[wagglebee]

Until recently there has been little archaeological evidence of human sacrifice from the ancient Andes. Historians have had to rely on accounts written by Spanish invaders and grisly depictions on pottery and art.

I'm sure it irritates the left to no end to admit that the "indigenous" people were not exactly peace loving.

[wagglebee]

GGG Ping

[NewCenturions]

So the Spanish came and "imposed their culture" on these human-sacrifing, torturing peoples. Kind of like we are doing in the middle east?

[doug from upland]

Come on. We can't be judgmental. Maybe the Muslims were inspired by such child sacrifice.

[DTogo]

Yeah, weren't the Christian Europeans the only murderers of these nature-loving peaceful natives?

[kinoxi]

The Sapa Inca never attempted to hide it from what I've read. They were warriors. They lost.

[gaijin]

Kinda like LOREDO...?

[Ken522]

Narvaez's theory is that the increase in human sacrifice was linked to the greatest upheaval ever to hit South America, the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors.

Yes, the arrival of evil Western civilization's influences caused all this - and by extention, it's all President Bush's fault!

[VOA]

I had an interesting feeling when watching the PBS series "Conquistadores"
with host Michael Wood.
Wood described how Cortes and some of his officers were taken to the
killing room at the top of one of the temples.
Montezuma tried to give Cortez and his buddies a lesson in Aztec theology,
explaining how well ripping the hearts from their victims made the Sun happy
and kept the world going round.
The speech was obviously intended to sell Cortez on the Aztec worldview.

Wood related at how absolutly angry Cortez and his buddies got when they
heard this "Isn't sacrifice by ripping out hearts GREAT!" speech.

And I thought of how absolutely angry I got in the days following 9-11.
And how, even if you aren't a noble person (like Cortez) and you come
from an imperfect society (like 1500s Spain)...
you can still spot the savages.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Waggs.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[Cacique]

btt

[The Cuban]

And yet, somehow as a Spaniard, 500 years on, I am supposed to feel sorry and ashamed that my forebearers brought these people Civilization and Christianity? Sorry libs, European Civilization and Christianity is the highest of Human acheivement.

[WorkingClassFilth]

I read an awful lot of negative ajectives in this article. Where is the tolerance and appreciation for multicultural diversity? I mean, who are we, after all, to judge much older nations and their cultural practices. For an upstart nation only a few hundred years old, we certainly could learn a lot from the elder wisdom of a people living much closer to our mother the earth than we do. The problem with the European Judeo-Christian experience is that it critically judges the entire world from its own perspective rather than learning to accept the totality of human experience as a rich resource to respect and learn from.

(Feel free to copy and paste onto your next application for University enrollment)

[Fiddlstix]

I'm sure it irritates the left to no end to admit that the "indigenous" people were not exactly peace loving.

Why should it? They call the muslimes peace loving.

[freedumb2003]

As they waited to be sacrificed outside a temple, the victims made no attempt to escape their fate: their throats were cut, they were decapitated and their hearts ripped out.

San Fransisco?

[BlazingArizona]

I'm sure it irritates the left to no end to admit that the "indigenous" people were not exactly peace loving.

I made this discovery in New Zealand. The indigenous people of North Island enjoyed a climate that allowed them to grow the traditional Polynesian crops they were used to. But on chilly South Island the tribes - identical ancestry - could not grow enough of the foods they were used to to survive. They did, however, own the supply of jade, prized on both islands.

So did a trade of food for jade develop? Nope: the North Islanders, being short of protein in a country with no native animals whatever, simply added a new item to their diets - South Islanders. They're what's for dinner!

[expatpat]

They should have saved their knives and their aggression for the Spaniards, instead of using it on their own innocent citizens.

[mtbopfuyn]

But did they find any high priests with their heads chopped off? Nope? Didn't think so.

[Pharmboy]

They musta learned this from the white man...

[dennisw]

These Peruvian indigenous peoples were serious pagans propitiating their idols with human victims. Though I'm sure the Aztecs had them beat

Judaism got it's start as a rebellion against pagan human sacrifice

[Continental Soldier]

For years and years, the media and media driven scholars have advanced the notion that primitive societies were somehow better than our own, more friendly, more tolerant, more charitable, more in tune with Nature's harmony. Of course, it was all BS. With very few exceptions, the farther back one goes in evolutionary history, the more savage and cruel societies were. Those alleged societies of South and Central America were not only savage and cruel, but, very likely, insane, as well. One doesn't need a degree in psychology or psychiatry to read the mindset behind the stone carvings they have left us. Uncovering their blood-thirsty sacrifices only adds to the case against their sanity. Add to that a diet of high carbohydrates for generation after generation, and one is safe in concluding that both their beliefs and their behaviors were symptoms of a terminal disease.