“There is no such thing as ‘Human Sacrifice”, Mexicolore, 2024:

“People take it for granted that the Aztecs practiced something called human sacrifice. But what, exactly, is ‘human sacrifice’? What people mean by using this term is that humans are killed to satisfy the needs of a god or gods. We assume that this was true about the Aztecs, but a closer look reveals more about us than about the Aztecs.

First of all, the people who were killed were men who fought in various battles. Aztec warriors tried to capture other warriors, not kill them. In our warfare, we encourage soliders to kill other soldiers on the battlefield itself, but in some cultures, such as that of the Aztecs or Maya, this was dishonourable. The rule was to engage in hand-to-hand combat with another warrior and defeat him by capturing him.

Some, and only some, of these men captured in battle were later killed in the setting of a temple. But the rationale for the killing – and by this I mean the ‘excuse’ for the killing in the Aztecs’ minds, was war. This is no different from modern wars or medieval wars in which men killed other men, and sometimes women and children, with the excuse that it was part of WAR…….”

Read the full article at Mexicolore.co.uk