acts such as these were solemnly
> recorded on stone
> monuments. So this was clearly heroism, not
> terrorism, and the
> sacrifices of the human victims were likely to have
> a similar solemn,
> dignified and voluntary tone. They were giving their
> earthly lives for
> the benefit of their friends, relatives and other
> beloved souls. They
> were, possibly, joyful martyrs.
> 
> We glorify the military heroes who go to their
> certain death against the
> enemy. But when it comes to the Maya, Mel Gibson and
> his ilk substitute
> a completely opposite set of values. In the Passion
> of the Christ, the
> death of Jesus is pictured as the result of a
> political conspiracy, I
> gather, not one man's willing sacrifice to save
> humanity from endless
> hell. Maybe when we begin to try see the sacrificial
> victims of the
> ancient pagan world as saints and heroes, just like
> the Christian
> martyrs, and Jesus himself, we will have a better
> feeling for what it
> was really like for them and their people in their
> time.
> 
> --
> JULES SIEGEL Apdo. 1764, 77501-Cancun, Q. Roo,
> Mexico
> http://www.cafecancun.com/
> 
> Newsroom-l, news and issues for journalists
> http://www.newsroom-l.net/
> 
> 
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> 



 
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