| 词条 | Cannibalism in pre-Columbian America |
| 释义 |
There is universal agreement that some Mesoamerican people practiced human sacrifice and cannibalism, but there is no scholarly consensus as to its extent. At one extreme, anthropologist Marvin Harris, author of Cannibals and Kings, has suggested that the flesh of the victims was a part of an aristocratic diet as a reward, since the Aztec diet was lacking in proteins. According to Harris, the Aztec economy would not support feeding slaves (the captured in war) and the columns of prisoners were "marching meat". Bernard R. Ortiz de Montellano has proposed that Aztec cannibalism coincided with times of harvest and should be thought of as more of a Thanksgiving. Montellano rejects the theories of Harner and Harris saying that with evidence of so many tributes and intensive chinampa agriculture, the Aztecs did not need any other food sources. At the other extreme, William Arens doubts whether there was ever any systematic cannibalism.[1] Aztec cannibalismThe Mexica of the Aztec period are perhaps the most widely studied of the ancient Mesoamerican peoples. While most pre-Columbian historians believe that ritual cannibalism took place in the context of human sacrifices, they do support Harris' thesis that if human flesh was ever a significant portion of the Aztec diet. Michael D. Coe states that while "it is incontrovertible that some of these victims ended up by being eaten ritually […], the practice was more like a form of communion than a cannibal feast".[2] Documentation of Aztec cannibalism mainly dates from the period after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire (1519-1521): In The Man-Eating Myth, Arens writes, “The gradual transformation of what little evidence is available for Aztec cannibalism is also an indication of the continual need to legitimize the Conquest".[3] The following claims could have been exaggerated.
Bernal Díaz's accountBernal Díaz’s The Conquest of New Spain (written by 1568, published 1632) contains several accounts of cannibalism among the people the conquistadors encountered during their warring expedition to Tenochtitlan.
Díaz's testimony is corroborated by other Spanish historians who wrote about the conquest. In History of Tlaxcala (written by 1585), Diego Muñoz Camargo (c. 1529 – 1599) states that: {{Cquote|Thus there were public butcher's shops of human flesh, as if it were of cow or sheep.[11]}}ControversyAccounts of the Aztec Empire as a "Cannibal Kingdom", Marvin Harris's expression, have been commonplace from Bernal Díaz to Harris, William H. Prescott and Michael Harner. Harner has accused his colleagues, especially those in Mexico, of downplaying the evidence of Aztec cannibalism. Ortiz de Montellano[12] presents evidence that the Aztec diet was balanced and that the dietary contribution of cannibalism would not have been very effective as a reward. Cannibalism among the XiximesAs recently as 2008, Mexico's National Institute of Archaeology and History (INAH) derided as a "myth" historical accounts by Jesuit missionaries reporting ritual cannibalism among the Xiximes people of northern Mexico.[13] But in 2011, archaeologist José Luis Punzo, director of INAH, reported evidence confirming that the Xiximes did indeed practice cannibalism.[14] See also
Notes1. ^{{Cite book|title = The Man-Eating Myth : Anthropology and Anthropophagy: Anthropology and Anthropophagy|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=XsHB69txxdEC|publisher = Oxford University Press, USA|date = 1979-04-26|isbn = 9780199763443|first = William|last = Arens}} 2. ^{{Cite book|title = Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Mt7tAAAAMAAJ|publisher = Thames & Hudson|date = 2008-01-01|isbn = 9780500287552|first = Michael D.|last = Coe|first2 = Rex|last2 = Koontz}} 3. ^{{Cite book|title = The Man-Eating Myth : Anthropology and Anthropophagy: Anthropology and Anthropophagy|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=XsHB69txxdEC|publisher = Oxford University Press, USA|date = 1979-04-26|isbn = 9780199763443|first = William|last = Arens}} 4. ^Letters of Cortés, trans. Francis A. MacNutt (New York: 1908), 1:256-257, 2:244. 5. ^{{Cite web|title = Under Mexico City - Archaeology Magazine|url = http://www.archaeology.org/issues/138-1407/features/2173-mexico-city-aztec-buried-world|website = www.archaeology.org|accessdate = 2015-10-23}} 6. ^{{Cite web|title = Mexico City Subway Dig Yields Aztec Remains and Artifacts - History in the Headlines|url = http://www.history.com/news/mexico-city-subway-dig-yields-aztec-remains-and-artifacts|website = HISTORY.com|accessdate = 2015-10-23}} 7. ^Díaz del Castillo [c.1568](1992, p.150). 8. ^Diaz del Castillo, Bernal [c.1568](1956, p.178),The Discovery And Conquest Of Mexico, Farrar, Strauss and Cudahy USA oclc 56-5758 9. ^Díaz del Castillo [c.1568](1992, p.176). 10. ^Díaz del Castillo [c.1568](1992, p.579). In the original Spanish: "[...] comer carne humana, así como nosotros traemos vaca de las carnicerías, y tenían en todos los pueblos cárceles de madera gruesa hechas a manera de casas, como jaulas, y en ellas metían a engordar muchas indias e indios y muchachos, y estando gordos los sacrificaban y comían." 11. ^Excerpt translated from Muñoz Camargo [c.1585](1947, p.153). In the original Spanish: "Ansí había carnicerías públicas de carne humana, como si fueran de vaca y carnero como en día de hoy las hay […]". 12. ^Ortiz de Montellano, B.R. "Aztec Cannibalism: An Ecological Necessity," Science, 200, 611-617.1978 13. ^{{cite web |url=http://www.inah.gob.mx/en/4299-sinaloa-xixime-people-s-cannibalism-a-myth |title=Sinaloa Xixime people's Cannibalism, A Myth |author= |date=9 June 2008 |website=Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia |publisher=Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia |access-date=28 September 2017 |quote=Sinaloa INAH Center archaeologist Alfonso Grave Tirado declared that Spaniard chroniclers’ appreciations reflected fear inspired by Xixime, and not a historical reality.}} 14. ^{{cite web |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/news/2011/11/110930-cannibalism-cannibals-mexico-xiximes-human-bones-science/ |title=Cannibalism Confirmed Among Ancient Mexican Group |last=Valle |first=Sabrina |date=1 October 2011 |website=National Geographic |publisher=The National Geographic Society |access-date=28 September 2017 |quote=The newfound bones prove that cannibalism, 'was a crucial aspect of their worldview, their identity,' said José Luis Punzo, an archaeologist behind the new research.}} References
2 : Cannibalism in the Americas|Pre-Columbian cultures |
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