In Mesoamerica, the most obvious
practice of human sacrifice was found in the
Aztec Culture. Under the
leadership of Montezuma and others before him, sacrifice became a key element
in their ritual and worship to many gods. The Aztecs were constantly at "war"
with neighboring tribes and groups. The goal of this constant warfare was to
collect live prisoners for sacrifice. The Flowery Wars began with a mutual
agreement between the Aztecs and the Tlaxcalans to capture live men for future
sacrifice (Meyers & Sherman:65).
The Aztecs worshipped a war god called Huitzilopochtli, who took on the likeness of the sun over time. It was thought that in order to insure the sun's arrival each day, a steady supply of human hearts had to be offered in holy sacrifice (Hogg:43). They believed that the sun and earth had already been destroyed four times, and in their time of the 5th sun, final destruction would soon be upon them. In order to delay this dreadful fate, the practice of human sacrifice became a major element in Aztec society and livelihood (Meyer & Sherman:67).
The most common form of sacrifice was performed
outside, on the top of a great pyramid. The victim was spread-eagled on a round
stone, with his back arched. His limbs were held, while a priest used an
obsidian knife to cut under the rib cage and remove his heart. This method was
used when honoring the sun god, Huitzilopochtli. Each god apparently preferred
a different form of sacrifice. For the fertility
god Xipe Totec, the person was
tied to a post and shot full of arrows. His blood flowing out represented the
cool spring rains (Meyer & Sherman:69). The fire god required a newly wed
couple. They were thrown into the god's altars and allowed to burn and at the
last minute they were taken out and had their hearts removed as a second
offering (Hogg :48). The earth mother goddess, Teteoinnan, was extremely important. At harvest time, a
female victim was flayed and her skin was carried ceremoniously to one of the
temples. Her skin was worn by an officiating priest who then symbolized the
goddess herself (Meyer & Sherman:44 Human sacrifices were seen in many
different cultures in Latin American, such as
Olmecs,
Mayans and the
Moche.
Hogg, Garry. Cannibalism and Human Sacrifice. The Citadel Press, New
York 1966.
Meyer, Michael C. and William L. Sherman. The Course of Mexican History. Oxford University Press, 5th ed. 1995.