[Aztlan] Discovery Channel - Blood For the Gods

[Alfred Climber]

Hello again,
 Karrie Porter Brace <chacnikteilna at hotmail.com<mailto:chacnikteilna at hotmail.com>>
Thank you for your responses. I enjoy intellectual discussions. I do not propose to be as well versed in the study of Mesoamerican cultures as most of you are. I would like to put forth some of my thoughts on this subject. And then this old Indian will fade away and just read the many discussions herein.
 I do agree that the Maya and the Aztec cultures practiced human sacrifice as well as animal ones. So with the fact that this was, and is accepted by scholars to have taken place, I also adhere to this fact. I also understand that the average individual living in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica probably did not get buried or their skulls preserved. It was only in sacrifice that an individual could assure their place in the "upper levels" in the afterlife. So it is believed by the Aztecs. Warriors who had not taken a captive as well as the everyday man/woman who eked out his existence mundanely could obtain this higher level by willingly submitting to being sacrificed. Most of the bodies of people who died just turned to dust over the eons of time. The Mississippian Mound people took great care of their exalted warriors in certain times, the flesh was removed from the bodies and then their bones were placed  in funerary jars. This was obviously not done for all. And therefore there was not some huge mound with hundreds of thousands of these jars in them. 
 The Maya did display skulls in strategic places to honor those who lost their heads, and lives, due to ball games and other practices. The same thing applied to most cultures in that area. My problem is not with the idea of this being done or that this practice was wide spread. I have a problem with the number quoted and the frequency of those huge numbers at one time. Sure over hundreds of years there will be many skulls lining the walls of plazas or ball courts. If one looks at the idea that to be beheaded assures that that individual is reborn (or assures them of an exalted afterlife) then the practice makes sense. Hey if I can live forever by loosing my head then by all means right before I die take it. 
  If you look at the numbers that is reported to have been done at one time then it just don't add up. Ross Hassig  says there was between 10,000 and 80,400 sacrificed during a 4 day period for a building? This would require 14 sacrifices per minute for four days to reach the higher number. According to the Codex Telleriano Remenisis, old Aztecs who talked to missionaries describe a much lower number down to a more realistic one of probably 4,000 in four days. (I hope I listed that source correctly, I sure can not spell..lol)  Michael Harner in 1977 in the Enigma of the Aztec Sacrifice estimates that probably around 250,000 people were sacrificed per year!! While others put that figure much lower. I still don't see the evidence of this number even with Diaz's plaza of 100,000 skulls and bones. (an eye witness)
  It is stated by others that Diaz's inflated his calculations "when, in a state of visual shock, he grossly miscalculated the number of skulls at one of the Tenochtitlan tzompantlis!". This is the same reason the exact route of Desoto is in much dispute. Three accounts give three different numbers to every event and mile taken. One said they traveled seven leagues while the other states it was twenty-seven. And the account of the number of warriors at Mobilia I believe was grossly blown up so they would seem more honorable in killing the indigenous people there.
 If we lower the number of people sacrificed at one time then it makes more sense and you don't have people like me wondering how in the heck they would deal with all of the blood of 80,400 people in 4 days? Or the amount of entrails. Lets see, 80,000 people bleeding four pints of blood would be 320,000 pints of blood or 40,000 gallons. The human body holds nine pints. That is a bunch of blood to clean up. And how can you sacrifice four  people per every minute for four days? That is a busy schedule.
  Human sacrifice has been around for many thousands of years and is not just something solely specific to Mesoamerica. It was even recorded in the Bible in several places. Archaeologist have found the bones of numerous infants in Carthaginian and propose that the Phoenicians were also into infant sacrifices. But this subject is something shoved under the table. This is just one tiny example in the 'old world'. The Celtic Druids engaged in human sacrifice so says the writers of Rome. They even describe a sick man with people in it which was burnt. The Egyptians practiced the burial of servants with a king to serve him in the after life. Yet why is this not mentioned every time we hear about those cultures? Then when we hear about the Aztecs and now the Maya, one of the predominate items is human sacrifice. Any mention of the old world cultures who also practiced this elicits anger and resentment. Why? 
  In the book "A short account of the Destruction of the Indies" by Bartolome' De Las Casas 1542 he states that this was a work to "inform, the work of a fierce, deeply atmospheric anatomy of genocide" ( P.1) A genocide of whom? "They (the Spanish) spared no one...string their victims up with feet just off the ground and burn them alive thirteen at a time, in the honor of our savior and the twelve Apostles..(12 + 1 = 13)...or tie dry straw to their bodies and set fire to it"...(p.15) He states they killed thousands of indigenous people in the name of Christianity. They did the same thing as Desota, and fed many to the dogs for food. Yet why don't we see movies of this type? Instead we see things of the caliber of Mel Gibson showing one aspect of an indigenous culture practicing horrendous sacrifices. Yes it did happen. But I say not in the numbers some want us to believe. And when looking at cultures in their entirety more should be written of their MANY accomplishments just like we hear about the Egyptians and the Phoenicians. Maybe one day Casas's work will hit a film crew who has money and then we see who gets angry at the true depiction of THEIR peoples. 
  In the Great country of the USA the government just wants the Indian population to 'go away'. Then they don't have to look at the sins of the past and make up stories to diminish what was done by them and THEIR ancestors. But that is another bone to chew on. Show me a movie or symposium which does not mention human sacrifice but concentrates on how they built an Island in the middle of a lake complete with Pyramids and floating gardens to feed the hundreds of thousands living there. Explain how they moved water from the mountains to have fresh water all the time in this city of stone. Treat the indigenous people with the same consideration given the peoples in the old world cultures. And if not, then show MORE of the horrendous things the Spanish did. A lot more!
   
      Thank you for your time, and again for your responses. Whether I agree with them or not, thank you...
            Al Climber Cortez