[Aztlan] on the rightness or wrongness of human sacrifice

[Sam Edgerton]

Listeros: Why so much pontification about the polarized-"nesses" of human 
sacrifice?  While the practice was indeed once general among any number of 
early societies, in Europe and Asia as well as pre-conquest America, it has 
since been abolished by all.  So why worry about those few troglodytes out 
there who can't get over the fact that some ancient peoples (like our own 
Caucasian ancestors) once did bad things by today's standards? As social 
scientists, our duty is only to learn why human sacrifice was once so 
prevalent in so many human civilizations, and perhaps seek out some 
universal reason that may have been shared by all - even without studying 
the matter very carefully, I would already presume it had something to do 
with man's eternal need for divine communication. Anyway, please don't 
apply sentimental cultural relativism here. Aztec human sacrifice has 
nothing in common with American highway deaths or vice versa. In fact this 
thread is ideal for applying the "perspectivism" method. If we just try to 
view through the eyes of the Aztecs how they comprehended the institution, 
and then, assume the Spanish Christian viewpoint, we can without modern 
moralizing reach a better understanding of the whole problem in its true 
historical context - and let it go at that. By the way, I'm reminded of an 
old New Yorker cartoon showing an Aztec male being hauled screaming up the 
steps of a pyramid to be sacrificed. Two old Aztecs are standing beside the 
pyramid looking disdainful. One says to the other, "It's too bad about our 
younger generation. They no longer have a sense of tradition!"
Sam Edgerton