Mesoamerica Analysis

Throughout Mesoamerica, human sacrifice was a common practice that was executed by the indigenous people that occupied the region. Although people commonly associate human sacrifice with the Aztec civilization, Lopez Austin and Lopez Lujan claim that ritual sacrifices transpired globally. Despite this, people continue to label the Aztecs as cruel sacrificers as they consider their ritual practice to be ruthless and inhumane. However, Dr. Linda Schele argues that Mesoamerican sacrifice is similar to the death penalty authorized by the Texas government. In fact, this argument is why I believe Mesoamericans should not be misconceived as “cruel sacrificers”. In my opinion, Schele’s argument reveals that the role of the death penalty in our society
is not much different than the human sacrifices that were performed by the Aztec people. Oftentimes, slaves were sacrificed to honor the sacred Aztec deities. In the modern world, people may perceive slaves as possessions who were mistreated and forced into labor. However, according to Lopez Austin and Lopez Lujan, slaves in the Aztec civilization were civilians who were working off their debt to others. I believe that prisoners who faced the death penalty are similar to Mesoamerican slaves as both of them were civilians attempting to pay back their debt to society. Despite this, some might argue that human sacrifice is far more “barbaric” than the death penalty; but they fail to recognize that the death penalty has not always been the bloodless lethal injection that we know today. In fact, the death penalty used to be executed by hanging or electrocuting prisoners acts that are in my opinion, just as gruesome as human decapitation. In addition to the similarities of a modern prisoner and an Aztec slave, the death penalty and human sacrifice relate to each other as they both establish social order. According to Lopez Austin and Lopez Lujan, human sacrifice was essential to the Aztecs, as it allowed them to exchange human offerings for agricultural fertility. Although executing prisoners, might not bring us agricultural prosperity, it enforces the laws that are fundamental to maintaining order within society. In other words, we’re not so different than the Aztec people than we think are.