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Spring 5-1-2017 Public Ritual Sacrifice sa a Controlling Mechanism for the Aztec Madeline Nicholson [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Nicholson, Madeline, "Public Ritual Sacrifice as a Controlling Mechanism for the Aztec" (2017). Honors Scholar Theses. 549. https://opencommons.uconn.edu/srhonors_theses/549 APRIL 2017

Public Ritual Sacrifice as a Controlling Mechanism for the Aztec

MADELINE NICHOLSON UNIVERISITY OF CONNECTICUT Anthropology Honors Thesis Public Ritual Sacrifice 1

Introduction against the Mesoamerican archaeology. Help from other anthropologists such as: Catherine

For decades, archaeologists have Bell, Pierre Bourdieu, Edmund Leach, Emile researched the fascinating finds of Aztec Durkheim, and Åsa Berggren supplement the sacrifice. Evidence of their sacrifices are seen two main theories. on temple walls, stone carvings, bones, and Rituals are the foundation of society. in Spanish chronicler drawings. Although They create an environment where laypeople public ritual sacrifice was practiced before lose their personal identity in favor of the the , with evidence from the Olmec group. They reinforce social roles and civilization (1200-1300 BCE) and Maya ideologies through their performance. Pierre (200-900 BCE), Aztec sacrifices are among Bourdieu explains rituals through “practice the most extensively documented. How does theory where rituals are seen as expressions such a practice as survive in of meaning, as parts of a structuration process different civilizations through different where everything and everybody are tied rulers? This thesis will analyze the phases of together into a whole that is perceived as Aztec public ritual sacrifice and the close objective and true” (Bruck 1999: 176). relationship to their origin myths, or founding Rituals being perceived as “objective and stories. It will also use anthropological true”, or normal, bleeds into Roy Rappaport’s theories of ritual to explain how ritual assertion that ritual conventionality is gained sacrifice functions. by ritual’s “invariant procedures,” which To address this question, this paper make it seem like the ritual has been done uses anthropological theories of ritual to since the beginning of the civilization examine rituals of the Aztecs (1300-1539) (Rappaport 1979: 176). Origin myths and the testimonies of rituals in the Colonial function similarly as they are, logically, made period (1539-1848). Specifically, I will by the people to institutionalize community analyze the phases of Aztec public ritual behavior while also appearing as though they sacrifice and the close relationship to their were created pre-civilization. origin myths, or founding stories. The Another important category of ritual analysis will determining the trajectory of the is the liturgical order. “A liturgical order is a rituals based on their origin myths and sequence of formal acts and utterances, and discuss how the number of victims, location, as such it is made real only when those acts and length of ritual changed over the course are performed and those utterances voiced” of Aztec history. (Rappaport 1999: 118; emphasis added). In Ritual Theory other words, rituals, as liturgical orders, must be performed to keep their gravitas. They To begin, we must define what we are “not only recognize the authority of the studying. Since ritual is used as a social glue, conventions it represents, it gives them their I emphasize definitions of ritual that are very existence” (Rappaport 1999: 125). concerned with group theory. This thesis is Additionally, archaeologist Åsa Berggren especially concerned with analyzing the defines ritual “as action, [as] part of the theories of René Girard and Roy Rappaport dialectical relationship with structure, which Public Ritual Sacrifice 2 contributes to change and continuity within One way for violence to manifest in society” (Berggren, Stutz Nilsson 2010: 173). ritual is scapegoating. Girard reduces the The ritual’s action reinforces stasis, solution to recurring community conflict legitimizes change, and inherently codifies caused by mimetic rivalry for limited structure within a population. resources, to scapegoating. First, mimetic rivalries are caused, he argues, because much Like everything in the universe, the of human learning occurs through imitation. natural order is to disintegrate. “It is therefore What one wants, according to Girard, is necessary to establish at least some merely a reflection of what another desires, conventions in a manner which protects them and vice versa. The scapegoat mechanism is from dissolution in the variations of day-to- the origin of ritual sacrifice, which is why it day behavior and the violations in which is repeatedly turned to, especially in times of history abounds. [Liturgy] establishes and instability. Concerning ritual sacrifice, when ever again reestablishes those orders” violence is included in the origin myth of a (Rappaport 1999: 130). Conventions bind a civilization, violence in the name of the gods community in the face of change. The most is therefore inherent in the community. In powerful and effective conventions are order to return to the stasis before the rituals. To strengthen the ritual, sacrifice is conflict, a reenactment of the origin myth is added to the performance. Archaeology done to quell tension. Such reenactments are demonstrates that any ritual could be used comforting because everyone is familiar with and adapted depending on the situation. the stories. Mimetic Theory in Ritual One key feature of ritual sacrifice is Sacrifice that the victim(s) is (are) marginal to the community. For example, orphans, slaves, Since ritual is the basic social act, as and captives are often used. In some cases, argued by Girard, ritual sacrifice then acts in idealized warriors are chosen. However, in a similar manner, binding communities and every case, the sacrifices are distanced from power-relationships together. Rituals are the community before the sacrifice. The designed to make the performers and viewers separation ensures that the scapegoat, or feel attached to a successful tradition substitution victim, has an identity far enough established by their ancestors. Ritual removed to not cause enemies with their sacrifice is unequivocally powerful because it death (which would defeat the purpose of the connects to historical excellence in an ritual), yet close enough to stand in for the “inexact imitation of the generative act” community tensions. “Durkheim believes (Girard 1972: 269). Everyone knows one’s that men are shaped culturally by an founding story; it is common knowledge. So educational process that belongs to the spear a regularly-timed performance, intensified of religion. To carry Durkheim's insight to its with a loss of life, would be a useful conclusion, I will add that religion is simply mechanism to a ruler. Replaying the another term for the surrogate victim, generative act would remind the people of reconciles mimetic oppositions and assigns a social norms such as the hierarchy and sacrificial goal to the mimetic impulse” characteristics to strive toward. (Girard 1972: 307). To complete the theory, every sacrifice is a double substitution. The Public Ritual Sacrifice 3 first is one victim who replaces every The Aztecs member of the community in the origin myth. The second substitution, which is made in In 1345 CE, the Aztec capital of every consequent sacrifice, are those who was founded. From 1345- 1521 stand in for the original victim. The original CE, the Aztec civilization flourished in victim comes from inside the community. Mesoamerica. On August 13, 1521 CE, The second substitute victim must come from Cortés, the famous Spanish conquistador, the marginal or outside communities, captured their capital city of Tenochtitlan and otherwise a community catharsis could not be the Aztec empire quickly fell soon after. reached. There was a constant struggle for power in central Mesoamerica during Aztec rule. The Ritual sacrifice is designed to benefit many warring city-states learned to want the community; this is at its heart. In times of power from observing others want of it, uncertainty, whether it be from war or otherwise known as mimetic learning. climate, rituals are called upon because of Because of this mimetic learning, a social their enduring quality. Girard stresses that the bond was needed to maintain social order and function of ritual sacrifice is to restore peace buffer the threat of instability. The to a community for a time until the process mechanism was ritual sacrifice. The origin needs to be repeated. He states that sacrifice myths which contained sacrifices legitimized in a ritual provides an opportunity for the social action. catharsis that would otherwise not happen. There is no vengeance within a community The Aztecs ruled from the 14th to 16th attached to ritual sacrifice; the identity of the century until the invasion of the Spaniards. victim is structured to ensure this. “The They dominated most of central and northern surrogate victim dies so that the entire Mesoamerica with their strong warriors, community, threatened by the same fear, can precise calendars, vast organized road be reborn in a new or renewed cultural order” system, and religion. They built some of the (Girard 1972: 255). To add to this theory largest buildings in Mesoamerica, regardless concerning sacrifice, myth plays an of the civilization. Thanks to their important role. If sacrifice, human and/or preservation, first-hand account codices (read other, is included in the founding myths, with a grain of salt), art and writing system, a violence is automatically accepted as lot can be studied about their civilization. conventional and treated as a part of life. Concerning this study, it is truly a testament Ritual legitimizes “bad” violence (i.e. to the power of ritual sacrifice that the murders not under the name of the gods) into conventions were passed down hundreds of “good” (i.e. benefits the stability of the years and still remained crucial to the Aztecs’ community). Under ritual, the murderer success. priest is exhumed and revenge is quelled Sacrifice was the way of life for within the community. In their dramatic the Aztecs, enmeshed in their splendor, rituals bond the population. temple and marketplace practices, part of their ideology of the redistribution of riches and their beliefs about how the cosmos was ordered, and an Public Ritual Sacrifice 4

