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Appeasing the Gods: Human Sacrifice in Pre-Columbian Cultures

Human sacrifice was a shared religious practice among ancient Mesoamericans and Peruvians. According to their cosmological beliefs, the gods provided for mankind only if they themselves were placated. One method of this placation was human sacrifice. Its purpose was thus to maintain a balance of the cosmos and appease the gods who presided over it.

Instead of sacrificing members of their own community, Pre-Columbians conducted ritual wars to gain sacrificial victims, which were captive male warriors. They perfected battle tactics that only wounded their enemies to ensure the prisoners could be killed later in a ritual sacrifice. Pre-Columbian cultures also paid each other tribute in the form of sacrificial victims.

A few surviving Aztec codices (books) are the best historical record of the human sacrifice ritual. The rite was performed on a stone slab atop a pyramid-shaped temple. Four priests held the live victim down while another used an obsidian or flint knife to slit open his abdomen. Reaching through the abdomen and under the sternum, the priest rapidly pulled out the still-beating heart and the victim’s body was then flung down the temple’s steep steps. The priests then burned the heart as a religious offering. The burning of the heart symbolized its consumption by the gods.

The Mesoamericans and ancient Peruvians believed it was an honor to be sacrificed to the gods. The cultures praised brave captives who voluntarily offered their bodies free of struggle, but force was used on the unwilling.

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