Human Sacrifice: Article Analysis

Fowler, W.R. (1984). Late Preclassic Mortuary Patterns and Evidence for Human Sacrifice at

Chalchuapa, El Salvador. American Antiquity, 49(3), 603-618.

In this article, the author proposes that skeletal remains found in a Chalchuapa burial mound were evidence of a ritual sacrifice. Throughout the article, Fowler shares the data he collected to support his theory. He describes the scenes at the burial mounds and ways that the subjects were possibly mutilated. He also provides information about the victims; for example, their age and sex. Fowler analyzes mortuary patterns and his data to support the theory that majority of the subjects were victims of human sacrifice. He concludes that human sacrifice was common in Mesoamerican culture, and

One premise that the author discusses is the lack of protein available for consumption in Mesoamerica at the time. Harner argues that the bodies of the sacrificed would be consumed, in other words, that the Aztecs participated in cannibalism. Harner uses sources from reports of Bernal Diaz and Father Bernardino de Sahagun who descriptively explained the sacrificial practices the Aztecs engaged in. Harner discusses cannibalism and lack of available proteins to demonstrate the complexity of Aztec human sacrifice. The author concludes by stating his theory that environmental circumscription and population pressure may have led to cannibalism being adopted into the Aztec human sacrifice rituals. This article had many direct sources from witnesses who, many years ago, witnessed Aztecs sacrificing their human victims; thus giving the article hauntingly descriptive

The author focuses on Michael Harner’s theory that human sacrifice was related to ecological factors and not religious ones. Winkleman questions why human sacrifice was adopted into Aztec culture. He analyzes other researchers’ theories about reasons why the Aztecs engaged in human sacrifice, but dismisses them through lack of convincing evidence. Winkleman uses a cross-cultural assessment of ecological and social variables to determine incidence of human sacrifice. He finds that a lack of religious hierarchy and environmental circumscription were associated with human sacrifice. To conclude, Winkleman states that Harner’s hypothesis receives partial support from the analysis. I liked how the author analyzed theories through cross-cultural