instrument of social integration The Importance of Calendar that elevated the body of the ruler and potency of the gods. Keeping concerning Rituals Ritual slaughter within the The Aztecs were passionate about ceremonial precincts of Aztec calendars through celestial mapping. Their life was the instrument, in part, precision scheduled their ceremonies, often for educating adolescents about their social future, times with calendars intersecting. They were communicating with the many timed on five calendars: a divinatory calendar gods, transmitting cosmological of 260 days, a solar calendar of 360 days with convictions, as well as directing 5 “dangerous days” at the end, a 52-year social change in the form of calendar, an 8-year calendar, and a 4-year imperial expansion. calendar. Therefore, daily life was marked by [Carrasco 1999: 3] rituals. It would have been a rich sensory experience to have time marked by these The Importance of the Human ceremonies because music, costumes, and Body dance would introduce each one. The most common sacrifice was quail, but human Human sacrifice for the Aztecs sacrifice was the most dramatic and valued. stemmed from the belief that the “human To further explore the trajectory, case studies body was the vulnerable nexus of vital are examined. cosmic forces and was filled with divine essence that needed periodic regeneration. The Toxcatl Ceremony: One means to this generation was called teomiqui, to die divinely, which meant Phase One human sacrifice” (Carrasco 1999: 73). By giving one’s body, one was returning the Introduction and Origin divine essence the gods gave in the first Mythology place. Instituted in their origin myths, Toxcatl is an example of an Early Divine beings temporarily Aztec public ritual sacrifice (see image 1). It departed their space-time and was considered a nextlaoalli, or “debt infiltrated everything on Earth, payment”, to the one of the most important giving earthly beings their Aztec god, . He was considered identities, energies, and powers to live and procreate. All the Creator god, was closely associated with creatures and forces on the earth the founding of the capital, and took the form and in the air were made up of of a jaguar. “More than anything subtle, eternal divine substances Tezcatlipoca appears to be the embodiment and hard, heavy, destructible, of change through conflict” (Taube & Miller worldly substances that served as 1993: 164). shells to the divine substance. All life-forms on Earth were Ritual Performance hard shells covering the divine substance within (Carrasco Each year, one captured warrior of the 2013: 218). highest fitness and appearance was chosen to Public Ritual Sacrifice 5

