The Maya Continual Performance of Human Sacrifices Post Spanish Conquest

The Maya Continual Performance of Human Sacrifices Post Spanish Conquest

The disruption of a people’s social, political, and religious way of life is a persistent characteristic of every colonization episode. The Maya were not spared from this disruption during the Spanish conquests of the 15^th Century in their worlds, and their subsequent efforts of assimilation into the Spanish culture (Clendinnen, 2003). Though largely successful in their spread of Christianity, the Maya people still retained certain attributes of their religious customs, in particular human sacrifices. It is undeniable that the Maya continued to perform human sacrifices because of the evidence in the Great Maya Revolt, confessions of guilt by the christened Maya people and the exoneration of Landa and his inquisitors.

The Great Maya Revolt significantly affirms the offering of human sacrifice by the Maya people after the Spanish conquest. Forging old allegiances with the same motive against a common enemy, the Maya captured the Spaniard oppressors residing in their villages and mercilessly executed them. They further destroyed anything remotely associated with the colonizers, including their fellow Maya traitors who offered themselves as slaves. The Spanish got executed using old Maya rituals like the Spanish children being held over a fire by Maya priests with copal incense and roasted (Clendinnen, 2003). The ritualistic mode of execution of these deaths, coupled with the confessions from the investigations by Landa irrefutably, portrays continued human sacrifice by the Maya people.

The confessions obtained by Landa during his investigations of the idolatry of the Maya people further point to the continued practice of human sacrifice. Infuriated by the circulating rumors of the idolatry of the Maya people, Landa conducted inquiries to ascertain the veracity of the statements. Those interviewed in Sotuta and Hocaba-Homun admitted involvement in human sacrifice rituals that subsisted of the slaying of children as human sacrifice and extraction of the hearts of living victims. They attested that the blood from the victims smeared on the persons of the participants, and some of these rituals occurred on church grounds (Clendinnen, 2003). These narratives not only paint a grotesque picture of the details of the rituals of the human sacrifices, but were enough for the pardon of the prosecutor, Landa.

The exoneration of Landa further evidences the practice of human sacrifice by the Maya people. Landa faced the Council of Indies in October 1564, only for the case remitted to the committee appointed by the Provincial of the Franciscan order in Castile. The just committee, in its profound wisdom, held that the Indians had lied by purporting to deny their earlier confessions. Furthermore, the torturous methods used by Landa to obtain the said evidence were justified in the extraneous circumstances (Clendinnen, 2003). Careful evaluation of evidence tabled by the parties and their witnesses, the decision of the committee to acquit Landa of all charges invariably points to a higher probability of the commission of the offenses of idolatry and performance of human sacrifice by the Maya people, hence their guilt.

As per the foregoing, it is irrefutable that the Maya people practiced human sacrifice after the Spanish conquest, as evidenced in the killings during their massive resistance, the admission of guilt by those accused of idolatry, and the subsequent justification of Landa’s action by the committee. Despite the discrepancies remotely indicative of the conspiracy by the said persons to submit lies, the lack of motive and the consistencies and inconsistencies of the supposed confessions make it the best evidence. It is, therefore, indicative of the guilt of the accused Indian.

References

Clendinnen, I. (2003). Ambivalent Conquests: Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan, 1517-1570, Second Edition (2nd ed., pp. 1-248). Cambridge University Press.