The Aztec Culture Of Sacrifice

Introduction

The concept of sacrifice is a fundamental basis of almost every religion. However, its manifestation in the form of human sacrifice is both more controversial and, as a result, rarely studied by anthropologists today. As one scholar observes: "The modern social anthropologist does not best endear himself to the elite of the Third World by an obsessive interest in how great-grandfather shrunk the heads he hunted or in the quality of the wood needed to burn great-grandmother alive" (Davies, 1981, p.13).

While one may question the sense of humour evident here - and even its implication of a racist subtext - it must be acknowledged that the role of human sacrifice in the history of religious practices is seldom addressed.

There exists, in general, two analytical approaches to the practice of human sacrifice: one seeing it as an analogue to cannibalism, and a means of the community ensuring a supply of animal protein, while the other perceives it as a cultural construct fostered by a violent society. This essay will argue, through an examination of the role of human sacrifice in the religious practices of the Aztec civilization, that human sacrifice should be interpreted primarily as a cultural activity that is firmly integrated into the signification and value system of the community as a whole.

Human Sacrifice (a) - Theory

To individuals operating within a modern, Western paradigm,

the concept of human sacrifice is fundamentally repugnant. It may be this, more than any other factor, that accounts for the limited number of anthropological studies of the incidence of human sacrifice in the history of human religious practices. However, violence to the human body has historically been an integral part of religious practices, whether it be mass suicides, as in India; prolonged torture, as in Oceania, North America and Europe; ritualized cannibalism, as in Fiji; people being buried alive, as in ancient Ur and South America; or the dead being exhumed and devoured, as in New Guinea (Davies, 1981, p.199).

In terms of theoretical analyses of the specific practice of human sacrifice, there may be seen to be two general approaches. There are those anthropologists such as Michael Harner and Marvin Harris who seek an explanation for human sacrifice in the physical realm. They argue that what appears to be a religious ritual is actually a manifestation of cannibalism, and a means for a community to compensate for an absence of animal protein in their diets. As such, incidents of human sacrifice in religion may be seen as an exception rather than a cultural norm (Davies, 1981, 14).

On the other hand, there are those theorists who seek an explanation for human sacrifice in the rituals that accompany the act of sacrifice. Rene Girard and Walter Burkert argue that human sacrifice, in one form or another, is a common factor in almost every human religion. Girard, in his work Violence and the Sacred (1972) argued that human sacrifice exists as a part of religious rituals as a means of the community redirecting the socially disruptive forms of violence that are endemic to human cultures. The victim of the sacrifice becomes a surrogate for the group itself, and his/her killing purges the community of its violent tendencies ((Burkert, 1987, p.8).

The classic example of this practice in Western culture is the Hebrew ritual of scapegoating, where a goat was chosen to bear the sins of the community and exiled into the wilderness, while another goat was sacrificed. For a number of years, anthropologists identified analogues of "scapegoating" in many cultures; although this practice is perceived as an "outmoded anthropology" today (Burkert, 1987, p.74). However, variations on this practice of collective sacrifice of an individual for the good of the group have been noted in many cultures. The ancient Greek institution of the pharmakos ritual, for example, demonstrates that such practices are not found only in non-European cultures (Burkert, 1987, p.76). Indeed, what were the incidents of witch burning, or the mass killings of Jews during outbreaks of the Black Death in medieval Europe but forms of this ritual human sacrifice (Burkert, 1987, p. 86)?

In order to interrogate these two theories of ritual sacrifice, the practice of human sacrifice must be examined in a situation and on a scale where there can be no doubt of its significance within a culture. In this regard, no better example of human sacrifice as a culture-wide religious practice may be found than the case of the Aztec civilization.

Human Sacrifice (b) - Practice

The Aztecs, it is believed, originated as a poor nomadic tribe from a place in western Mexico they called "Aztlan" sometime in the 1300s. They probably never used the term "Aztec" in reference to themselves, and were commonly known as "Mexica". They moved into the Valley of Mexico as squatters, and began making enemies of the more civilized peoples already living there as a result of the Aztec taste for violence and human sacrifice (Coe, 1984, p.145-6). The Aztecs were, in the words of one historian, "despised by all" (Weaver, 1972, p.239) neighbouring peoples for their placing physical violence and bloodlust at the centre of their culture. For example, while their skill in fighting led to their being employed as mercenaries, on one infamous occasion their chief was offered the daughter of the King who currently employed the tribe. When the King arrived for the marriage ceremony, "he was confronted instead by a priest dancing about in his daughter's skin" (Weaver, 1972, p.239).

It is indicative of the gulf - not only between the Aztec perspective of the value of the human body and that of our own - but between that of the Aztecs and their neighbours, that the Aztecs seemed not to understand why the father was upset at this treatment of his daughter's body, as they had been "sacrificing the young lady with the hope that she would become a war goddess" (Coe, 1984, p.146). This historical anecdote is noteworthy on two counts. First, it reveals that, contrary to popular Eurocentric myth, the Aztec propensity for violence and human sacrifice was not a cultural trait shared by most peoples in Mesoamerica during the period. Secondly, it illustrates the peculiar, macabre value the Aztecs placed upon the human body which - either as the instigator or object of horrific violence - was at the heart of their culture.

The Aztecs founded what was to become their capital, Tenochtitlan, around 1345, and rose to considerable power as mercenaries who were justifiably feared by all their neighbours. Indeed, after one victory