body was flayed and eaten by the nobleman and the next impersonator of Tezcatlipoca.

Analysis

This ritual offered visual narrative of the cosmos to the people. The god chose a human form, walked among them, and was then returned to the cosmos. Indeed, at the moment of sacrifice, the body became ixiptla and was no longer seen as only human. The god’s transformation would be reinforced by Image 1. Toxcatl (Florentine Codex 1569) the skull rack. This ritual is extremely formal, with the choosing of next year’s warrior honor the “god of the gods”, Tezcatlipoca. He incarnate soon after the current ixitpla is was chosen only if he fulfilled the long list of sacrificed. Each warrior does not change the the god’s human form to prove his physical process, but they have a “narrowly defined excellence. During his year, he was treated opportunity for variation” (Rappaport 1979: and lived as the god’s surrogate. 176) during their year by their flute skill and Twenty days before his sacrifice he personality. Through this ritual, there is a underwent two separating transformations to living relationship to the gods during times of reinforce his marginality. One, his long hair continual warfare. The warrior’s sacrifice was cut and a tuft of hair was attached to his placates Tezcatlipoca, a powerful god, for forehead. Two, he was given four females to another harvest-rich year while also uniting procreate with to recreate the primordial the community in the extravagant year-long coupling of the goddesses Xochiquetzal, ceremony and, ultimately, his death. By the Xilonen, Atlatonan, and Uixtociuatl. warrior’s sacrifice, another year of prosperity However, after entertaining everyone with would follow. his flute music and godly impersonation, his This ritual is based on Tezcatlipoca as liminal year would end in a splendid way on the creator of the Aztec world and ruler of the top of the temple in the city of Chalco (image first sun. René Girard considers rituals to be 1). Sahagún wrote, as he climbed up the designed to reenact traits found in their origin temple he broke his flute and the priests myths. “In the founding murder, the victim is “threw him upon his back on the sacrificial held responsible for the crisis; the victim stone (techatl): then cut open his breast [with polarizes the growing mimetic conflicts that a ritual flint knife, tecpatl], he took his heart tear the community apart; the victim breaks from him [called “precious eagle cactus the vicious cycle of violence and becomes the fruit”], he also raised it in dedication to the single pole for what then becomes a unifying, sun” (Sahagún Florentine Codex 1569: 71). ritual mimesis” (Girard 1987: 40). In other Now the body had been transformed and was words, in the myth, a victim(s) is (are) called ixiptla, or “eagle man”. The innards blamed for a problem. The sacrifice was an were removed and the head was placed on the object, or symbol, of the two opposing sides. public skull rack, called Tzompantli. His They were opposing because they wanted the Public Ritual Sacrifice 6 same limited resource; more specifically, consequent sacrifice after the first in the they learned to want the same resource origin myth, are those who stand in for the because they observed the other party original victim. Finally, the location of the wanting it1. If we step back outside the rituals ultimate sacrifice was in the center of town, themselves and return to an earlier point, the at the top of a pyramid enhancing the drama. rituals were an effective mechanism for legitimizing and maintaining ruling power In the proceeding myths, an overall among competing city-states in central pattern emerges. As myths change, the rituals Mesoamerica. By sacrificing the victim change. As the need for more or less under the name of ritual, no opposing enemy sacrifices, the myths change accordingly. was made. This could happen because the victim’s identity was marginal to the The : Phase community. (More crudely, the victim was Two not that important to the larger community so Introduction their death does not ruffle any feathers.) Through this process, they became a “single The Templo Mayor is the largest Aztec pole” for the hostile emotions, possible pyramid (see image 2). Construction started because of their detached identity to the during the reign of Itzcoatl (1427-1400 CE) hegemony. In a cathartic release, temporary and had two main expansions by two peace was made through their public death. following kings. It was built on the original shrine honoring the war god Trajectory of Phases and the rain god Tlatoc; the two twin temples reflect the pair. They were fickle gods in their In the Early-Aztec period, from now nature, so they required constant on referred to as Phase One, public ritual appeasement through sacrifice. As stated sacrifice was limited to one victim. As time earlier, Girard believes ritual is simply continued, the number of victims increased. attempting to reenact the creation as closely The total performance was drawn out, in this case it took a year; the build up to the death was just as important as the heart sacrifice. The identity of the victim was an outsider. Although he integrated into the community via the impersonation of Tezcatlipoca, he was still visually and physically separated from common life. As a second substitute victim, his marginal identity was key to a successful sacrifice because his death wouldn’t create any enemies. As a reminder, the second Image 2. Illustration of Templo Mayor substitution, which is made in every (docplayer.es)

