oduce--so rather than fighting bloody and deadly wars with an overkill factor, the Mexicans were enacting a relatively humane and structured procedure in their prisoner harvesting warfare. But eating their victims afterwards? Even though this too is a time honored ritual, widely testified to in the Americas, Many now suspect that reports of cannibalism in the Americas are greatly exaggerated and the results of Europeans spooking themselves with their own horror tales. But with the Aztecs, with so much smoke, there probably is some fire.Prescott's sense of horror continues to affect our present view. One can only say--yes, in certain societies, one can be civilized and eat one's neighbor too. How to comprehend this mindset?Partaking of the flesh of the victim, one partakes of the victim's essential nature, does him or her honor, while honoring the gods. The feast is thus a genuine ritual of respect and communion.The Christian mass itself is a re-enactment of such a feast--only in the mass it is the flesh and blood of the god that is eaten--a prospect that might have horrified the Aztecs. One historian even suggested that the meat of the sacrificial victims provided a crucial source of protein in a society where the largest form of animal livestock was the chicken. Were the Aztecs simply striving for a balanced diet?Whatever the explanations, it was this last practice that most horrified the Spaniards and led them to conclude that the Aztecs were beyond the pale of humanity, unless they could be saved by another religion. Fear, zeal, and greed were all part of the coming encounter between Cortez and Moctezuma. Sacrifice to Huitzilopochtli During the sun god sacrifice ceremony, a priest carved out the person’s heart with an obsidian blade knife. At this time in the person was still alive and conscious. The priest would then remove the heart from the person’s chest. During this ceremony, the person being sacrificed rarely uttere...
