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591:"At times they sacrificed their own blood, cutting all around the ears in strips which they let hang as a sign. At other times they perforated their cheeks or the lower lip; again they made cuts in parts of the body, or pierced the tongue crossways and passed stalks through, causing extreme pain; again they hewed at the superfluous part of the penis, leaving the flesh in the form of two floppy ears. It was this custom which misled the historian-general of the Indies to say that they practised circumcision." (
300:
479:
475:, which signified life among the Maya. Within their belief system, human blood was partially made up of the blood of the gods, who sacrificed their own divine blood in creating life in humans. Thus, in order to continually maintain the order of their universe, the Maya believed that blood had to be given back to the gods. The rulers are giving their blood to empower the gods in return for giving them life.
462:
Among all the
Mesoamerican cultures, sacrifice, in whatever form, was a deeply symbolic and highly ritualized activity with strong religious and political significance. Various kinds of sacrifice were performed within a range of sociocultural contexts and in association with a variety of activities,
719:, is labelled as a bloodletter. This is echoed by Gillett Griffin, who states that the spoon "probably had a ritual function in bloodletting or in the absorption of hallucinogens for ritual purposes" (Griffin, p. 219). There is some disagreement, however, in this identification:
357:
The location of the bloodletting on the body often correlated with an intended result or a corresponding symbolic representation. For example, drawing blood from the genitals, especially the male sex organs, would be done with the intent of increasing or representing human
491:
Unlike later cultures, there is no representation of actual bloodletting in Olmec art. However, solid evidence for its practice exists in the jade and ceramic replicas of stingray spines and shark teeth as well as representations of such paraphernalia on monuments and
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At its core, sacrifice symbolized the renewal of divine energy and, in doing so, the continuation of life. Its ability of bloodletting to do this is based on two intertwined concepts that are prevalent in the Maya belief system. The first is the notion that the
463:
from mundane everyday activities to those performed by the elites and ruling lineages with the aim of maintaining social structure. The social structure was maintained by showing that rulers blood sacrifice to the gods showed the power they had.
401:
or courtyards (where the masses could congregate and view the bloodletting). This was done so as to demonstrate the connection the person performing the auto-sacrifice had with the sacred sphere and, as such, a method used to maintain
287:. When performed by ruling elites, the act of bloodletting was crucial to the maintenance of sociocultural and political structure. Bound within the Mesoamerican belief systems, bloodletting was used as a tool to legitimize the ruling
354:
record. Some of these jade artifacts have rather dull points but might have been used once the initial cut was made, or might purely be ritualistic objects not used in actual bloodletting.
511:, dated to roughly AD 155, tells of the ruler's ritual bloodletting by piercing his penis and his buttocks, as well as what appears to be a ritual sacrifice of the ruler's brother-in-law.
518:, and births all required bloodletting. As demonstrated by Yaxchilan Lintels 24 and 25, and duplicated in Lintels 17 and 15, bloodletting in Maya culture was also a means to a
318:, which was subsequently burned. The act of burning the sacrificed blood symbolized the transferral of the offering to the gods via its transformation into the rising
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in 1521, many
Spanish missionary-ethnographers arrived and recorded graphic and often unsympathetic descriptions of these rituals among both the Mayan and
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900:
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had given life to humankind by sacrificing parts of their own bodies. The second is the central focus of their mythology on human
723:, for example, tentatively identifies similar Maya implements as "symbolic jade versions" of a paint container for a scribe (see
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Bloodletting permeated Maya life. Kings performed bloodletting at every major political event. Building dedications, burials,
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291:'s socio-political position and, when enacted, was important to the perceived well-being of a given society or settlement.
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speaking peoples. Although most
Spaniards understood the religious significance of the rites, they believed such
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Ritualized bloodletting was typically performed by elites, settlement leaders, and religious figures (e.g.,
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Nonetheless, the misconception that the Aztec and Maya people practised circumcision persists to this day.
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shows the rain god piercing his penis, the blood from which flows into and replenishes a vat of the
1060:"Then They Were Sacrificed: The Ritual Ballgame of Northeastern Mesoamerica Through Time and Space"
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288:
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652:"Archaeologists Announce Discoveries At The Ancient Maya Site Of Waka' In Northern Guatemala"
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820:
842:
673:
Stuart, David (1984). "Royal Auto-Sacrifice among the Maya: A Study of Image and
Meaning".
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979:" on University of Pittsburgh Department of Anthropology website (accessed January 2008).
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drawing a barbed rope through her tongue. In front of her, her husband and the ruler of
41:
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Griffin, Gillett G. (1981). "Olmec Forms and
Materials Found in Central Guerrero". In
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Olmec-style jadeite "spoon", believed to be a perforator, from
Guerrero. 1500-300 BC
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by legitimizing their prominent social, political, and/or ideological position.
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Two apparent perforators hang across the chest of the figure in
Monument 6 of
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1008:(photographer) (2nd paperback, reprint with corrections ed.). New York:
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The Native Races of the
Pacific States of North America: Myths and Languages
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or on elevated platforms that were usually associated with broad and open
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Bloodletting was performed by piercing a soft body part, generally the
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The Olmec and their
Neighbors: Essays in Memory of Matthew W. Stirling
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tomb of a female (called the "Queen's Tomb") contains among its many
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579:, not least because they believed Indians were descendants of the
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957:, ed. V. Fields, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma.
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a ceremonial stingray spine associated with her genital region.
