Aztecs cooked, skinned and ate humans

[DesertFox]

Jan. 25, 2005 — New finds from an archaeological site near Mexico City support certain written and pictorial evidence concerning Aztec human sacrifice that historians previously doubted because the accounts seemed too exaggerated to be true.

The discovery adds to the growing collection of evidence supporting human sacrifice and cannibalism among the founders of the Mexican empire. It also suggests that researchers might now be able to verify some 16th century Spanish accounts on the subject.

The Spanish and the Aztecs documented at least four observations of cannibalism in the 16th and 17th centuries. ...

The Aztecs were not the only ones in early Mexico to butcher humans. Spaniard Bernardino de Sahagún wrote a book that contained an illustration of an Aztec warrior being cooked by an unidentified tribe.

Approximately 400 years before the Aztecs founded Mexico City in 1325, the Maya may also have conducted ritualistic human sacrifices. David Stuart, a Harvard University anthropologist, studied Mayan carvings and mural paintings. He believes these images depict human sacrificial events similar to those enacted by the Aztecs.

Evidence from Mexico may be dramatic, but many researchers believe human sacrifice and cannibalism were practiced worldwide, even among other hominid species.

More (http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20050124/aztec.html)

[Peachdiane]

Fox I'm not surprised if they were hungry enough! ;)

[PaulRevere]

The Aztecs arrived in cenral Mexico as a small tribe from their ancestral homeland of Aztlan sometime after the collapse of Teotihuacan. The Aztecs couldn't remember where Aztlan was, though it was probably a short distance north of Mexico City.

The valley of Mexico was divided into an number of rival states. By luck, the king of a major state agreed to marry his daughter to the Aztec leader, which would have been a major political alliance. When he showed up for the ceremony, however, he found that the Aztecs had killed her and one Aztec leader was wearing her skin. The king attacked the Aztecs, who fled to an island in the lake for refuge. This was the site of Mexico City.

From there the Aztecs slowly expanded through alliance and conquest. The favorite Aztec weapon was an obsidian-studded club. The goal was to knock unconcious enemy warriors in battle to use as sacrifices to the gods. When Cortez led the Mexican revolt against them, the Aztecs ratcheted up their sacrifices, thinking that their sinking fortunes were because they did not sacrifice enough people to the gods.

Other factoids:
Only nobles could wear cotton clothes. The penalty for commoners was a trip to the sacrificial altar.
Lying was also punishable by death. You can bet that no commoner ever accused a noble of lying.
The only reason that Cortez's small band of Spaniards overthrew Moctezuma was that the local Indians hated the Aztecs more than they feared Cortez.

[DesertFox]

I remember that! Didn't know you wuz there, too!

:D

[Wolfcounsel]

"The Aztecs couldn't remember where Aztlan was, though it was probably a short distance north of Mexico City." --PaulRevere


I read in one of those usolved mysteries books a long time ago that one of the Spaniards asked a Mexican Indian where Aztlan was. The Indian pointed to the place where the big water is, the Atlantic Ocean. Maybe he meant the Caribbean Islands. Caribbean means "cannibal".

[PaulRevere]

It could have been the Gulf coast of Mexico?

The Caribbean islands were named after the Carib Indians. They originated in Venezuela and slowly took over Caribbean islands from another Indian group. The Caribs were cannibals, and one could say that they ate their way from island to island - Trinidad, Barbados, Guadalope, and so on. By the time that the Spaniards arrived they had eaten their way up into the Virgin Islands. The natives of Hispanola, Cuba, and Puerto Rico had adopted some Central American culture such as the ball game, but were not known as cannibals.

The Aztecs spoke a Nahuatl language. This language group stretched from eastern Oregon and southern Idaho through the Great Basin and SoCal to a little south of Mexico City. Their natural habitat was in the interior dry mountain and basin areas. As I recall, the Gulf coast Indians were not included in this group.

Of course, the Aztecs could have adopted the local language after their arrival, which smaller immigrant groups tend to do. Perhaps they skinned the Indian princess in imitation of the locals, thinking that they were flattering them.

Indians lived precarious enough in habitats that they knew well and were adapted to. Indian survival depended on knowing local seasonal resources in order to feed themselves. To suggest that they abandoned everything they knew and moved a thousand miles to a totally alien environment where they would need to relearn everything about feeding themselves seems unrealistic, IMO.

[Wolfcounsel]

"The Aztecs spoke a Nahuatl language. This language group stretched from eastern Oregon and southern Idaho through the Great Basin and SoCal to a little south of Mexico City. Their natural habitat was in the interior dry mountain and basin areas. As I recall, the Gulf coast Indians were not included in this group." --PaulRevere


Maybe the Spaniard asked a female Indian and she got the map directions wrong. No wait, that's a different thread.

The Karankawas of the Texas Gulf Coast were said to be cannibals also. We were taught this in the fourth grade. Maybe the Nahuatl group borrowed the custom from them?

[PaulRevere]

The Karankawas of the Texas Gulf Coast were said to be cannibals also. We were taught this in the fourth grade. Maybe the Nahuatl group borrowed the custom from them?

I believe it. The practice was probably very widespread and intuitively it stands to reason that the Mound Culture peoples of the Mississippi Valley also practiced it. I think that the point is that the Aztecs didn't invent human sacrifice or cannibalism. They may have practiced it before they arrived in Mexico City, but no doubt it was already known to the locals - probably for centuries.

