# Aztec human sacrifice **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 14, 2013, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aztec-human-sacrifice/660960 "2013-06-14T02:30:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aztec-human-sacrifice/660960/101 "2013-06-24T02:13:34Z")
> [@matt357](#): > > It would get dull very quick performing thousands of disembowelment’s a day Same old, same old. I imagine it did get a bit tedious. THIF! (Thank Huitzilipochtli it’s Friday!) ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aztec-human-sacrifice/660960/102 "2013-06-24T02:22:34Z")
On the contrary, obsidian and flint knives are quite easy to sharpen - you just flake a bit more off the edge, it’s the same technique that makes them knives in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aztec-human-sacrifice/660960/103 "2013-06-24T03:18:31Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Same old, same old. I imagine it did get a bit tedious. > > THIF! (Thank Huitzilipochtli it’s Friday!) I laughed. ---
**Author:** ![eightysix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecccb3/32.png) [@eightysix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eightysix)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aztec-human-sacrifice/660960/104 "2013-06-24T04:04:25Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > Years back, I saw a Discovery or History show where they had a doc do just that. They had a realistic ballistic gel type torso complete with organs. He got two tries with an obsidian blade. By his second attempt, under the sternum, it was over in seconds. He said he’d only get better with practice, and it looked as if there was no reason he couldn’t immediately do a hundred more as it wasn’t particularly taxing. Placing the sacrificial person on a sort of rounded altar helped as it “opened up” the angel of attack under the sternum so the “priest” was working diagonally downward not horizontally. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/idZolXW0kWM/hqdefault.jpg "Aztec Sacrifice Experiment") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idZolXW0kWM) Similar experiment using two hands, a blade, and a subdiphragm approach. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aztec-human-sacrifice/660960/105 "2013-06-24T04:07:09Z")
> [@matt357](#): > > So somewhere was there a Aztec holy book that said “you must lock up people, starve them to death, or the sun wont rise tomorrow” ? Codexes. They were like scrolls that were folded up like accordions. The oldest is called the Dresden Codex. One explanaton for the existance of the sun and moon is given in [wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec_gods). Other versions say that the sacrifice of the first two gods only created the sun and moon. The rest of the gods discovered that they had to sacrifice themselves, too, to put them into motion. Or that many of them had to sacrifice themselves to give the wind god enough power to propel them. Different groups had different stories at different times. I can’t remember where I read it, but somewhere I came across a suggestion that when the Aztecs first moved into the area, they were looked down on for being new and having few ceremonies. So they decided to collect the ceremonies of everyone else they could find and ramp them up (sort of taking Pascal’s Wager and not only raising but going all in). Anyone who knows more about it is welcome to say this is wrong. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aztec-human-sacrifice/660960/106 "2013-06-24T08:05:20Z")
> [@matt357](#): > > It would get dull very quick performing thousands of disembowelment’s a day and I don’t think it would be easy to resharpen as its a uneven, jagged surface. Gosh, what a pity the elite of an entire civilization in a volcanic region were restricted to using just the one obsidian knife per day…:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aztec-human-sacrifice/660960/107 "2013-06-24T11:38:49Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > What? No, of course not. That’s be crazy!:dubious: > > You need _fresh ripped beating hearts_ to make the sun rise tomorrow. > > You _starve people to death_ so the Lords of Mictlan will keep up the transmigration of warrior souls into hummingbirds. > > I can see how you might confuse the two… Yes, I had indeed confused them. The hummingbird transmogrification- does that proceed all during the year? Or do the gods batch them up and do a season at once? Reason I ask is that hummingbirds arrived in my area early this year. It was still too cold for gardening, and yet hummingbirds were announcing their territories. So I’m wondering if the gods set that up, or the warriorhummingbirds organized an expedition to invade my country. ---
**Author:** ![matt357](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@matt357](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt357)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aztec-human-sacrifice/660960/108 "2013-06-24T12:07:15Z")
> [@eightysix](#): > > [http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=idZolXW0kWM](http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=idZolXW0kWM) > Similar experiment using two hands, a blade, and a subdiphragm approach. I watched that video, located here [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idZolXW0kWM](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idZolXW0kWM) and there is no indication there is a ribcage or any of the other things that are in the chest cavity and are firmly attached like the diaphragm , the lungs, or that the heart is firmly attached like in real life. ---
**Author:** ![eightysix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecccb3/32.png) [@eightysix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eightysix)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aztec-human-sacrifice/660960/109 "2013-06-24T12:55:46Z")
> [@matt357](#): > > I watched that video, located here [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idZolXW0kWM](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idZolXW0kWM) and there is no indication there is a ribcage or any of the other things that are in the chest cavity and are firmly attached like the diaphragm , the lungs, or that the heart is firmly attached like in real life. So once again I will ask you - what is your basis for making the contention that it would take at least 45 seconds. Do you have any actual experience manipulating internal human anatomy or simulations thereof? Can you reference anyone who does have such experience who agrees with you? Or are your assertions, despite the certainty with which they are proffered, merely WAGs? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aztec-human-sacrifice/660960/110 "2013-06-24T14:28:07Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#): > > The hummingbird transmogrification- does that proceed all during the year? > Or do the gods batch them up and do a season at once? I think the embodying happens year-round as Mexico is further South so their hummingbirds may be year-round( **Colibri** can confirm. Hah!) but paying it forward to Mictlantecuhtli with the starvations happens in the first of the two particularly death-dedicated 20-day months - Tlaxochimaco or Miccailhuitontli, The Feast for the Revered Dead (the other, Xocotlhuetzi or Huey Miccailhuitontli\* , The Feast for the _Greatly_ Revered Dead, was more about the burnings not the starvings). So diarize July 12 to July 31 for all your giant skull-faced knife-tongued death god appeasement activities, kids! \*[no relation to Huey Lewis] ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aztec-human-sacrifice/660960/111 "2013-06-24T14:38:43Z")
