[Aztlan] DOGS IN THE ANCIENT SOUTHWEST

[Greg Sandor]

> Isn't this information about the attitude of Ancient Americans toward dogs
> amazing and reaffirming? While we have animal pounds in this so-called 
> highly
> civilized US where workers abuse animals just for the fun of it and 
> citizens
> punish-train dogs into killers for sport and money, etc., the Ancient 
> Americans
> were spiritual enough to value the noble dog.
>
> And when the noble creature had served them, he/she was not tossed into a
> back alley garbage can but buried with respect and taken into the next 
> life with
> them. Finding this out is a great perk of Fugate's research.

We don't eat human beings in this "so-called civilized US," nor tear the 
hearts from living bodies to feed the sun, though the Ancient Americans 
certainly did as life-affirming (and life-sustaining) practices.

"As for the dog, it was a particular hairless kind which was fattened for 
eating.  Its flesh was no less esteemed than that of the turkey, for Sahagun 
tells us that 'in dishes the turkey-meat was put on top, and the dog 
underneath, to make it seem more (para hacer bulto)'.
-- from Jacques Soustelle, The Daily Life of the Aztecs