Category Archives: Human Nature

Captives [of the Mayans] were tortured in unpleasant ways depicted clearly on the monuments and murals (such as yanking fingers out of sockets, pulling out teeth, cutting off the lower jaw, trimming off the lips and fingertips, pulling out the fingernails, and driving a pin through the lips), culminating (sometimes several years later) in the sacrifice of the captive in other equally unpleasant ways (such as tying the captive up into a ball by binding the arms and legs together, then rolling the balled-up captive down the steep stone staircase of a temple). Continue reading →

So this was the land Cortez came upon: human sacrifice (including men, women, and children), cannibalization, wearing of skin of the murdered (a yearly Aztec festival), and a bitter oppression of neighboring nations. The best book that describes these events is William H Prescott’s classic A History of the Conquest of Mexico. This is a book that praises Cortez for his primary mission to convert the natives. Continue reading →