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
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About 20 years ago now a source book for much Cortez's story was translated into English for the first time and published. The books name is the Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz. He was one of Cortez lieutenants.
He says something that doesn't make it into the history books in school. The Aztecs priests would "act up" right in front of Cortez.
Apparently human sacrifice and homosexuality in the priesthood went hand in hand with Aztecs as it did with the Caananites. And too, Cortez's reaction was just the same as Moses.
The big book I read said the priests had long hair matted with blood. Their hair was rarely washed. That they were gay. These were the priests in charge of human sacrifice
"I'm sure the Aztecs had them beat."
Yes they certainly did. I read the Bernal Diaz book over 40 years ago when I was studying in Mexico City. Also read Cortez's 5 letters to King Carlos of Spain, the same summer, both in Spanish. The number of captive warriors sacrificed was horrendous. In the recent past an Aztec prime minister had persuaded the emperor to make "flowery wars" a matter of state policy to raid and capture neighboring peoples. He said something like "let the Tlaxcalens be our tortillas." The sacrificed were cut up an distributed to the populace which had very little high quality protein in their diet. Many tens of thousands of people were killed and eaten.
Regarding the sacrifice of children to the rain god, Tlaloc, this is true. Aztecs may have picked it up from the Mayans. A child with a double whorl in the hair at the top of the head was considered the best as the double whorl was like the swirl of clouds. Aztec citizens were expected to willing give up their family members who were chosen for sacrificial honors.
An interesting novel that deals with the immediate post conquest period is "Heart of Jade" by Salvador Madariaga.
Now that we have established that Aztecs and Incas were not adverse to religious slaughter, let us look at the Spanish and other Europeans. Anyone who thinks so highly of the Spanish should read up on the history of the Inquisition, the expulsion of the Jews and the Moors, and the treatment of Conversos. Count Dracula was also called Vlad the Impaler, because he discouraged the advance of the Ottoman Empire into Europe by impaling something like 9,000 muslim invaders after a victory. Check out the killing rates on civilians of the Hundred Years War, and the Thirty Years War; these were Catholic/Protestant conflicts. Killings for religion in England by "Bloody" Mary, and to a lesser extent, Queen Elizabeth, are nothing to make us proud.
In a final note, Cortez made excellent use of the angry Tlaxcalans and other Aztec victim people to defeat the Aztecs. I think the Tlaxcalans provided something like 100,000 to 200,000 warriors to the fight.
I just tried to post this an all it did was jump. Will try again, sorry if I double post.