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Ritual Human Sacrifice in Mesoamerica

Recent Findings and New Perspectives

  • Book
  • © 2024

Overview

Editors:
  1. Rubén G. Mendoza

    1. California State University, Seaside, USA

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. Linda Hansen

    1. Independent Scholar, Castle Rock, USA

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Represents the most comprehensive overview of Mesoamerican ritual human sacrifice published to date
  • Discusses the relation between social complexity and inter-elite interaction in ritual sacrifice
  • Shows how agricultural metaphors, mimesis and materiality are themes of Mesoamerican ceremonialism

Part of the book series: Conflict, Environment, and Social Complexity (CESC)

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Table of contents (14 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxx
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  2. Recent Archaeological Evidence

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
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    2. Blood Tribute, Earth Offerings, and the Formative Origins of Ritual Human Sacrifice in Mesoamerica

      • Rubén G. Mendoza, Gary Velasco
      Pages 3-41

    3. Shifting Perspectives on Human Sacrifice at Midnight Terror Cave, Belize

      • Cristina Verdugo, Lars Fehren-Schmitz, James E. Brady
      Pages 43-60

    4. Ritual Human Sacrifice Among the Tarascans of West Mexico

      • Cinthia M. Campos-Hernández, José Luis Punzo-Díaz, Carlos Karam Tapia
      Pages 61-81

  5. The Ethnographic Present

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 417-417
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    2. Indigenous Sacrifice in the Christian Language Among the Communities of the Northern Mixteca of Oaxaca, Mexico

      • Carlos Rincón Mautner
      Pages 419-482

    3. Deicide in Ch’orti’ Maya Myth and Ritual

      • Kerry Hull
      Pages 483-512
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Keywords

About this book

This edited volume addresses the environmental and cultural underpinnings of the kind of social conflict that spawned the origins and elaboration of ritualized human and animal sacrifice in Mesoamerica. The chapters variously document the place of cultural evolution and social complexity in the origins and elaboration of ritual human sacrifice, cannibalism, and trophy-taking across a broad spectrum of Mesoamerican cultural and social contexts that first saw the light of day before 2600 BCE, and rapidly developed and proliferated across the Mesoamerican world in the centuries to follow. They study the developments in sacrifice rituals through the centuries into the first millennium CE, when the Mexica Aztec and their allies had elevated ritual human sacrifice such that they produced a plethora of sacrificial acts, modes and manners of death, and associated deities to articulate the necro-cultures and blood-tribute of the times. The chapters further study present-day rites of Amerindian communities from throughout Mesoamerica that include paying homage to the deities of earth and sky through sacrifice and consumption of animal surrogates. The interdisciplinary effort undertaken by this international cadre of scientists, including anthropologists, bioarchaeologists, art historians, ethnohistorians, iconographers, and religious studies experts provides a particularly rich forum for launching an interrogation into the role of conflict, environment, and social complexity in the emergence and persistence of ritual violence and human sacrifice in the Mesoamerican world.

Editors and Affiliations

  • California State University, Seaside, USA

    Rubén G. Mendoza

  • Independent Scholar, Castle Rock, USA

    Linda Hansen

About the editors

Rubén G. Mendoza, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus, Founding/Planning Faculty, and former Chair of the Division of Social, Behavioral, and Global Studies at the California State University, Monterey Bay. He has conducted archaeological and ethnohistorical investigations in California, Colorado, the US Southwest, and Mesoamerica. His research interests include Mesoamerican and South American civilizations and social complexity, long-distance trade and exchange, Amerindian warfare, conflict interaction, social violence, bioarchaeology, terror management, architectures of aggression, and Hispanicized Indian and Amerindian traditional technologies and material cultures. He is an active field archaeologist, and the Principal of Archives & Archaeology, a cultural resources management firm based in Salinas, California. 

Linda P. Hansen, Ph.D., is a Mesoamerican scholar specializing in religious studies and comparative approaches to ancient and modern cultures. Herscholarly investigations include comparative research of Tree of Life cosmology and iconography in Mesoamerica. This diachronic investigation spans multiple eras and cultures, including Olmec, Zapotec, Maya, Mixtec, and Mexica. Hansen has taught courses at various universities and is now conducting research as an independent scholar. She is presently CEO and Cofounder of Fund Duel Inc.  and Paradisium, the metaverse for good. These companies are disruptive models that are transforming and democratizing the virtual giving space through global charity concerts, sporting events, and corporate conferences.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Ritual Human Sacrifice in Mesoamerica

  • Book Subtitle: Recent Findings and New Perspectives

  • Editors: Rubén G. Mendoza, Linda Hansen

  • Series Title: Conflict, Environment, and Social Complexity

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36600-0

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-36599-7Published: 02 March 2024

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-36602-4Due: 02 April 2024

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-36600-0Published: 01 March 2024

  • Series ISSN: 2730-5872

  • Series E-ISSN: 2730-5880

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXX, 512

  • Number of Illustrations: 200 b/w illustrations, 10 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Anthropology, Archaeology, Cultural History, Ethnology, Comparative Religion

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