Journal Article

Reassessing the Evidence for Aztec Cannibalism

Koziar, Frances

2025

Overview

This article reassesses the evidence for the practice of Aztec cannibalism. In comparing Spanish and Nahua colonial documents, it finds that assertions of routine or imperial Aztec cannibalism largely derive from inconsistent claims of Spanish friars and are not supported by Nahua sources, although the “Relaciones Geográficas” surveys from the 1500s could support cannibalism’s happening in a few subregions of the Aztec Empire. Analysis of the archaeological data shows no clear signs of cannibalism in the empire; a small assemblage from Zultepec may provide evidence of the practice. Overall, much of the support for Aztec cannibalism appears to have been inflated and fabricated by Christian sources, taken for granted because of Spanish racism or simply presumed by scholars to have occurred with sacrifice. In contrast to popular scholarly opinion, the findings here suggest that cannibalism is unlikely to have been a practice of the Mexica or across the Aztec Empire as a whole. However, there is some possibility that it was practiced independently in certain polities within or near the Aztec Empire.

• Publisher: Springer International Publishing,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: 16th century / Archaeology / Aztec civilization / Cannibalism / Colonialism / Empires / Original Article / Racism / Social Sciences