Mayan Sacrifices

One of the better known ancient Native American religious groups were the Mayans. I managed to come across a little web page about their beliefs in sacrifice. The Mayans were very big on sacrifices. They believed it was the only way to communicate with the gods, and that the gods lived off of the blood of human beings. Mayans believed that by sacrificing human beings, especially their enemies, it would please the gods and allow them fertility and other benefits that only the heavens could bring. They also believed that by not giving human sacrifice to the gods, they would become angry, and very bad things would come to the cosmos, the people, and the lands around them. At important ceremonies, the sacrificial victim was held down at the top of a pyramid or raised platform while a priest made an incision below the rib cage and ripped out the heart with his hands. The heart was then burned in order to nourish the gods. It was not only the captives who suffered for the sake of the gods: the Mayan aristocracy themselves, as mediators between the gods and their people, underwent ritual bloodletting and self-torture. The higher one’s position, the more blood was expected. Blood was drawn by jabbing spines through the ear or male body part, or by drawing a thorn-studded cord through the tongue; it was then spattered on paper or otherwise collected as an offering to the gods.