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Contemporaneous with the Maya, the south-central panel at the
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932:, Blackwell Studies in Global Archaeology, Wiley-Blackwell,
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Ancient Maya: The Rise and Fall of a
Rainforest Civilization
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Icons which represent bloodletting are thought to include a
1047:(2004), "The Origin and Development of Olmec Research", in
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410:
306:, probably Guerrero, Olmec Blood-letter Handle, 1000-600BC
340:'s teeth. Under some circumstances, a rope with attached
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or obsidian flakes would be pulled through the tongue.
903:; Trustees for Harvard University. pp. 209–222.
583:. One of the first to recognise the distinction was
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Depictions of bloodletting in Mesoamerican cultures
1058:
571:merely confirmed the need for rapid conversion to
16:Ritualized practice of self-cutting in Mesoamerica
1063:. In Vernon Scarborough; David R. Wilcox (eds.).
350:or stone spines and teeth have been found in the
1096:
1067:. Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press.
944:Joyce, Rosemary; Edging, Richard; Lorenz, Karl;
816:Relation des choses de Yucatan de Diego de Landa
424:One of the best-known lintels from Mesoamerica,
271:of an individual's body that served a number of
1039:Yaxchilan: The Design of a Maya Ceremonial City
762:Kaufman (2000) and Justeson and Kaufman (2001).
575:. Many also confused genital bloodletting with
314:, and scattering the blood or collecting it on
1002:Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art
901:Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection
930:Mesoamerican Archaeology: Theory and Practice
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522:, where fasting, loss of blood, and perhaps
1090:Portrait of Maya king in bloodletting rites
951:"Olmec Bloodletting: An Iconographic Study"
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385:drawing a barbed rope through her tongue.
966:Epi-Olmec Hieroglyphic Writing and Texts
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961:Justeson, John S., and Terrence Kaufman
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796:The History of the Indies of New Spain
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526:lead to visions of ancestors or gods.
409:While usually carried out by a ruling
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365:
926:Herndon, Julia A.; Rosemary A. Joyce
877:Ancient Mexico & Central America
987:"Where Do You Wear Your Paint-Pot?"
725:"Where Do You Wear Your Paint-Pot?"
715:This particular artifact, from the
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1053:, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.
977:Early Mesoamerican Writing Systems
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1057:Wilkerson, S. Jeffrey K. (1991).
899:(organizers). Washington, D.C.:
675:Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics
325:Piercing was accomplished using
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955:Sixth Palenque Roundtable, 1986
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609:Human sacrifice in Maya culture
771:Schele and Miller, p. 175-176.
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503:A proposed translation of the
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267:practice of self-cutting or
179:Spanish conquest of the Maya
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1110:Maya mythology and religion
1050:Olmec Art at Dumbarton Oaks
753:zoo-morph. See Joyce et al.
602:
10:
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451:
1065:The Mesoamerican Ballgame
851:. Vol. 3. Appleton.
614:Sacrifice in Maya culture
279:functions within ancient
813:Landa, Diego de (1864).
687:10.1086/RESvn1ms20166705
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551:Early European reactions
22:This article is part of
632:See Joyce et al., p. 2.
989:, accessed April 2008.
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448:Ideological undertones
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222:Mesoamerica portal
843:Bancroft, Hubert Howe
819:. A. Durand. p.
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587:in a 1566 manuscript:
581:lost tribes of Israel
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440:, is shown holding a
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170:Classic Maya collapse
738:Laguna de los Cerros
593:original translation
885:Elizabeth P. Benson
717:Snite Museum of Art
533:South Ballcourt at
426:Yaxchilan Lintel 24
509:La Mojarra Stela 1
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366:Ritual performance
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1115:Religious rituals
1074:978-0-8165-1360-4
1019:978-0-8076-1278-1
998:Mary Ellen Miller
973:Kaufman, Terrence
938:978-0-631-23052-6
910:978-0-88402-098-1
874:Evans, Susan Toby
780:Wilkerson, p. 66.
505:Epi-Olmec culture
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1006:Justin Kerr
791:Diego Durán
721:Justin Kerr
531:Classic era
498:iconography
419:grave goods
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295:Description
273:ideological
1099:Categories
1041:320 pages.
835:References
452:See also:
265:ritualized
1000:(1992) .
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539:alcoholic
516:marriages
434:Yaxchilan
379:Yaxchilan
375:Lintel 24
360:fertility
198:Guatemala
97:Astronomy
82:Sacrifice
77:Mythology
62:Languages
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975:(2000) "
845:(1875).
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603:See also
569:idolatry
535:El Tajín
430:Lady Xoc
395:pyramids
383:Lady Xoc
334:stingray
327:obsidian
277:cultural
269:piercing
263:was the
137:Medicine
117:Textiles
102:Calendar
72:Religion
24:a series
1037:(1992)
963:(2001)
949:(1991)
928:(2003)
919:7416377
887:(ed.).
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857:1725978
658:2 April
565:Nahuatl
557:Spanish
496:and in
415:El Perú
391:shamans
289:lineage
193:Chiapas
188:Yucatán
156:History
147:Warfare
142:Cuisine
67:Writing
57:Society
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561:Aztecs
544:pulque
494:stelae
399:plazas
342:thorns
312:tongue
304:Mexico
107:Stelae
87:Cities
52:People
26:on the
699:S2CID
691:JSTOR
620:Notes
473:blood
442:torch
338:shark
320:smoke
316:amate
203:Petén
132:Dance
127:Music
122:Trade
1069:ISBN
1024:OCLC
1014:ISBN
934:ISBN
915:OCLC
905:ISBN
895:and
853:OCLC
789:See
751:fish
660:2010
469:gods
456:and
411:male
348:Jade
285:Maya
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