The horrific American custom of human sacrifice
Like China,"cannibalism" also exists in other countries and regions in the world. Human sacrifice is a common obscurity phenomenon in the process of civilization throughout mankind. Perhaps this is the life price that mankind must pay in the stage of progress and advancement. Due to the difference in the speed of civilization progress, the time for the disappearance of the killing sacrifices also varies. After China reached its climax during the Yin and Shang Dynasties, it began to decline. It realized the need to respect mankind itself and ended the history of cannibalism by gods relatively early. In Europe, Greece, Rome, and Egypt, the birthplace of human civilization, the killing sacrifices also ended early in about the same time. Many human animals have been replaced by similar objects (idols). The cruel killing and sacrifice activities have now evolved into a rather fashionable national festival and become a part of folk culture. With the acceleration of human civilization and civilization, the cannibal gods also seem to have become tame and lovely. In the relatively backward island countries in America, inland Africa, Oceania and the Pacific, killing sacrifices lasted for a relatively long time and were abolished for a relatively long time. Some European scholars still saw that kind of terror in the early 20th century. The famous British folklore scholar Fraser's account in his masterpiece "The Golden Branch" deeply shocked the world.
After Columbus and other Europeans discovered the New World of America in 1492, as European colonists who appeared as conquerors invaded one after another, a large number of appalling indigenous sacrificial activities were exposed. The phenomenon of killing sacrifices that Europeans saw with their own eyes has now become precious research data for anthropologists and folk workers.
Human sacrifice is relatively common in the Americas. Whether it is South America or North America, the indigenous peoples of the Americas have the phenomenon of human sacrifice. The Indians have different characteristics in terms of the objects of human sacrifice and the methods of executing human sacrifice. Native Americans are mainly planting, and most of their sacrifices are the god of agriculture. The worship and superstition of the god of corn are more obvious than in other regions. Indigenous people in Ecuador used to have the custom of "blood sacrifice to the Mother Earth". Ecuador is located in northwest South America. It was originally part of the empire. It became a Spanish colony in 1532 and is now adjacent to Colombia and Peru. The indigenous people are particularly pious to the grain god.
Indians in different areas here have different sacrificial methods. The Indians of Guayaquil like to sacrifice their human blood and hearts to the gods during the planting season. This is not the most terrifying thing. The Indian killings in the Canyar region are the scariest ones. During the annual harvest season, Indians in the Canyar region sacrifice child animals, killing 100 children each time. It has been popular for quite a long time in the past, and this cruel sacrificial ritual can still be seen even during the Spanish rule.
Mexico is the largest country in Central America and one of the centers of ancient Indian civilizations on the American continent. The world-famous Mayan culture, Tortec culture and Aztec culture were all created by the ancient Mexican Indians. The indigenous people here particularly worship celestial gods such as the sun god and the moon god. North of Mexico City, there are still the Pyramids of the Sun and the Pyramids of the Moon built before BC, and these have become the common heritage of mankind. During the harvest season, indigenous people hold grand sacrificial activities, singing and dancing. Just as the ancient Greeks dedicated new grains to the goddess Demeter, during the harvest season, farmers would present the first batch of harvested grains to the sun god, as well as human animals. The killing and sacrifice method is very unique. The human animal is placed between two large stones. During the sacrifice, the stone is closed and the human animal is crushed to death alive. Then the remains of the human animal are scattered and buried underground. This ritual is called the "Heshi Sacrifice", and the human animals come from the prisoners.
The ancient Mexicans mainly used corn in their grains and especially believed in the "corn god".
In 1931, an ancient cultural site-the "Mount Alvan Ruins"-was discovered 20 kilometers southwest of the city of Haka, Mexico. A "Grain God Pottery Statue" was unearthed at the site. It wore corn ornaments on its head, held corn in both hands, and stood on its legs side by side. It also stood upright like corn, with a bare upper body and a tattoo pattern on its chest. Archaeologists believe that this was a "corn god". At that time, the Zapotecs in Mexico mainly planted corn, and during the different stages of corn growth, they used human sacrifices. Newborn babies are sacrificed when sowing, older children are sacrificed when grain germinated, and so on, and old people are sacrificed when the grain is fully ripe.
