AZ: Child-sacrifice

[Heather Hess]

Just a note on child sacrifice - lately I was researching Northern Africa -
Tanzania to be exact - due to my interest in the Goddess Tanit - as well in
Tanzania mass burials of children have been found - just a link to the chain
of past civilizations connecting to the future!  Heather


>From: Richard Haly <rhaly at ix.netcom.com>
>Reply-To: nahuat-l at server.umt.edu
>To: Multiple recipients of list <nahuat-l at server.umt.edu>
>Subject: AZ: Child-sacrifice
>Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 10:14:33 -0600
>
>Listeros:
>
>One of my students is researching the practice of child sacrifice and is
>stuck on the issue as to where the children came from. As I don't know
>either (per my speculation in answer to her query below), I thought I see
>what y'all might have on this. If you respond to the list, I'll forward
>things.
>
>Thank You
>
>Richard Haly
>
>
> >Dear Professor Haly,
> > As we discussed in class, I'm going to write my paper on sacrifices of
> > children. From what I have read so far, it seems that Aztecs sacrificed
> > children to the rain god and maize god, which was also associated with
>rain.
> > It seemed to me, that they sacrificed children instead of adults because
> > children were very valuable, and Aztecs needed to please the rain god
> > because rain was needed for crops, and so for survival. However, I'm
> > interested to find out what kind of atmosphere was associated with
>taking or
> > buying children from their mothers. I can't believe that mothers-even if
> > they believed in gods-would do it voluntarily. Please let me know if
>there
> > is some literature about it , or maybe since you know Aztecs better than
>me,
> > maybe you can help me to speculate about it. Thank you
> > Eva Lowe
> >
>Dear Eva:
>
>This sounds good. Looking at the festivals in Florentine Codex will
>certainly give you more context and help you sort out the logic of such
>practices. Look for equivalences. Things that can stand for one another or
>replace one another. This leads to the interesting issue as to where the
>children come from. Something must "replace" them. I agree that parents
>probably didn't give up children voluntarily tho' their may have been some
>institutionalized way for all this to happen. They also may have been very
>ill-behaved children as these could become slaves. Yet this doesn't ring
>quite true either as it sort of taints their acceptability. It could have
>been as a "punishment" for the parents in that they might have gone so far
>in debt, say by gambling, that the children were lost... I don't know a
>specific source that details all this but you might search for articles in
>the library database on "child sacrifice" or look at one of the works that
>deals with Aztec slavery.
>
>
>Richard Haly
>

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