1 Essentially, Girard argues that all human behavior is mechanism of a quiet acquisitiveness” (Girard 1987: learned through imitation. Thus, “not only the 18). It’s an interesting thought because the Mayans probation but also ritual and ultimately the whole are mirroring the gods’ behavior. structure of religion can be traced back to the Public Ritual Sacrifice 7 as possible. “The genesis of provisions, of Ritual Performance including rituals, of myths and of the power of the Periphery Villages sacred is traced from an origin in the moment of founding violence” (Girard 1987: The Templo Mayor in is 39). Aztec rituals were specifically designed a piece of archaeology that documents to recreate their origins, appease the gods, mechanisms to prevent revolution. Templo legitimize the king’s rule, and reinforce the Mayor “reflects their strategies, mechanisms, social structure. and performances for integrating their potent symbols with their social organization and Origin Myth historical developments, their theology, In the origin myth for the Templo ontology, and social ambitions” (Carrasco Mayor, gods were living on Tlatoc’s 1999: 65). Excavations done in 1978-1982 ‘Mountain of Sustenance’. One day, found that 80 percent of the collections of Huitzilopochtli assimilated Coyolxauhqui’s goods must have come from landscapes aggressive and violent tendencies after the outside of the core Aztec empire. Over 7,000 latter was dismembered. Scholars think that ritual objects were found in the 131 burial the pattern for decapitating warriors stems caches, and about 80 percent of them came from Coyolxauhqui’s sacrifice (see Image 3). from distant towns and city states (Carrasco Huitzilopochtli also sacrificed all the other 1999). Animal analyses by Leonardo López gods who came to the Templo Mayor. He proved that the animals came from habitats collected their possessions and, in an act of not local to Tenochtitlan. Their presence absorbing their power, buried them. In other shows the strength of long and short-distance words, this myth established mass sacrifice relations, despite the constantly shifting and mass material burial. In these two alliances and rebellions. The elites, who lived accounts, we see a chaotic cosmic world. in the city centers, ruled by expansion. Sometimes, when those in the peripheral towns were dissatisfied and revolted, the imperial cities had to be moved. “It suggests that centers not only dominate and control peripheries, but peripheries influence and sometimes transform centers, even a center as

aggressive and dominant as Tenochtitlan” (Carrasco 1999: 66). Since every imperial center returned to ritual, the goal of the rituals

were, as Girard says, to quell emotions back to what they were before the revolt. To underscore the power of constantly paying

debts to the gods, large sacrifices became the most useful tool to “subdue the enemy and Image 3. Stone disk with original coloring showing Coyolxauhqui’s sacrifice. control the expanding periphery” (Carrasco (wikimedia) 1999: 74). In other words, the entire Aztec dominion was managed, in part, by incorporating offerings which acted like Public Ritual Sacrifice 8 taxes to remind the peripheries by whom they the social norms set by the gods and enough were controlled. sacrificial victims. To prevent rebellion within their own state, the cycle of war— An interesting example of what using sacrifices to appease gods to get more happened when one didn’t follow Aztec rule bodies to sacrifice—continued. is seen during the reign of Moctezuma Ilhuicamina (1440-1469) when he decided to As evidenced by Chalco, tense expand the Templo Royal, a subset of the political relations inspired large amounts of main Templo Mayor. To complete the sacrificial victims similar to Huitzilopochtli’s renovation, workers were required from the behavior. Templo Mayor’s purpose, city-states. One, Chalco, refused to work and accordingly, was to publically display the rebelled. War began and Chalco was power of the Aztec through (1) the defeated. To consecrate the expansion, extravagance of their ritual performances, (2) Chalco warriors were sacrificed. Large the display the loyalty of peripheral sacrifices composed of enemy warriors provinces through large goods accumulation, became a pattern for every expansion of the (3) the mass sacrifices, and (4) reminding temple as a warning to unhappy periphery citizens (both in the city and outside) what cities. will happen if rebellion occurs. Working to expand the Templo as Trajectory of Phases ordered by the ruler is a liturgical order. By definition, liturgical rituals are binary; either After the completion of Templo one participates or does not. In a way, this Mayor in 1487, rituals in Phase Two ritual (and by extension, all rituals) acts as established large sacrifices at one time. In social ritual purification because the cost of fact, in 1487 CE, Templo Mayor was anteing is so high. In this case study, Templo completed and inaugurated with a sacrifice of Mayor makes allegiances easy to recognize 20,000 captives. The performance was because of the offering’s binary quality. By quicker than Phase One, partly because of the not participating in the work, an offering to logistics of sacrificing so many people. At the god Huitzilopochtli, Chalco signaled to this point, the identity of the victims Aztec rulers they would not accept the continued to be outsiders. Their deaths were responsibilities to follow. Consequently, they necessary to maintain good favor of became participants in another phase of the Huitzilopochtli and Tlatoc. The sacrifice renovation. location could not be in a more dramatic location. They would happen at the top of the Analysis twin altars at the top of the Templo Mayor in the center of the town. This location ensured In order for humans to appease the maximum visibility and dramatic, poignant gods2 (and consequently their own selves) effect. It signaled that the Aztec ruler was war was necessary to guarantee continuing

