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It is also important to note that for the most part of the Mayan history, the predominant technique used in their human sacrifice rituals is decapitation see fig.
Nonetheless, the misconception that the Aztec and Maya people practised circumcision persists to this day. About This blog is a platform of communication for a college course at Emory entitled "The Anthropology of Death and Burial". It is important to note that unlike the Shang, whose practice of ritual human sacrifice has long been well-established by historical records, human sacrifice in Mayan culture remained relatively unknown and received little scholarly attention until the late 20th century. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Furthermore, in contrast with the abundant textual record from the Shang dynasty, much of the classical Mayan mythologies have been destroyed during the Spanish conquest , and the few surviving pre-Columbian Mayan written artifacts remain largely undeciphered. Human sacrifice rituals similar to that of renji were also practiced by the Mayans.
At this point, it might be appropriate to step briefly away from the minutiae of Shang and Mayan mythical practices, and instead look at the larger picture of human sacrifice. Even if violence is an inherent human condition, personal violent compulsions can only be transformed into collective rituals via collectively shared beliefs.
Furthermore, it is important to note that effects of this dialectical relationship between sacrificial practices and their corresponding mythos are not contained within the sphere of religious life. While arguing for explicit manipulative intentions on the part of Shang and Mayan rulers might run the risk of over-instrumentalizing and over-rationalizing their sacrificial practices, it is nonetheless difficult to overlook the powerful functioning of religious ritual in the maintenance of society, even without the presence of such explicit motives.
An Essay on General Economy , trans. Robert Hurley New York: William Gates New York: Cambridge University Press, Sharer and Loa P.
Traxler, The Ancient Maya, 6th ed California: Stanford University Press, London, , introduction. Dover Publications, , In these wars they made great offerings of the spoils, and if they captured some renowned man they promptly sacrificed him, not to leave alive those who could later inflict injury upon them. Many also confused genital bloodletting with circumcision , not least because they believed Indians were descendants of the lost tribes of Israel. At other times they perforated their cheeks or the lower lip; again they made cuts in parts of the body, or pierced the tongue crossways and passed stalks through, causing extreme pain; again they hewed at the superfluous part of the penis, leaving the flesh in the form of two floppy ears.
Nonetheless, the misconception that the Aztec and Maya people practised circumcision persists to this day. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Maya mythology and Maya religion. Retrieved 2 April This is echoed by Gillett Griffin, who states that the spoon "probably had a ritual function in bloodletting or in the absorption of hallucinogens for ritual purposes" Griffin, p. There is some disagreement, however, in this identification: Justin Kerr , for example, tentatively identifies similar Maya implements as "symbolic jade versions" of a paint container for a scribe see "Where Do You Wear Your Paint-Pot?
See Joyce et al. Bancroft, Hubert Howe Demarest, Arthur Ancient Maya: The Olmec and their Neighbors: Essays in Memory of Matthew W.
Coe and David C. Joyce Mesoamerican Archaeology: Schele, Linda ; Mary Ellen Miller [].
Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art. Justin Kerr photographer 2nd paperback ed. Tate, Carolyn E Yaxchilan: Death is already an uncomfortable topic to talk about, let alone the idea of human sacrifices.
From the pre-Columbian era, human sacrifices were pretty common in Maya culture. The Maya civilization covered a large area of land which included southeastern Mexico and northern Central America. The reasoning behind this ritual was due to the belief that it was offering of nourishment to the gods.
The sacrifice of a living creature was a powerful offering and a human sacrifice was the ultimate one. Usually, only high status prisoners of war were sacrificed while other captives were used as the labor force. There were several different ways these sacrifices occurred.
The most common ways were decapitation and heart removal. Dedication to a new building or new ruler required a human sacrifice.
Many of these were depicted in Maya artwork and sometimes took place after the victim was tortured beaten, scalped, burned, etc. The person was painted blue and wore a headdress while being held down by four attendants representing the cardinal directions. The nacom, or official, used a sacrificial knife to cut into the victims chest and pull out the heart.
He then would pass the heart to the priest, known as the chilan, where then the blood would be smeared onto the image of the god.