[Aztlan] on the rightness or wrongness of human sacrifice

[Michael Smith]

I hesitate to enter the murky waters of human sacrifice debates, but let
me make 2 quick materialist observations to stir things up:

 

(1) On the question of whether the victims and others believed they were
doing a sacred duty and went willingly to their deaths: I can't answer
this question, but I do know that ancient elites always liked to try to
convince others that commoners bought the state ideology and believed
odd things (such as, "its ok to be sacrificed, the priests tell me that
the gods said so, I'm cool about it"); also, the invading Spaniards
liked to think that the Aztecs  believed (and did) odd and barbaric
things. Finally, many modern people like to think that ancient and
nonwestern people ("Others") spend all their time thinking about
religion and the gods, and have crazy beliefs that no rational westerner
would admit to. I personally require a far higher level of proof (than
is commonly offered) that Aztec commoners really bought into the
sacrifice ideology and went willingly to their death. Drugged victims
and warriors to enforce security make more sense to me.

 

(2) On the flowery war, to me the most amazing aspect of it is that so
many modern scholars believe the Mexica lies and propaganda (i.e., that
they weren't really trying to conquer Tlaxcala, that these were just
ritualized practice wars, etc.). The Tlaxcalans told a very different
story about these wars. See pages 170-171 of my The Aztecs (2nd edition,
2003, Blackwell).

 

Mike

 

Dr. Michael E. Smith

Professor of Anthropology

School of Human Evolution & Social Change

Arizona State University

www.public.asu.edu/~mesmith9/