2 Archaeologists found “many offerings was not only the replica of Huitzilopochtli’s birth dedicated to the rain god Tlaloc that symbolize the mountain, but also of Tlaloc’s paradises associated distant sacred landscapes of his mountains, paradise, with the earth” (Carrasco 1999: 69). caves, and seas. This suggests that the Templo Mayor

Public Ritual Sacrifice 9 strong and god-like, himself. Furthermore, balls to the Tenochtitlan annually as tribute. incorporating periphery cities—whether it be Rituals organized tributes; they had a very from labor or bodies—loyalty to the crown real political function. The winner would was enforced. score more points3. The losers would surrender their fine goods and were Ullamliztli, the Ball game: sacrificed. The game is codified in a Phase Three primordial myth. Even though the myth starts with the Mayan gods, the Aztecs built upon Introduction the original story and added their second Played since the Mayas, the ball game piece. was not just a mere sporting event; it was also Origin Myth an intense ritual and served multiple functions. However, the ball game was called In Mesoamerican mythology the Ullamliztli, and was uniquely oriented to the game is an important element in Aztec. Ullamliztli mirrored the structure of the story of the Maya gods Hun the heavens and the path the sun took each Hunahpú and Vucub Hunahpú. day through the underworld. Ball courts were The pair annoyed the gods of the underworld with their noisy shaped in the common “I” layout with playing and the two brothers sloping walls and had high, small stone rings were tricked into descending attached to the wall (see Image 4). The court into Xibalba (the underworld) was usually in the center of the city, where they were challenged to a ball game. Losing the game, Hun Hunahpús had his head cut off; a foretaste of what would become common practice for players unfortunate enough to lose a game. [Cartwright 2013] Later, the sons of Hun Hunahpu returned to the underworld. Image 4. Illustration of the ball court (eltri.blog.hu) Hunahpu and Xbalanque were summoned to the underworld by underscoring the game’s importance. Beside the gods to take part in a series it stood skull racks, or tzompantli. It was a of trials to test them. Their source of fun and gambling. Because of the father, Hunahpu, and Uncle game’s popularity, the Codex Mendoza tells Vucub Hunahpu, had previously us that peripheral cities sent 16,000 rubber been defeated by the Lords of the

3 More specifically, “Game play consisted of two and knees. Points were scored teams of players who faced each other across the when one team failed to return the ball or when the center of a masonry ball court. The players ball was launched into the opponent’s end zone, and could not touch the rubber ball with their hands, and an ‘instant win’ would happen if a player managed to the players wore heavy padding over the areas they shoot the ball through a ball court ring on the side of were allowed to strike the ball; that is, their hips the wall of the court itself” (Cohodas, 1975: 99). Public Ritual Sacrifice 10

Underworld. The Hero Twins operating to sublimate Hunahpu and Xbalanque play belligerent tendencies and the ball game against the Lords directing them into harmless of the Underworld day after day, action. and they finally outwit the Lords [Stern 1949: 96-97] by playing a trick on them, defeating them; the hero twins Furthermore, this ritual was a then take their place physical display of the cosmos. The public cosmologically as the sun and could visually experience the ball moving the moon, or the planet Venus. through the three levels of the world in the [Weaver 1993: 239] three sectors of the court just as the sun and moon move through the three layers of the Analysis world every day. Skull platforms housed the 4 Here we see Bell’s and Bourdieu’s losers’ heads . The amusement factor should practice theory that rituals bind “everything not be ignored either. The rest of the and everybody… into a whole that is community was placated by their play. perceived as objective and true” (Bruck 1999: 176). Together, the myth and the ball Trajectory of Phases game reinforce and accredit each other. It In Phase Three, the increasing also confirmed the social hierarchy because number of victims continues as it did from elites were separated from commoners. The Phase One to Two. In Phase Three, dozens of ball game inhabited a liminal space that losers were sacrificed at a time and displayed united people against a common enemy (i.e. on a skull rack. Unlike previous phases, the the two teams and cities) while relieving identity of sacrifices changed. They were not tension. limited to captured warriors, but had a hand It is no accident that strong in their death—they competed and lost. Due parallels exist between warfare to its central location, the ball court was patterns and those of the visible after the game. The skull rack also competitive ball game. The reinforced the ritual’s message after the game pitting of teams from two was over. The identity of the players, and communities against each other consequently sacrifices, ranged from in a game in which hard-driving, dexterous action wins high nobility, professional players, to captured stakes, frequently though not warriors and women. The performance was everywhere, at the risk of injury shorter than Phase One, though longer than or death, all lead to the Phase Two; it only lasted the few hours of a occasional substitution for the ball game. game for overt warfare… It may also function as a safety valve to relieve suppressed intercommunity conflicts, thus

