This is a bunch of BS. I hate how the interpretation of a few spanish friars turns everything Mayan and Aztec into a human torture/sacrifice. Its all complete BS and if you go down there and talk to the people they will tell you the same thing.
they had wars too. people were captured and killed. doesn’t mean they didn’t deserve it. The spanish came to conquer during the time of Torquemada. anything and everything was used in the justification of pacification and extermination. even made up stories about the blood thirsty maya.
They Mayan and Aztec were peace loving hippies compared to the Europeans, Arabs, and Turks of that time.
This is a bunch of BS. I hate how the interpretation of a few spanish friars turns everything Mayan and Aztec into a human torture/sacrifice. Its all complete BS and if you go down there and talk to the people they will tell you the same thing.
You have it exactly backwards. It was Spanish friars who attempted to rewrite the history of the Conquest. They wrote their versions many years after the Conquest.
Bernal Diaz’ account is the only existing first person account. There are verbal mythologies from events that occurred 500 years ago. They are not credible.
The Friars also worked hard to prevent the enslavement of indigenous people by the Conquistadors. The Church forbade the enslavement. Ever wonder why Mexico did not develop the slave dependent culture of Brazil? That is one major reason.
How is “talking to the people” any worthwhile source? It is completely corrupted by the current rewriting of history that everything the Europeans did was evil and wrong. Not credible.
There is all kinds of archeological corraboration of human sacrifice and cannibalism.
They were a pagan mass murdering culture based on slavery. The Spanish weren’t monolithic. Lots of witnesses well documented what they saw. Not all were priests. Many were Spanish Jews fleeing Spain. Conquistadors were often Soldiers at odds with the Priests.
And seriously? Talking to people down there tells you what exactly? That’s astonishing ignorance. Might as well ask someone in Egypt today about details of Ramses II and the Pyramids.
Hell, most people cant speak with authority about the deep motivations and behaviors of their great great grandfather.
And you’re asking some modern Mexican about the behavior of the Aztecs. lol
Turkey, chihuahua, insects, and pond scum can only go so far.
If indeed an Aztec abattoir for "long pig" was found, then perhaps the Spanish friars did accurately chronicle what they were witness to.
At least what Aztecs were doing...