ANT 2000, Intro to Anthropology, Weeks 10-11, Spring 2004

 

Case:  Aztec Cannibalism

Question:  Why did the Aztecs becomes the world’s only state-sponsored cannibal kingdom?

Researcher: Marvin Harris

 

The Maya built a pre-Columbian civilization that stretched from present-day southern Mexico into Guatemala and Honduras.  The great classic Mayan cities of Palenque and Copan were the centerpiece of the empire from 250-900 CE.  Copan contained more than 6,000 structures over 27 square miles.  Interestingly, many Mayan cities were abandoned in the 10th Century, and the reason for abandonment is still debated today.  Several hypotheses have been put forward implicating war, disease and/or ecological collapse.  However, after the decline of the great Mayan cities, Mayan farmers continued to live in the area.  In the late 900s, Toltecs from central Mexico invaded and conquered the Yucatecan Maya, and hence, at Chichen Itza, the architecture and culture blended Toltec and Maya elements.  Many Maya still preserve traditional ways of life in the highlands of Chiapas and in Guatemala. 

 

The culture of the Aztecs owes much to the Toltecs.  Teotihuacán developed into a great urban center until abandonment around 700 CE.  The Toltec god, Quetzalcoatl, endured long after the Toltec civilization and was adopted by the Mayas and the Aztecs.  Quetzalcoatl, who was said to have come from the East, was pale-skinned, bearded and tall.  It is said that he taught the foundations of civilization.  Upon departing back to the East, he promised to return one day to reclaim his kingdom.

 

In 1345, Tenochitlan was established by the Aztecs, on Lake Texcoco, in what is now modern day Mexico City.  Tenochitlan flourished until the time of the Spanish Conquest, which began in 1519.  By 1521, Tenochitlan had fallen and its bricks were used to build a new Spanish city.  What is extremely interesting is the fact that 1519 was forecast by the Maya calendar to be a possible year for the return of Quetzalcoatl.  Montezuma, apparently believing that Hernan Cortes was Quetzalcoatl, invited him into Tenochitlan, the capital city of over one million people.  This turned out to be a fatal mistake for

Montezuma and the Aztec Empire.

 

Prior to the Spanish Conquest in 1519-1521, the Aztec Empire was a conquest-tribute-sacrifice state.  The Aztec priesthood believed that if they stopped sacrificing human offerings to the Sun god, the world would end.  They warred with neighboring groups and sacrificed the prisoners of war.  Bernal Diaz, a soldier-historian who accompanied Cortes, estimated there were at least 236,000 human skulls of the sacrificed decorating the skull racks of Tenochitlan at the time of the Conquest. 

 

Anthropologist Michael Harner asked the important question: where did all the bodies go?  The short answer is that they were eaten by the Aztec. Victims were taken to the top of the temples to be sacrificed, and after the body was rolled down the steep steps to the representative of the clan of the warrior who had captured the sacrifice.  The clan would then eat the body. 

 

Why did the Aztecs practice mass cannibalism?  Other military-tribute empires did not eat their conquered peoples.  The answer lies in cultural ecology.  The Aztec population grew so rapidly that the animal protein supply of central valley of Mexico was decimated.  The bodies of the conquered peoples provided the Aztecs with protein. 

 

One way  to understand Mexico is to examine the varied faces of the “Many Mexicos” that have emerged from the time of the Maya and Aztecs to modern Mexico, including:

 

Mayan Empire (250 – 900)

Aztec Empire (1250 – 1519)

Spanish Conquest of Aztecs (1519-1521)

Wars of Independence from Spain (1810s)

Mexican Revolution (1910 – 1917)

Oil Expropriation (1938)

Migration to USA (on-going since Revolution)

Mexican-American farm workers movements (1960s – present)

NAFTA, FTAA and Globalization (1990 – present)

Political Reform: PRI and PAN (2000)