4 The skull rack was used for similar purposes in Toxcatl. Public Ritual Sacrifice 11

New Fire Ceremony: Aztec capital. It started at the Hill of the Star, outside of the city, but the fire was then Phase Four passed along to every town in the Aztec Introduction and Origin empire. The New Fire Ceremony (see Image 5) is a “After household goods were testament to diligent time-keeping, road destroyed and all fires extinguished, the networks, and political prowess to maintain populace waited in the darkness and watched loyalty in all Aztec regions. It happened once in anticipation for the new fire to be lit on the every fifty-two years at the overlapping of the chest of the sacrificed warrior. This fire was 365-day calendar and the 260-day calendar. then taken down the mountain to the center of When these two calendars overlapped, this the city and placed in the shrine of ceremony prevented the end of the world. Huitzilopochtli5, from whence it was then There were five “dangerous days” that called distributed to all parts of the empire” for a powerful ceremony to ensure the next (Carrasco 1999: 28). Additionally, the calendar cycle would start. More specifically ceremony connected the three regions of the it was celebrated 1351 CE (five years after world by the Fire’s movement: the the Aztec capital’s founding), 1403 CE, 1445 upperworld (Ilhuicatl), the earthy level CE, and 1507 CE (14 years before Cortés (Tlalticpac), and the underworld (). takes the capital). Analysis Since the New Fire ceremony is a liturgical order (a ritual that is binary, a convention, and mandates performance), “the act of acceptance”, taken by those who perform (i.e. all civilians because they are not revolting and thereby accepting rulership), “established an obligation with respect to the convention accepted” ((Rappaport 1999, 131, 134). Furthermore, by performing the New Fire ceremony, all participants are accepting Image 5. Illustration of the New Fire the origin myth as well. The message was Ceremony brought to every home, acting like a (City of Sacrifice) television in today’s terms. The message was Ritual Performance that Aztec power is strong and able to reach and control you, no matter your distance from Five days before the end of the the capital. Symbolically bringing the fire calendars, preparations of fasting, abstinence god’s fire through all three worlds from work, bloodletting and more demonstrates to the empire that the king is observances started the ceremony. The ritual strong enough to manage; he had enough reenacted the founding of Tenochtitlan, the power to overcome the end of the world. This

5 This is the shrine, ordered by Moctezuma contribute workers to help build. The townspeople Ilhuicamina, that the city of Chalco decided not to were later sacrificed to its opening. Public Ritual Sacrifice 12 ritual reminds the populace of Aztec power like forest clearings. The fact that sacrificial while reinforcing the convention of ritual, practice endured up to the nineteenth century, which entails the establishment of social even with the threat of jail, is a testament to norms. its fundamental role in Mesoamerica. Three examples from first-hand accounts will be Trajectory of Phases analyzed to show the clinging to traditional The New Fire ceremony, or Phase aspects. Four, is an example of the non-linear Ritual Performance trajectory of public ritual sacrifice in Mesoamerica. In this ceremony, there was The Juan Couoh testimony of 1562 said: only one victim but personal blood-letting Thus they untied the youngster sacrifices were done by hundreds. The longer and threw him against the mat. preparation time and singular sacrifice are Pedro Euan, taking the flint 6 two anomalies in the Aztec ritual pattern; knife, made an opening on the they highlight the sense of danger during the left side of the youth’s heart, and end of the scheduled world. Ritual sacrifice grasped the heart and cut the was an effective way to release building arteries with his knife. He gave tension in a community since the calendars’ the severed heart to the priest, design ran out every 52 years. The physical Gaspar Chim, who made two moving of the New Fire from the Aztec cuts like a cross… then raised it center to its peripheries indicate that the on high. Then they took the boy’s body and heart and his Aztec were strong enough to redistribute blood, as well as the idols, and all their cosmo-magical power. To put it went with them to the cacique’s differently, the mode of sacrifice changed, house. but the reliance on sacrifice remained integral during instability. [Thompson 1966:281] Fransico Camal testified in 1562, Rituals in the Colonial “another sacrifice was made within the Period: Phase Five cemetery of the church at the foot of a cross to some idols and demons which were there, Introduction and Ritual in which they killed a boy… in order to Performance sacrifice him they crucified and placed on a large cross, and they nailed his hands. Luis In the Colonial period (1539-1848), Nauat… opened him and took out his heart… henceforth referred to as Phase Five, who offered it to the demons and idols which traditional Mesoamerican traditions mixed were there (Tozzer 1941: 116). with Spanish Christian austerity due to the newly-arrived Spanish. Human sacrifices In the Sotuta and Homun testimony, were condemned by the Spanish, so it “mentions that some of these children were ceremonies were moved to secret locations, unclaimed orphans or born out of wedlock,

