Cannibalism In Aztec Culture

Undoubtedly, cannibalism in any form is shunned in society as horrific crime against the nature of civility—at least by the standards of the Western culture transported to the Americas by the Spanish Conquistadors in the 16th-century. In the ancient Americas, cannibalism was another part of native life, yet not in the way explorers perceived it. The few and far between tribes who practiced the modern perception cannibalism did so as part of religious sacrifices, funerary rights, or necessity to preserve livelihood during bad harvests. Then why are the Natives Cortez encountered marked down as inimical savages? Did the modern remembrance of history come from the eyes of the victors who rewrote the people they brutalized to rationalize their
Although Western Culture views cannibalism in any form as the pinnacle of savagery, the Europeans´ ignorance to understand Native cultures in the Americas during their urge for self-propagation led to the usage of circumstantial evidence as a scapegoat for the degradation and enslavement of a whole variety of different
Albeit that cannibalism in any form is modernly looked upon with horror, consideration to the circumstances pushing on Native societies’ acts as a strong advocate against pure barbarianism and towards the preservation of Aztec society. Similarly as to how organs are taken from donors upon their death, cannibalism was a way to benefit the greater good. Instead of risking starvation, Aztec leaders utilized the resources available to them to secure a future for their people, the means seeming completely normal to Native cultures. Other actual recorded mentions of cannibalism in the Americas originate in Native religious ceremonies, which often contained human sacrifice and offerings to tribal gods. To Westerners, these religious practices were outrageously extreme, yet the Christian faith they preached venerated the consumption of the body and blood of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. That noted, many tribes used the Western aversion to cannibalism “to blacken [other chiefs’ and tribes’] reputations.” Intertribal relations and disputes led to the chiefs playing against one another for the support and alliance of Europeans, yet the slander they shared in hopes of degrading enemy tribes was warped through communication barriers laying a blanket idea of savagery over all tribes. With language barriers already creating issues with communication, cannibalisms use in Native society could never be explained or rationalized, especially