The Aztecs were particularly noted for practicing human sacrifice on a large scale; an offering to Huitzilopochtli would be made to restore the blood he lost, as the sun was engaged in a daily battle. Human sacrifices would prevent the end of the world that could happen on each cycle of 52 years. In the 1487 re-consecration of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan some estimate that 80,400 prisoners were sacrificed[“The enigma of Aztec sacrifice”. Latinamerican Studies. Retrieved 2010-05-25.][ “Science and Anthropology”. Cdis.missouri.edu. Archived from the original on 2010-12-19. Retrieved 2010-05-25.] though numbers are difficult to quantify, as all obtainable Aztec texts were destroyed by Christian missionaries during the period 1528â1548.[Holtker, George. The Religions of Mexico and Peru. Studies in Comparative Religion. Vol. 1. CTS.[full citation needed]] The Aztec, also known as Mexica, periodically sacrificed children as it was believed that the rain god, TlÄloc, required the tears of children.[Benjamin, Thomas (2009). The Atlantic World: Europeans, Africans, Indians and their shared history, 1400â1900. Cambridge University Press. p. 13.]
According to Ross Hassig, author of Aztec Warfare, “between 10,000 and 80,400 people” were sacrificed in the ceremony. The old reports of numbers sacrificed for special feasts have been described as “unbelievably high” by some authors and that on cautious reckoning, based on reliable evidence, the numbers could not have exceeded at most several hundred per year in Tenochtitlan.[Holtker, George. The Religions of Mexico and Peru. Studies in Comparative Religion. Vol. 1. CTS.[full citation needed]] The real number of sacrificed victims during the 1487 consecration is unknown.
Michael Harner, in his 1997 article The Enigma of Aztec Sacrifice, estimates the number of persons sacrificed in central Mexico in the 15th century as high as 250,000 per year. Fernando de Alva CortĂ©s Ixtlilxochitl, a Mexica descendant and the author of Codex Ixtlilxochitl, claimed that one in five children of the Mexica subjects was killed annually. Victor Davis Hanson argues that an estimate by Carlos ZumĂĄrraga of 20,000 per annum is more plausible. Other scholars believe that, since the Aztecs always tried to intimidate their enemies, it is far more likely that they inflated the official number as a propaganda tool.[ Duverger, op. cit., pp. 174â177[full citation needed] “Duverger, (op. cit) 174â77”][ “New chamber confirms culture entrenched in human sacrifice”. Mtintouch.net. Archived from the original on 2008-12-06. Retrieved 2010-05-25.]
From Wikipedia’s Human Sacrifice page last updated August 10, 2022
Also see: Human sacrifice in Aztec culture