6 The Templo Mayor expansions shows that large sacrifices were common during this time. Public Ritual Sacrifice 13 others were simply brought and donated by Trajectory of Phases pious parents” (Carrasco 1999: 56). Girard emphasizes the necessity that victims must Phase Five shows the indigenization come from the fringes of society. In these of Christianity in the indigenous religion. sacrifices, victims are exactly that Crucifixion elements are blending with heart description. They are not fully integrated into sacrifice. A cross, affiliated with Christianity, the system so therefore will not create would never have been a part of a ritual from angered opponents to their death, yet they are Phases One to Four. Rappaport’s and Bell’s close enough to act as a victim surrogate for theory of long-lasting elements, and the fact all the people. Hence, a release of anxiety and that they still perform rituals, albeit to altered emotions, especially high with the foreign and added gods, supports the argument that invaders, are placated by the ritual sacrifice. rituals are the basic social act. Ritual still brought people together and informed them Analysis on how to live. Colonial rituals incorporated Limitations indigenous and Christian elements. Due to political constraints, large scale sacrifices This thesis acknowledges the author’s were not possible, so the use of a single training and partiality toward modern victim returned. Even with threats of prison, rationalist thought. Like it sounds, modern sacrificial rituals were still performed, rationalist thought is based in thinking that emphasizing their eternal aspect. The action can be functionally explained. In early testimonials show how the victim’s identity, archaeology, materials would be deemed “for the heart sacrifice, and some gods remained ritual use” if they appeared to serve no the same while aspects like nailing a boy to a utilitarian service. This paper assumes rituals cross, carving a cross into the heart, and the are functional and are analyzed accordingly. secret locations of the rituals adapted to the It is also important to stress the current political situation. Rappaport’s theory variety of sacrificial ceremonies in that Ultimate Sacred Postulates—the core of Mesoamerica. This thesis highlights only a the religion that is vague enough to not be few public ritual sacrifices. Carrasco lists, disproven—are insulated against “decapitation, shooting with darts and perturbations with time because lower level arrows, drowning, burning, hurling from statements, like cosmological axioms— heights, strangulation, entombment and social norms and rules that are able to change starvation, and gladiatorial combat” as a few in time—are the adaptable aspects of from primary sources (Carrasco 1999: 83-8). religion. When applied to rituals, they are This essay did not touch on self-sacrifice, but long-lasting because the core is so strong and it is just as influential as public sacrifice. unprovable while specifics, like the amount Although this paper focuses solely on public of victims and treatment of the body, bend sacrifice, every citizen in the Aztec empire with time. performed self-sacrifice through bloodletting as well. A future study of language might also be useful to see a fuller picture. Considering these limitations, the following elements— Public Ritual Sacrifice 14 the importance of the victims’ identity, the by the high social standing of the importance of mimesis, evidence in shaman-sacrificer and probably language, the importance of the city—are of his victim as well. In the Late analyzed throughout the phases. Post-classic period [900-1500], the number of heart sacrifices Results increased sharply and the ceremony was characterized by The Importance of the Victims’ Mexican attributes, such as the flaying of the victim and Identity occasionally the eating of his Because of the victim’s marginal flesh. The ceremony persisted identity, no enemies are made within the for a significant time even after community, making the emotional release the Spanish Conquest, during possible. Most profoundly, scapegoating is which period some of the “the very basis of cultural unification, the attributed of Christianity were source of all rituals and religion” (Girard intermingled with the ancient Maya ritual. 1972: 302). It is the mechanism of handling peace during the cycle of community tension [Robicsek & Hales 1979, 87] between the central city states and peripheral cities. The Importance of the City The Importance of Mimesis By using grand temples at the center of cities, even the city design reaffirms rituals There were constant power struggles as integral to Aztec social fabric. In between city-states during the Aztec reign in particular, the centrally-located pyramid, the 14th to 16th centuries. The many warring Templo Mayor, reflected the “center of the city-states learned to want power from vertical structure of the cosmos that linked observing others want it, otherwise known as the human world with the commands of the mimetic learning. Public ritual sacrifices supreme deity Ipalnemohuani, or the Giver of served to buffer the threat of instability life” (Carrasco 1999). Even the city roads, caused by war. Moreover, the Aztec city- aligned with the four cardinal directions, states learned from each other to use were significant because they represented the sacrifices, and Aztecs learned from past two-crossing worlds8. Cities were, in short, societies. signs of the Aztec imperial power. To once more clearly detail the changes in Evidence in Language sacrifice Robicsek and Hales offer: For the Aztec the body was the The ceremony of heart sacrifice necessary ingredient for ritual. Sacrifice was itself underwent profound engrained into the Aztec language too; changes as the centuries passed. sacrifice was nextlaoalli (“the paying of the During the Classic period7 it was debt”) and the victims were called a lofty ceremony, characterized