Maybe the Spaniard asked a female Indian and she got the map directions wrong. No wait, that's a different thread.
LOL!

[DesertFox]

The natives of Puerto Rico were the Taíno Indians, and they ate people.





But only when they were hungry

[PaulRevere]

The natives of Puerto Rico were the Taíno Indians, and they ate people.


Taino, yes, that's it. Thanks, DF. They also inhabited Hispanola and part of Cuba, as I recall. I don't recall that they were cannibals, but I don't doubt it. I guess the Caribs were just hungrier...

Cannibalism survived in modern times only in Amazonia because the Spaniards and Portuguese never went there to stop it.

[Kathy29]

I can't tell you where Aztlan was, but I can tell you where today's mexicans believe it to be.

The southwest United States. And they intend to take it back by force if necessary. Just read up on MeCha and see the intentions.

They believe it's capital was at Four Corners.

[PaulRevere]

I can't tell you where Aztlan was, but I can tell you where today's mexicans believe it to be.

The southwest United States. And they intend to take it back by force if necessary. Just read up on MeCha and see the intentions.

They believe it's capital was at Four Corners.
That of course is wild speculation meant solely to legitimize their "rightful heritage" and conveniently claim four states.

But lessee. If they "reestablished" their capital in the area, would it be in Cortez, CO? Oh, the irony!

[Wolfcounsel]

"I can't tell you where Aztlan was, but I can tell you where today's mexicans believe it to be.

The southwest United States. And they intend to take it back by force if necessary. Just read up on MeCha and see the intentions." --Kathy29


What today's Mexicans? I'm of Mexican Indian, Spanish descent, 100 percent American, and the only way those Aztlan clowns are going to take over the southwest United States is by inhabiting a six foot deep hole in some cemetery there.

[Faithful_Servant]

I remember that! Didn't know you wuz there, too!

:D
Still got your club, DF? I know a couple of lying liberals that could use a good BBQing....

[Kathy29]

"I can't tell you where Aztlan was, but I can tell you where today's mexicans believe it to be.

The southwest United States. And they intend to take it back by force if necessary. Just read up on MeCha and see the intentions." --Kathy29


What today's Mexicans? I'm of Mexican Indian, Spanish descent, 100 percent American, and the only way those Aztlan clowns are going to take over the southwest United States is by inhabiting a six foot deep hole in some cemetery there.

I'm right beside you.

[Rink]

So the big question would be, who started all this people-eating in the first place if it werent originated from the Aztecs?

Toltecs?

mayans?

Who?

[DesertFox]

I imagine they all did it from the git-go. They were animists. Spirits populated their world because they knew so little of how things work. Eating your enemy's heart gave you some of his courage and all that.

Humans are after all meat, and there was no reason NOT to eat human meat except revulsion, ethical considerations or spiritual beliefs -- or maybe you just didn't like human meatloaf. Getting dinner was much harder for those folks than it is for us today, so why waste all that meat?

Nowadays, of course, we know that the likeliest place to pick up germs and such is from a corpse, but they didn't know that stuff.





A quarter-pound baby burger with fries, please

[Warlady]

This is disgusting.

[DesertFox]

:D

[Rink]

From DesertFox:
A quarter-pound baby burger with fries, please

You must not be THAT hungry then?

No liberal steaks?

I guess them libs are too stringy?

[DesertFox]

Liberalz iz fulla pizen. All that necrotic tissue ain't good fer the digestion.

[Rink]

Ahhh i see, then I take it you're an expert on those types of cuisines are ye? :D

Do ya cook, boil, braise, or bbq em? and what kind o sauce ya use when ya do it?

[DesertFox]

All my first-hand experience is several lifetimes old and sometimes it's hard to recall the details.

[Faithful_Servant]

Yeah, when DF was killin' and eatin' libs for lunch, the closest thing they had to cooking was putting the meat on a rock in the sun.

[DesertFox]

Yeah, when DF was killin' and eatin' libs for lunch, the closest thing they had to cooking was putting the meat on a rock in the sun. Onliest critter that likes lib steak is lion. I'll eat lion that ate lib, but only after two full moons have elapsed and the cock crows.

[DeclinetoState]

All this cannibalism was George W. Bush's fault.

:D

[Keb]

We've visited Mesa Verde (Colorado) a few times and climbed up into the cliffdwellings where the Anasazi Indians lived. It was so very interesting.....anyway, one of the things that the guide told us was that they found lots of childrens bones in the fire pit. Because they weren't found in the special room where they had their ceremonies but in the regular "house" room, they had surmised that they had -gulp- also eaten their young. Ugh, I can't imagine.

[PatrioticAmerican]

Humans... The OTHER white meat.

[Warlady]

Recipe for BBQed liberal:

Ingredients

Any cut of liberal will do
Tony's seasoning to taste
3 sprigs of tyme
Salt and pepper to taste
Rub generously with garlic
Place board over charcoal
Place liberal on board
Smoke for 3-4 hours over coals
Throw away the liberal and eat the board

[UhUhNoWay]

Too bad Dahmer's attorney's didn't know about this, they could have claimed Dahmer was a descendant of Aztec's and he was merely a minority exersizing his cultural diversity, he would have never been convicted, or if he had, perhaps they would have set up his own special cell next to the morgue so he could continue his cultural practices.
blechy subject.... Although the moonbats in this country do make me understand the concept of eating your young.