Empowered Children in Classic Maya Sacrificial Rites

Abstract

Sacrifice is a basic component of human religious experience, and well documented in many ancient cultures. In Mesoamerica, sacrifice took many forms although perhaps the most dramatic was the offering of human children. In Maya studies this topic has largely been overlooked despite data from a variety of sources. This paper explores the perspective that children were not the subject of sacrifice due to their marginal status as less than adult, but rather the opposite – that due to their very young age which afforded them proximity to the ancestors and the gods, they were one of the most precious offerings available. When children are understood to have held a numinous power related to their recent time on earth, child sacrifice is revealed to be a religious rite of profound emotion and loss, consistent with the nature of the spiritual contract held by ancient Maya people.

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