Well that certainly makes sense- build your armies year-round, then fly north to retake Aztlan when the season is right. Do you happen to know whether male warriors become male hummingbirds, and females become females? Or is there a ranking system of some sort? Does it depend on how you died? Also, the end of July is quality hummingbird time around here. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aztec-human-sacrifice/660960/112 "2013-06-24T14:50:58Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#): > > Do you happen to know whether male warriors become male hummingbirds, and females become females? So far as I know, Aztecs did not have female warriors. I’ve also heard that women who died in childbirth were believed to have equal status in the afterlife with those who died in battle, but I don’t recall where I heard that so I have no idea how reliable the source was. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aztec-human-sacrifice/660960/113 "2013-06-24T14:55:40Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I think the embodying happens year-round as Mexico is further South so their hummingbirds may be year-round( **Colibri** can confirm. Hah!) Most hummingbirds in Mexico are non-migratory, but some species from the US do spend the winter there or pass through. Having studied the little bastards, I always thought it was highly appropriate that the Aztecs named their god of war, blood, and human sacrifice after the hummingbird. Many of them spend most of their lives fighting, day in and day out, and they will attack animals hundreds of times their size. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aztec-human-sacrifice/660960/114 "2013-06-24T15:07:13Z")
**aNewLeaf** ,I think it should be understood that not every hummingbird is a reincarnated warrior (and not every warrior reincarnates as a hummingbird - butterflies were apparently also an option) **Broomstick** , that’s what I’ve read as well. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aztec-human-sacrifice/660960/115 "2013-06-24T15:30:22Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Having studied the little bastards, I always thought it was highly appropriate that the Aztecs named their god of war, blood, and human sacrifice after the hummingbird. Many of them spend most of their lives fighting, day in and day out, **and they will attack animals hundreds of times their size.** As a layperson interested in birds, and as a human kept by parrots of various sizes and types, I find that’s true of MOST birds. As diminutive and pretty as they look they can be monstrously aggressive and birds weighing only a few ounces will charge into battle with full grown humans if sufficiently provoked. That also applies to wild birds. They’re not _stupid_, they _know_ you’re bigger and stronger, but they also know they themselves are fast and can fly, thereby avoiding your clumsy grasping paws. They’ve also got mad visual skills and depth perception and they’ll use those against you. The big dinosaurs were probably exterminated by angry sparrows, really, I’m advancing that as a new theory. As a rule of thumb, small size in no way diminishes avian aggression and I’d even venture that the smaller the bird the more fearless and aggressive it can be, by which reasoning hummingbirds are probably the mightiest of bird warriors. ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aztec-human-sacrifice/660960/116 "2013-06-24T15:44:28Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Many of them spend most of their lives fighting, day in and day out, and they will attack animals hundreds of times their size. Within the city, the most common species here are Broad-Tailed hummers. The males make a noise with their wings, it’s obvious once you recognize it. They stake out a territory, and fight off other males and anything they think is a threat. Humans are not intimidating to them, they will approach without fear. As for women who die in childbirth, that makes sense. Even if not all hummingbirds were warriors, you need a lot of fertile females- why else be reincarnated? I have a feeder on my porch, so far only one bird has found it, a female. She arrives every morning at 5:25, chirps excitedly, then drinks a bellyful of nectar. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aztec-human-sacrifice/660960/117 "2013-06-24T16:47:47Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > . . . I’ve also heard that women who died in childbirth were believed to have equal status in the afterlife with those who died in battle, but I don’t recall where I heard that so I have no idea how reliable the source was. I’m not sure what it’s worth as a source, but I read it in [Aztec Ace](http://comicbookcatacombs.blogspot.com/2010/07/1980s-flashback-aztec-ace.html). He went with pop, rather than historical, Galileo (and Cleopatra, if I’m remembering correctly), but seemed to have put more effort into the Aztec sections. ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aztec-human-sacrifice/660960/118 "2013-06-24T19:07:56Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Note that the Mayans had ritual _self_-sacrifice. Not usually to the death, but VIPs like the high priest or the king would go out in public and shed their own blood,\*\*\* in extremely gory ways that you really don’t want to know about\*\*\*, for the gods. Yes, they were generally doped to the gills. Emphasis mine. I’d like to know about this. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aztec-human-sacrifice/660960/119 "2013-06-24T19:15:56Z")
> [@DiosaBellissima](#): > > Emphasis mine. > > I’d like to know about this. One of the classic Mayan blood-letting rituals was to pierce the penis with a stingray spine.:eek: ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aztec-human-sacrifice/660960/120 "2013-06-24T19:23:02Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > One of the classic Mayan blood-letting rituals was to pierce the penis with a stingray spine.:eek: Oh my. Where can I learn more about these things? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aztec-human-sacrifice/660960.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aztec-human-sacrifice/660960.md?page=7)