Sacrificial and Autosacrifice Instruments in Mesoamerica: Symbolism and Technology

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Sacrificial and Autosacrifice Instruments in Mesoamerica: Symbolism and Technology" at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In Mesoamerican cultures, blood was procured through sacrifice and autosacrifice with the intention of ensuring the acts of creation and feeding supernatural beings in exchange for their favors. The analysis of this deeply rooted phenomenon, widely spread throughout the region and across different time periods, has offered insight into several aspects of Indigenous cosmovision in Mesoamerica. Thanks to spectacular artistic representations by the Indigenous peoples, the ethnohistoric records left by European chroniclers, and the rigorous studies of the archaeological record, as well as ethnographic research in present-day Indigenous communities, fundamental evidence has been gathered to reconstruct the purposes, protagonists, spaces, techniques, and instruments involved in the practice of sacrifice and self-sacrifice. Despite the considerable amount of existing literature on the subject, continued investigation of these rituals is critical to our understanding of these cultures. This session focuses on a meticulous exploration of some implements that facilitated blood extraction: maguey spines, bone awls, flint knives, and obsidian blades, among others. Archaeologists, historians, ethnohistorians, bioanthropologists, and cultural anthropologists will use various approaches and methodologies to discuss the function, symbolism, iconography, and technology of these implements.

Other Keywords
Highland Mesoamerica: Postclassic • Ritual and Symbolism • Iconography and epigraphy • Ideology • ontology • Bioarchaeology/Skeletal Analysis • Ethnohistory/History • and Memory • Huichol • Mesoamerican Iconography

Geographic Keywords
United Mexican States (Country) • North America (Continent) • Colima (State / Territory) • Michoacan (State / Territory) • Jalisco (State / Territory) • Nayarit (State / Territory) • Aguascalientes (State / Territory) • Guanajuato (State / Territory) • Belize (Country) • Republic of Guatemala (Country)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-10 of 10)

  • Documents (10)
Documents
  • The “Hands of God” as Instruments of Death and Creation: Physicality, Embodiment, and Symbolism of Sacrificial Knives in Mesoamerica (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Vera Tiesler. Guilhem Olivier.

    This is an abstract from the "Sacrificial and Autosacrifice Instruments in Mesoamerica: Symbolism and Technology" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this talk, we shall analyze sacrificial knives in Mesoamerica’s (bio) archaeological record, among written sources, and iconography. Our survey emphasizes the diversity of cutting weaponry through time and cultural spheres. By combining forensic evidence with the material study of sacrificial knives,...

  • Jewels, Flowers, and Paper Bows: Ornaments on Instruments for Sacrifice and Self-Sacrifice in Nahua Prehispanic Art (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Erika Robles.

    This is an abstract from the "Sacrificial and Autosacrifice Instruments in Mesoamerica: Symbolism and Technology" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. By analyzing the codices, ceramics, and pre-Hispanic sculpture, it is possible to identify different instruments employed both for the extraction of blood itself and for the sacrifice of victims. In these sources, maguey spines, bone awls, flint knives, and even the quadrangular stones where the victims...

  • An Overview of Autosacrificial Instruments in Mesoamerica: Ethnohistory, Iconography, and Archaeology (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Antonio Marín Calvo. Diego Matadamas-Gomora.

    This is an abstract from the "Sacrificial and Autosacrifice Instruments in Mesoamerica: Symbolism and Technology" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. It is well-known that autosacrifice was a common practice among Mesoamerican societies since at least the Middle Formative period (ca. 900–300 BC). Iconography suggests that elites offered their blood and did penance to contact with the sacred realm. However, ethnohistoric evidence reveals that this...

  • The Power of Blade Stones in Postclassic Mesoamerica (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Stan Declercq.

    This is an abstract from the "Sacrificial and Autosacrifice Instruments in Mesoamerica: Symbolism and Technology" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the present discussion, I will focus on mutually constitutive relationships between people and the material world, specifically on gestational dynamics, suggesting that by stone flaking and stone chipping, children (of stone) were fabricated. From the womb of the earth, which is very much a stony...

  • The Presence of Sacrifice in Chichen Itza and Tenochtitlan: Two Faces of the Same Story (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Ángel González López. Nelda Marengo Camacho.

    This is an abstract from the "Sacrificial and Autosacrifice Instruments in Mesoamerica: Symbolism and Technology" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In Chichen Itza and Tenochtitlan’s religious thought, sacrifice was a creative act closely related to cosmic genesis and world sense. This behavior is evident not only in the archaeological record but also in the iconography. Two of the most common artifacts associated with this ancient practice in both...

  • Relational Complexity in Mesoamerican Sacrificial Ritual Images (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Johannes Neurath.

    This is an abstract from the "Sacrificial and Autosacrifice Instruments in Mesoamerica: Symbolism and Technology" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In Mesoamerican religious practice, ritual killings (allosacrifice) and so-called practices of self-sacrifice (autosacrifice) often coexist simultaneously. Therefore, the ethnographic, iconographic, and historical analysis should therefore focus on what may be called the condensation of ritual relations....

  • The Sacrificial Artifacts in the Templo Mayor Offerings (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Alejandra Aguirre.

    This is an abstract from the "Sacrificial and Autosacrifice Instruments in Mesoamerica: Symbolism and Technology" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The complex Mesoamerican cosmovisión includes myths about the cultures to try to understand, their history, natural events, and their universe, through narrations and fantastic facts, which gave them an explanation about everything that they did not understand. As a consequence of this, the invention of...

  • A Sacrificial Graphic Pattern? Analysis of the “Curved Like Obsidian” Pattern in Images of Itztlacoliuhqui and Other Nahua Gods (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Katarzyna Mikulska.

    This is an abstract from the "Sacrificial and Autosacrifice Instruments in Mesoamerica: Symbolism and Technology" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The aim of this paper is to analyze the meaning encoded in the "curved like obsidian" graphic pattern present in the cap and face of Itztlacoliuhqui, the Nahua god of frost. Though supposedly it is a pattern that encodes "obsidian," the sacrificial obsidian knives are painted in a different way. On the...

  • Traceología: Identificación de instrumentos sacrificatorios y de manipulación póstuma en el Osario 15 de Toniná (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Judith Ruiz. Viridiana Guzmán Torres. Emiliano Melgar Tísoc.

    This is an abstract from the "Sacrificial and Autosacrifice Instruments in Mesoamerica: Symbolism and Technology" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. El sacrificio humano por medio del acceso de toracotomía bilateral transversa es una práctica ritual poco documentada a nivel osteológico en el área maya. En el presente trabajo se muestra a nivel microscópico y macroscópico tal evidencia, así como el tratamiento que se les dio a las victimas posterior al...

  • The Tzotzopaztli as a Sacrificial Instrument in Religious Ceremonies of Prehispanic Nahuas (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Elena Mazzetto.

    This is an abstract from the "Sacrificial and Autosacrifice Instruments in Mesoamerica: Symbolism and Technology" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Sixteenth-century written sources, codices, and archaeological findings from the Templo Mayor Project have provided historians and archaeologists good tools for the study of instruments used for sacrifice and self-sacrifice among the ancient Nahuas. Frequently found among them are flint knives, maguey...