>Elaborate human sacrifice associated with Huitzilopochtli,

well yeah, not a lot of people were hella self aware back then.

>>1610218
It was for the greater good of humanity. They did nothing wrong.

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>>1610231
but why even put that last clause in a textbook? i could easily hear that statement escaping from a mouthy teenager; i wouldn't expect academia to sanction statements like this.

from what i've read so far, the entire first chapter is just condemning European cruelty while praising the literal beads-on-strings made by captured murderers.

compared to someone like Peter Watson, this is a joke of a book.

>>1610218
>burn the cathars, burn them all
>let's have 100,000 people slaughter each others to decide who gets to pray at some city in Palestine
>they don't want to give us all their gold? Cut one hand off every time they refuse. If they run out of hands, feed them to the dogs.

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something to think about: while de las casas was excoriating the spanish for being so barbaric, here's what the indigenous people were drawing

>>1610275
>here's what the indigenous people were drawing
>this is a transcript of a sixteenth-century Franciscan's manuscript

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>>1610284

>>1610275
"Indians On The Road to Conversion by the Spanish: meekly Presenting themselves for Baptism by Friars Angel and Martin de Jésus and the punishments for Crimes Such AS Witchcraft, licentiousness, and Murder, from the cronica de mechoa Can Written by Pablo Beaumont in 1792"

This shows what Catholics Indians did once they converted. The Spaniards saw this as a great thing.

>>1610218
it was significantly more savage than anything Europeans were doing at the time.

>>1610288
What does that have to do with the pictures posted?
In any case, this text describes how Indians were tortured and executed for failing to serve Spaniards.

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>>1610275
They dindu nuffin dey was good bois.

>>1610248
>implying such a small crowd
>implying the crowds beneath wouldn't be throbbing with religious rapture, hoping to sponge some of the blood and slurp down Heaven's pure liquid goodness.

>>1610291
The Thirty Years War wasn't too far off.

>>1610321
Europeans were far more powerful and had the means to inflict more harm that the mesoamericans.
Imagine and Aztek Empire with European level militarly technology

>>1610336
That would be pretty cool tbqh.

>>1610218

To be fair, they thought that by doing this, they were preventing the sun from going out. Obviously killing a guy is brutal but killing one person to keep the sun going another day is worth the price.

>>1610336
>Imagine and Aztek Empire with European level militarly technology
Well it would be a lot less brutal and cruel since it would be a lot easier for disgruntled tribes to overthrow them and there would be much greater incentives not to massacre the populations.

>>1610350
Or if you imagine that only the Aztect elites would have European level military technology, then I assume they would act much like conquistadors.

>>1610336
>trebuchets with multiple cartloads of de-hearted sacrifice corpses waiting to be flung, the chest cavity filled with pebbles and shit, and sewn back up.

>>1610359
>using your sacrificial offerings as missiles
This is ridiculous and autistic.

>>1610339
kek

>>1610339
as a thought experiment
I bet you wouldn't want to live in that world

>>1610362
the heart and blood are the offerings. It depends what they do with the rest of the corpse, though. Flayed and worn, ritual cannibalism, or dress the corpse up like Quetzlcoatl and let 'em fly.

>>1610368
That depends if human sacrifice still existed. In some places they began banning it. Though being a commoner it'd probably be hard work but overall comfy life since usually only captives from battle and slaves were sacrificed. Sometimes children of nobles in particular ceremonies. A merchant commoner would be ok. Get to have private rich feasts, have secret wealth and get to travel a lot.

>>1610389
you wouldn't be aztec
You would be still European but instead us colonizing Americas, the aztecs would sail over to Europe with superiour tech and disease resistance

>>1610389
>travel
The Aztec 'empire' was fledgling and hardly stable. Mesoamerican history is pretty much like this: one equally-powerful group trying to get its fist on top of the other groups first, while hoping that nothing upsets the balance, like a decade of drought or some power struggle topples it all.

