the ecological basis for Aztec sacrifice1

1977/02/01 by Michael J. Harner · 5 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Social Sciences · #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies #Mesoamerica #Subsistence agriculture #Sacrifice #Ethnography #Ecology #Anthropology #Human sacrifice #Maya #Geography #Archaeology #History #Ethnology #Sociology #Biology

paper · doi:10.1525/ae.1977.4.1.02a00070

openalex publication_date 1977/02/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21

Abstract

The Aztec emphasis on ritualized human sacrifice and the sheer quantities of victims involved have long been recognized as apparent extremes of cultural behavior in the world ethnographic record. This paper proposes an ecological and evolutionary theory to explain why the peculiar development of the Aztec sacrificial complex was a natural consequence of concrete subsistence problems that were distinctive to Mesoamerica, and especially to the Valley of Mexico.

Citations

• The Discovery of America
• A Theory of the Origin of the State

Cited by

• AZTEC CANNIBALISM: Nahua versus Spanish and mestizo accounts in the Valley of Mexico
• Protein Deficiency and Tribal Warfare in Amazonia: New Data
• Exaptation: A Crucial Tool for an Evolutionary Psychology
• Strategies of Legitimation and the Aztec State
• Aztecs [wikipedia]