Human animal sacrifices in ancient Mexico were very particular. The difference in sacrificial pairs required changes in the gender and skin color of the human animals used. For example, during the Midsummer Festival sacrifice, a woman who died as the "mother of grains" had to paint her face red or yellow to symbolize the color of the grains. Her dress was also very careful. She would be given a crown made of hard paper with floating feathers on the top, imitating corn whiskers. Paint the face of a human animal red or yellow, which represents red corn or yellow corn. It is also a symbol that the sacrifice of human beings during the festival of the "White Corn Goddess" actually chose leprosy patients.
Like the worship of the God of Agriculture and the God of Grain, ancient Mexicans also worshipped the God of Sun. Ancient Mexicans believed that the sun was the source of all vitality in the world and called it "Iparni Mohuani", which means "people rely on him for survival." The sun gives life to the earth, but it also needs to gain vitality from the earth. The heart is the most dynamic organ in humans and animals, so the "heart sacrifice" emerged. It is to dig out the beating hearts of living people and animals and dedicate them to the sun to maintain their vitality, let the sun awaken its energy, heat, and light, and maintain eternal movement in the sky.
The source of the heart is usually obtained from prisoners of war. During the war with neighboring tribes, a large number of prisoners would be brought back, and these prisoners would become the best sacrifices to the sun. In order to ensure the continuous flow of human animals, the Mexicans launched endless wars with neighboring tribes.
The Cherokee Indians in the United States worship the corn god. There is a legend here that an old woman was killed by her son and buried in a cornfield, where the corn grew particularly well. Locals think that corn grows in her blood and her soul becomes corn essence. This legend probably evolved from human sacrifice. Locals hold sacrificial activities in the city every year and sing prayer songs in the cornfields.
The Pawnee Indians live in the northwest United States. Every spring when they sow seeds, they use human sacrifices and kill a person. They regard this as the will of heaven. They believe that it was ordered by the morning star to do so or that the morning star sent an emissary of some kind of bird to convey this order. If one sacrifice was not made in this way, there would be no harvest of corn, beans, and pumpkins. In the early Mexican Pyramid, a nine-story round altar was built on the highest floor. There were 91 steps near the tower, which coincided with the 356 days of the Mayan year. During the sacrifice, the human animal was tied to a cross in front of a large group of people and danced around the human animal. Then he cut off his head with a battle-axe and shot arrows at the body of the animal. Witnesses saw that after the death of a human animal, a female Indian cut pieces of meat from his body and smeared the hoe with the meat. After the ceremony, people carried furniture stained with the flesh and blood of humans and animals and immediately went to work in the fields. The human animals used by the Pawnee were from prisoners of war, either male or female. Like the Shang Dynasty in China, they would carefully feed such human animals like pigs, cattle, sheep and other domestic animals, eat the best food, and raise them fat. The prisoner of war did not know that his or her fate was to be sacrificed to the gods. It should be noted that human animals that are too thin cannot be used. Only when the human animals have grown fat enough will they be tied to the altar. Before going to the altar, the human animals will be dressed in good clothes. It is said that human animals that are too thin achieve the purpose of obtaining a good harvest, which means that the crops grow thin. In "The Golden Branch", Ferrezer recounted eyewitness accounts that in April 1837 or 1838, the Pawnee sacrificed a Sioux Indian girl. The girl was about 14 or 15 years old and had been raised for six months with a good salary. Two days before the ceremony, she was accompanied by all the leaders and warriors from one cabin to another. She was given a small piece of firewood and a little paint in each room, and she handed them to the warrior next to her. She visited every hut in this way and received the same gifts of wood and paint everywhere. On April 22, the people took her out to sacrifice, accompanied by warriors, each carrying two pieces of firewood she had given them. Her body was painted half red and half black, tied to a gallows, roasted her over slow heat, and then shot her to death with an arrow. The chief priest (chief) took out her heart and ate it. While she was still a little warm, cut off the meat from her bones one by one, put it in some small baskets, and carried it to the surrounding grain fields. The leader took out a piece of meat and squeezed a drop of blood on the newly planted grain seeds. The rest of the people did the same, and finally all the seeds were poured with blood and then covered with soil. According to one record, the bodies of human animals were pressed into paste and smeared on corn, potatoes, beans and other seeds to multiply them. They hoped to use this sacrifice to gain a bumper harvest.