7 Around 250- 900 CE. Those times are outside the 8 We touched on the multi-world view of the Aztecs scope of this paper, but are included in the conclusion in the New Fire Ceremony. to highlight the trajectory of ritual sacrifice. Public Ritual Sacrifice 15 netlahualtin (restitutions”) (Carrasco 2013: and the Aztec’s social order, goodness and 217). Aztec’s believed they were returning convention9. their godly energy. In Phase Two, public rituals became Further evidence of the Aztec’s aggrandized by sacrificing hundreds, if not attitudes toward the human body is found in thousands, of victims at a time. By the their language. Blood was called chalciuj-atl construction of Templo Mayor, sacrifice was (precious water). Human hearts were referred no longer a singular victim. The location to as turquoise, and war was atl tlachinolli could not be more central to the town. At the (water and fire). Lastly, death on the top of the 60-meter-high pyramid, which was battlefield was called xochimiquiztli (the itself at the city’s heart, the sacrifices would flowery death). Language reflects ritual occur. The dramatic blood would run down meaning just as strongly as the material the steps and the skull racks would display remains themselves. Their meanings the victim’s heads. All of these elements reinforce the personal debt and relationship were deliberate choices to show Aztec, each Aztec felt with the gods. The precedent specifically the king’s, control to as many for divine death was set by the gods in people as possible. Coatpec, a “mythic place where a god was Phase Three still continued frequently born who sacrificed- not just one god, but to use public ritual sacrifice in the ball game. ferociously sacrificing an abundance of gods Furthermore, “the ritual killing of human as his first act of life”; so death by sacrifice beings, in Mesoamerica at least, is often a was also seen as divine. In other words, in public performance designed to one’s death, one is transformed beyond a communicate and persuade the populace that human. commitments to cosmic warfare, debt Summarizing the Phases payments to the gods, and correct gender relations are being carried out to maintain the In Phase One, sacrifice was singular, social and cosmic order” (Carrasco 2013: required a vast amount of time and 210). Carrasco’s findings lean on the incorporated artistic skills. Toxcatl showed precedence set by the origin myths. In other the long process of concentrating on one words, to maintain the usefulness of ritual man. An embodiment of a founding god, sacrifice, the mode of sacrifice adapts to the Tezcatlipoca, the “perfect” captured warrior specifics of the origin myth to make it served as the surrogate victim for the applicable to the local population. Rituals are community. The victim was not central to the depersonalized and have many more victims community, yet resembled strong and artistic than earlier periods because of increased war. traits the Aztecs associated themselves with. In Toxcatl, the imposter is a reminder of Phase Four only uses one sacrificial Tezcatlipoca’s, and by extension all the gods’ victim, but hundreds of people self-sacrifice

9 In between Phase One and Two, “the Toltec invasion the paraphernalia” (Robicsek & Hales 1979: 50-51). brought about an infusion of foreign customs Larger sacrifices were needed to continue to enjoy the including the worship of blood-thirsty alien gods. This gods’ reciprocity and control the expanding empire. changed the timing and the location of the ritual as well as the socio-political content, the techniques, and Public Ritual Sacrifice 16 through blood-letting. In an exception, the the city-state. Rituals were a teaching tool New Fire ceremony is the opposite of the that diagramed the cosmos and to emulate norm because it was performed during a time god-like behavior in daily life. They also of intense uncertainty. It functioned to bring were a convention to maintain peripheral the king’s cosmic power out to the loyalty. Most importantly, rituals were a peripheries. powerful way to deal with tension and crisis caused by war. Phase Five also only uses one sacrificial victim due to the threat of jail. The Ritual sacrifice maintained its power rituals were performed at the outskirts of for two thousand years because the mode of forests or somewhere else private. The Aztec every ritual was tailored to its origin myth, heart sacrifice and gods remained important yet the liturgical conventions remained. As elements, but Christian elements were also liturgical orders, public sacrificial rituals introduced. Using historical origin myths, the endured against the “variations of day-to-day tradition of Aztec sacrifice continued to be behavior”, i.e. ruling changes (Rappaport used. 1999: 130). That is the brilliance of them. Because of this, the archaeology record Conclusion reflects the abundance of public sacrifice. For rulers to legitimize themselves as quickly as possible and control their people, rituals were needed. Where would they find a framework for rituals? Their origin myths. In the rituals examined, there is a strong relationship between origin myth and ritual. The relationship determines the length, location, and number of sacrifices. As the length of the ritual decreased, the number of sacrifices increased and the location became more central to the local city. Mimesis encouraged the sacrifice mechanism. In all rituals, reciprocity with the gods is a key element.

Through all five phases and the two civilizations before the Aztec—namely the Olmec and Maya—ritual sacrifice remained a consistent method of ruling. Rituals “allowed public reaffirmation of power and demonstrated the prerogatives of status” (Wilkerson 1979: 110). They scheduled time and were integral to the social fabric. They demonstrated and reinforced the ruler’s power while enforcing social bonding within Public Ritual Sacrifice 17

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