Had the Spaniards not come, I'd guess the Aztec empire maybe had another few generations at most before collapsing on itself or morphing into something else. Long term, all the 'sacrificing your neighbours' stuff is not sustainable if you expect them to intermarry (i.e. with your excess nobles) and be willing vassals.

>>1610409
sorry, my point was that you probably wouldn't travel too much into semi-hostile vassal cities...

There's nothing wrong with killing Aztec priests and nobility. In fact the Spanish had a moral imperative to do so.

>>1610409
Well yes trade networks were extensive given they were limited with no horses. They had connections with people in the American southwest where they got their turquoise from. And there were nahua merchants on the ports of Nito (all the way on the other side of the yucatan peninsula near Honduras. So I would imagine if you were one of those long distance merchants leading an expedition you'd see many types of people.

The good thing about the intermarriage system was if you fucked up one relation, you had other wives with others. They didn't have to gamble all of their marriage alliance benefits on one marriage.

>>1610252
See, but this shit was limited and exotic occasions, while the Aztecs slaughtered approximately 100,000 people a year

>>1610421
Though you are correct that it was a very volatile region, even in the valley of Mexico itself they were warring with Tlatelolco literally their neighboring city. And had to put down rebellions constantly. I don't think it was necessarily the human sacrifice that bothered many (as they did it too). I think it was the heavy tribute burden they imposed on everyone. And being a merchant was also a dangerous job, as you sometimes acted like a spy and if you were caught you'd likely be killed.

>>1610288
That literally says the drawings are of Spanish officials being cruel to natives. How does it disagree with Las Casas at all?

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>>1610339
this

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>>1610572
>>1610559
>>1610490

>>1610644
misspelled versions lol

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>>1610218

I'm studying the Aztecs for my degree in anthropology (OP from the Aztec/meso thread), and I've noticed this kind of apologism before.

Aztec sacrifice is often justified in terms of their religious beliefs, but thats actually somewhat misleading. When the Aztecs conquered a neighboring state, they allowed the rulers to maintain their positions so long as they paid tribute. They rarely garrisoned their forces too.

In order to enforce social control over their neighbors, they invited all of their rivals to mass sacrifice rituals. These rituals were basically just propoganda to scare the shit out of enemy states, and ensure that subject populations remained loyal.

This kind of public brutality was unique. Yeah, other parts of the world engaged in this sort of behavior, but they rarely advertised it in this way. Its very similar to how the Islamic State flaunts their violent methods as propoganda.

>>1610729
It's really not that unique. It's called psychological warfare.

>>1610729
Did noble rivals were invited to other sacrificial rituals aside from the gladiatorial combat?

>>1610729
The Assyrians also advertised violence.

Typically it was against people who had slighted them though.

>>1610805
>noble rivals
rival nobles*

>>1610805
Yes they did. It was a show of power to them. They also invited them to the coronations of the new tlatoani. Though the Aztecs exaggerated in their own claims that they sacrificed 80,000 in a day. They were trying to look tough in the colonial documents.

>>1610218
>f*cking white males
>not savages

ummm wow check your privilege ugh

>>1610800
During the consecration of the Templo Mayor in 1487 they executed a maximum of 20,000 prisoners of war. They cut out their hearts, threw them down the pyramid, cut their heads and limbs off, impaled the head on a skull rack, and the warrior who captured them ate the limbs. They painted temple walls and idols with blood, and the stench was so terrible many people had to leave the city. Its not just psychological warfare, its an utter fascination with brutality and violence.

>>1610805
According to ross hassig, nobles attended in secret, or they sent spies or dignitaries to see what happened.

>>1610832
Yeah, the Assyrians were also well known for their violence, but I dont know much about them.

>>1610875
I think the Moche were even more violent tho

>>1610440
>the Aztecs slaughtered approximately 100,000 people a year
lol, someone's been reading Spanish colonial justification-porn.