Reconsidering the Penal System in Aztec Society: A New Perspective on Human Sacrifice and Enslavement

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Misinformation and Misrepresentation Part 2: Reconsidering “Human Sacrifice,” Religion, Slavery, Modernity, and Other European-Derived Concepts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The contribution deals with the question of how crimes were punished in the Aztec penal system. We know that Aztec society—as many other premodern societies—did not have prisons for long-term punishment of crimes, nor for any forms of preventive detention. Based on primary sources, it will be discussed in how far Aztec society used forms of temporarily limited enslavement to organize atonement and reparation. Furthermore, it will be debated to what extent the social affiliation to a calpulli had an impact on those forms of punishment and their control. In this context, forms of capital punishment are examined and questioned if supposedly human sacrifices in Aztec society were part of the penal system.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Misinformation and Misrepresentation Part 2: Reconsidering “Human Sacrifice,” Religion, Slavery, Modernity, and Other European-Derived Concepts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38600.0