As Jan Bremmer explains, the minimization of emotional and financial burdens is a primary focus for the civilizations that practice human sacrifices, with the society striving to reduce the number of victims whose deaths would cause extended periods of grief and negatively impact daily functions. Hence, most civilizations, Bremmer claims, tackle this concern in one of two ways: victims from the community are either extremely old or gathered from the outside in the forms or war captives or slaves.[1] A prime example of this is the warrior society of the Moche who thrived along the Peruvian coast between 200 C.E. and 750 C.E. and became known for their complex sacrifices of conquered soldiers.[2] During the practice, captives were stripped and brought before a panel of priests wearing anthropozoomorphic masks who slit the victim's throat, poured their blood into a cup, and distributed the container among attendants to drink (some depictions on Moche pottery also show the victim being dismembered).[3] In fact, some portrayals of the event show women, sporting long braided tresses, participated in the practice by carrying the goblet that housed the victim's blood.[4] As Steve Bourget contends, though, much of our modern understanding of the Moche's human sacrifices are limited to interpretations of archeological evidence, which means the full story has been lost with time and what is known is an educated guess cobbled together by archeological discoveries.[5]
Works Referenced
Benson, Elizabeth. "Iconography Meets Archaeology." The Art and Archaeology of the Moche: An Ancient Andean Society of the Peruvian North Coast. Eds. Steve Bourget and Kimberly Jones. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2008. 1-22.
Bourget, Steve. Sacrifice, Violence, and Ideology Among the Moche: The Rise of Social Complexity in Ancient Peru. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2016.
Bremmer, Jan. "Human Sacrifice: A Brief Introduction." The Strange World of Human Sacrifice. Ed. Jan Bremmer. Paris: Peeters, 2007. 1-8.
Bruhns, Karen Olsen, and Karen Stothert. Women in Ancient America. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999.
MacGregor, Neil. A History of the World in 100 Objects. New York: Viking, 2011.
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[1] Bremmer, 3-4.
[2] MacGregor, 307-312.
[3] Benson, 11.
[4] Bruhns and Stothert, 183.
[5] Bourget, 6.
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