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Child Sacrifice, Peru


Not A Rockstar

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Holy smoke!

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Human sacrifice has been practiced in nearly all corners of the globe at various times, and scientists believe that the ritual may have played an important role in the development of complex societies through social stratification and control of populations by elite social classes.

Sounds about right.

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8 minutes ago, OverSword said:

Holy smoke!

Sounds about right.

The Triple Alliance (Aztec Empire) went from offering crops to human sacrifice over a long period of drought.  Which probably did make the wealthy more powerful and the poor more desperate.

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I think most people who've had to spend more than 20 minutes with other people's children have briefly considered sacrificing them.

--Jaylemurph

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6 minutes ago, jaylemurph said:

I think most people who've had to spend more than 20 minutes with other people's children have briefly considered sacrificing them.

--Jaylemurph

I searched the like button for a ‘that’s not nice’ button but couldn’t find it. Tsk tsk... <_<

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8 hours ago, OverSword said:

Holy smoke!

Sounds about right.

But probably not in this case. 

From the link. 

Most societal models that look at human sacrifice, however, are based on the ritual killing of adults, says Joseph Watts, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

"I think it's definitely harder to explain child sacrifice," he says, then pauses.

"Also, at a personal level."

NEGOTIATION WITH SUPERNATURAL FORCES

The mass sacrifice of only children and young llamas that took place at Las Llamas, however, appears to be a phenomenon previously unknown in the archaeological record, and it immediately raises the question: What would motivate the Chimú to commit such an act?

 

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24 minutes ago, psyche101 said:

But probably not in this case. 

From the link. 

Most societal models that look at human sacrifice, however, are based on the ritual killing of adults, says Joseph Watts, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

"I think it's definitely harder to explain child sacrifice," he says, then pauses.

"Also, at a personal level."

NEGOTIATION WITH SUPERNATURAL FORCES

The mass sacrifice of only children and young llamas that took place at Las Llamas, however, appears to be a phenomenon previously unknown in the archaeological record, and it immediately raises the question: What would motivate the Chimú to commit such an act?

 

from the link

suggests that societies along the northern Peruvian coast may have turned to the sacrifice of children when the sacrifice of adults wasn't enough to fend off the repeated disruptions wrought by El Niño.

"People sacrifice that which is of most and greatest value to them," he explains. "They may have seen that [adult sacrifice] was ineffective. The rains kept coming. Maybe there was a need for a new type of sacrificial victim."

 

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5 minutes ago, khol said:

from the link

suggests that societies along the northern Peruvian coast may have turned to the sacrifice of children when the sacrifice of adults wasn't enough to fend off the repeated disruptions wrought by El Niño.

"People sacrifice that which is of most and greatest value to them," he explains. "They may have seen that [adult sacrifice] was ineffective. The rains kept coming. Maybe there was a need for a new type of sacrificial victim."

 

:tu: What they considered negotiating with supernatural forces.

I wont visit museum exhibits of Aztek and Mayan sacrificial ornaments, I find the concept so gruesome and ubappealing that I find I don't want to assault my senses any more than they already are. I don't want to see a bowl made to hold human hearts for some imaginary being, I find the thought sickening. 

Edited by psyche101
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12 minutes ago, psyche101 said:

:tu: What they considered negotiating with supernatural forces.

I wont visit museum exhibits of Aztek and Mayan sacrificial ornaments, I find the concept so gruesome and ubappealing that I find I don't want to assault my senses any more than they already are. I don't want to see a bowl made to hold human hearts for some imaginary being, I find the thought sickening. 

It was my thought as well. The magnitude of belief so great they sacrifice there own children to appease there god. All for naught. 

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1 hour ago, psyche101 said:

But probably not in this case. 

From the link. 

Most societal models that look at human sacrifice, however, are based on the ritual killing of adults, says Joseph Watts, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

"I think it's definitely harder to explain child sacrifice," he says, then pauses.

"Also, at a personal level."

NEGOTIATION WITH SUPERNATURAL FORCES

The mass sacrifice of only children and young llamas that took place at Las Llamas, however, appears to be a phenomenon previously unknown in the archaeological record, and it immediately raises the question: What would motivate the Chimú to commit such an act?

 

So do you have reason to believe it was the children of the elite class that's represented here?  I don't.

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23 minutes ago, khol said:

It was my thought as well. The magnitude of belief so great they sacrifice there own children to appease there god. All for naught. 

Well, someone's children anyway 

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9 minutes ago, khol said:

It was my thought as well. The magnitude of belief so great they sacrifice there own children to appease there god. All for naught. 

And today some religious groups still allow children to die to preserve a relationship with God or retain access to the afterlife, people in third world countries sacrifice children and infants to gods for prosperous times. Has it got better or just more spread out? 

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23 minutes ago, OverSword said:

So do you have reason to believe it was the children of the elite class that's represented here?  I don't.

I don't see reason to exclude them. They may have been more valuable as sacrifices 

People sacrifice that which is of most and greatest value to them," he explains. "They may have seen that [adult sacrifice] was ineffective. The rains kept coming. Maybe there was a need for a new type of sacrificial victim."

Edited by psyche101
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17 minutes ago, OverSword said:

Well, someone's children anyway 

Yes, tests show they came from far and wide. 

Also from the link:

 

Although it is difficult to determine sex based on skeletal remains at such a young age, preliminary DNA analysis indicates that both boys and girls were victims, and isotopic analysis indicates that they were not all drawn from local populations but likely came from different ethnic groups and regions of the Chimú Empire.

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10 hours ago, psyche101 said:

Yes, tests show they came from far and wide. 

Also from the link:

 

Although it is difficult to determine sex based on skeletal remains at such a young age, preliminary DNA analysis indicates that both boys and girls were victims, and isotopic analysis indicates that they were not all drawn from local populations but likely came from different ethnic groups and regions of the Chimú Empire.

Did you see Apocalypto?  In that movie they sacrificed captives and slaves.  We also know that in Mexico they sacrificed POW's and criminals rather than their own citizens.

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22 hours ago, OverSword said:

Did you see Apocalypto?  In that movie they sacrificed captives and slaves.  We also know that in Mexico they sacrificed POW's and criminals rather than their own citizens.

Yes, it was pretty good, very graphic. Gives a sobering view of those days. But at the rate they were killing people they would have either run out or met with revolt sooner rather than later, the society was bound to collapse. We've seen kimakazee pilots sent to their deaths, all the way back to Vlad the Impaler killing townspeople to scare invaders off, and it worked. When maniacs have power, it's jaw dropping what can take place. 

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8 hours ago, psyche101 said:

Yes, it was pretty good, very graphic. Gives a sobering view of those days. But at the rate they were killing people they would have either run out or met with revolt sooner rather than later, the society was bound to collapse. We've seen kimakazee pilots sent to their deaths, all the way back to Vlad the Impaler killing townspeople to scare invaders off, and it worked. When maniacs have power, it's jaw dropping what can take place. 

Wow I've never heard that about Vlad. That's nuts 

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